After the election of a neo-liberal provincial government in , Ontario was at the forefront of work-based welfare reform in Canada. Many of the sweeping reforms carried out under the banner of the "Common Sense Revolution" received widespread coverage: for example, reductions in welfare rates, the introduction of the Ontario Works programme, the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy for so-called welfare fraud, and changes to the rules relating to common-law spousal relationships. However, much less attention has focused upon significant changes to the ways welfare is delivered. This paper critically interrogates a number of key changes to the Service Delivery Model in Ontario. After the passage of federal legislation in , national entitlements to welfare have been terminated, replaced with local responsibility; this decentralization is changing not only the hierarchy of the regulation of poor people, but also the form and function of provision. In particular, there is evidence of the reinvention of administration towards the microregulation of job search and personal behaviour and the deterrence of welfare receipt as applicants and recipients are bureaucratically disentitled. Although administrative practices have historically acted as a secondary barrier to welfare receipt, the paper suggests that the current incarnation of work-enforcing reforms could be especially significant as the worlds of welfare and work continue to change.
<p>Persons living with episodic disabilities who apply for long-term income assistance in Ontario, Canada are often denied eligibility because of the questionable legitimacy of their shifting medical conditions. Since there are no official categories for persons with episodic disabilities to fit in because they are not entirely well (and employable) nor entirely sick (and unemployable), they are judged as ‘not disabled enough’ within the existing parameters of assistance. Drawing on a series of longitudinal, semi-structured interviews with eight respondents in Toronto, all of whom applied for, but were denied, long-term assistance, we examine the tension between how episodic disabilities are embodied versus the manner in which ‘disability status’ is legislatively constructed. Implications reconsidering the logistics of fixed categories and strategies addressing the wider spectrum of the experience of disability for policy are addressed.</p> <p>Keywords: disability, episodic, Ontario Disability Support Program, ODSP, definitions, embodiment, legitimate</p>
Uni ver sity of To ronto, Can adaAn em ploy ment sur vey among peo ple in To ronto who left On tario Works -a clas sic "work-first" re gime -shows clear sec ond ary la bour mar ket sta tus. Most in ter ven tions typ i cal of work-first programmes did not have a pos i tive ef fect on job qual ity: con trary to the "step ping stones" the ory that poor ini tial jobs lead to better jobs, those who changed jobs af ter leav ing as sis tance ex pe ri enced poorer job qual ity. A shift in ori en ta tion to "sus tain able em ploy ment" is re quired to ad dress the em ploy ment needs of those on so cial as sis tance. Pol icy must also ad dress the fact that the so cial as sis tance case load in cludes a size able group that face sig nif i cant barriers to employment other than education or skills.Ontario Works, the name given to the workbased public assis tance programme in Ontario, was intro duced by a newly elected neoliberal pro vin cial gov ern ment, begin ning in 1997. As a cen tral pillar in the party's elec tion man i festo, the con cept of workfare was imported from earlier wel fare reform ini tia tives in the United States, which had been designed to divert claimants away from sys tems of "pas sive" income sup port in the direc tion of "active" labour market engage ment. This paper builds on the results of a followup survey of former wel fare recip i ents in the City of Toronto to assess the qual ity of employ ment they expe ri enced in the period imme di ately follow ing their leav ing wel fare, and to explore the fac tors that impact on the qual ity of that employment. This is an issue of crit i cal impor tance © In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion, 2005In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 58, 4/2005 Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing 95The au thors are, re spec tively, Prin ci pal In ves ti ga tor, Pro ject Co or di na tor, and Post doc toral Re search Fel low on the So cial As sis tance in the New Econ omy (SANE) pro ject in the Fac ulty of So cial Work, Uni ver sity of To ronto. Ernie Lightman is a pro fes sor of so cial pol icy at the Uni ver sity of To ronto. The au thors wish to thank the To ronto So cial Ser vices De part ment, which un der took the orig i nal sur vey on which this pa per is based. The anal y sis and in ter pre ta tion of find ings pre sented here, as well as the con clu sions and pol icy im pli ca tions drawn, are those of the au thors alone. Fund ing was pro vided by the So cial Sci ences and Hu man i ties Re search Coun cil of Can ada (SSHRC).
Internationally, traditional approaches to social assistance (welfare) have increasingly been replaced with 'active' labour market policies. Alongside other industrialised countries, Canada embraced this shift, with its emphasis on the 'shortest route' to paid employment.There has been little research on the outcomes of these dramatic changes in Canada, especially longer term. This article explores the post-welfare labour market experiences of people who were on social assistance in Canada in 1996. It uses the longitudinal microdata files of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) from Statistics Canada, which tracks a panel of recipients over five years. We examine the mixing of work and welfare, the transition from welfare to work, and selected labour market indicators -primarily hours of work and wages -that those in receipt of social assistance face in assuming paid work.Those leaving welfare for work face precarious employment opportunities. Leavers earn lower wages, work fewer hours and consequently have lower annual earnings than nonrecipients. Over time the gap narrows but remains significant, even after six years. Returns to welfare are frequent. Overall, even after six years most social assistance recipients remained marginalised in the periphery of the labour market.
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