Ontario Works
Chapter 3
Section
3.11
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
494
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
1.0 Summary
Many Ontarians who are either unemployed or
underemployed need help to pay for their basic
living expenses including food, shelter and cloth-
ing. In 2017/18, more than 450,000 individuals
(that includes recipients and their dependents)
received assistance from the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services’ (Ministry) Ontario
Works program.
Ontario Works is designed to provide temporary
nancial assistance and employment supports to
help recipients obtain employment and to become
self-reliant. To be eligible for assistance, applicants
must demonstrate that they live in Ontario and
that their income and assets are below specied
amounts. Applicants are also required to participate
in activities to help them obtain employment,
unless specic circumstances are temporarily pre-
venting them from doing so, such as being a sole
parent with pre-school-aged children.
The Ministry contracts with 47 service man-
agers (large municipalities or groups of smaller
municipalities) and 101 First Nations to deliver the
Ontario Works program. In 2017/18, the Ministry
provided almost $3 billion in transfer payments to
these service managers to deliver the program.
Since our last audit in 2009, the average
monthly number of Ontario Works cases increased
by almost 25% from 202,000 to 250,000 in
2017/18. Although Ontario Works is intended
to be a temporary assistance program, we found
that since 2008/09, the average length of time
people depend on the program has nearly doubled,
increasing from an average of 19 months to almost
three years in 2017/18. Service managers have
identied that 36% of recipients have barriers
affecting their employability, such as homelessness
and mental health concerns, that they need help to
resolve. We also found that in each of the last ve
years, the Ontario Works program has helped only
10% to 13% of recipient cases to successfully nd
employment and leave the program.
The cost of the Ontario Works program to the
Province has also increased more than 55% since
our audit in 2009, from $1.9 billion to almost
$3 billion in 2017/18. In addition, beginning in
January 2018 the Province funds 100% of the cost
of nancial assistance payments to recipients,
whereas in 2009 service managers funded 20% of
this cost.
Overall, we found that the Ministry’s oversight
of the program and the service managers that
deliver it is ineffective. The Ministry has not col-
lected sufcient information to understand the
signicant increase in time recipients spend on
assistance, nor has it adequately assessed or held
service managers accountable for their efforts to
help Ontario Works recipients to overcome signi-
cant barriers and to nd employment to become
self-reliant.
495Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Our audit also found that many of the same
issues we identied in our 2009 Annual Report are
still present today. We found that in many cases,
service managers do not take the necessary steps on
a timely basis to help recipients obtain employment
or ensure that only eligible applicants are accepted
in the program. For example, we found required
checks to verify applicant information, such as
income and assets, were frequently not completed.
As well, we found that the Ministry still does not
monitor and ensure that service managers complete
nancial reassessments of recipients on a timely
basis, nor whether they investigate fraud tips to
conrm that recipients are still eligible for Ontario
Works. Completing these processes also reduces
the risk of overpayments by service managers to
ineligible recipients.
Furthermore, due to the implementation of the
Ministry’s IT system, Social Assistance Management
System (SAMS), for a period of over two years,
from November 2014 to March 2017, the Ministry
suspended its Eligibility Verication Process that
requires service managers to review recipients
who have a high risk of ineligibility. The Ministry
re-introduced this process in April 2017, and the
reviews completed during the rst year identied
almost $11 million in overpayments and the need
to terminate about 4,200 Ontario Works cases,
equivalent to 2% of the entire caseload. Although
these reviews identied many ineligible recipients,
we found that service managers did not complete
more than 40% of the eligibility verication cases
assigned to them during 2017/18. The Ministry has
also not conducted an analysis of service managers’
employment results to take action to improve the
overall effectiveness of the Ontario Works program.
The following are some of our specic concerns
about the Ministry’s administration of the
Ontario Works program:
•
Few recipients nd employment and the
Ministry does not take action to improve
results. We found signicant differences in
recipient employment outcomes between
service managers that should be followed up
by the Ministry to identify best practices and
instances that require corrective action. For
example, in 2017/18, we noted that while
the percentage of recipient cases exiting to
employment across all service managers was
10%, this ranged from as low as 2% of all
cases at one service manager, to as high as
29% at another.
•
Ministry contracts with service managers
lack meaningful targets for recipient
employment and mechanisms to hold
them accountable for program delivery.
We found that service managers’ contracts
do not specify the program requirements that
service managers are expected to comply
with. In addition, although these contracts
allow for the Ministry to recover funds
where service managers do not achieve their
recipient employment and earnings targets,
the Ministry advised us that it has never
recovered funding for failing to achieve tar-
gets. More signicantly, we found that almost
half the current contracts lack meaningful
targets for employment and earnings as
service managers had already achieved their
targets halfway into their two-year contracts.
•
The Ministry lacks measures to assess
whether service managers are effective
in helping 36% of recipients identied as
having barriers to employment to over-
come them. We identied that caseworkers
had assessed 36% of Ontario Works recipients
as having barriers that affect their ability
to prepare for or nd employment because
they needed to stabilize their life. Service
managers across Ontario told us that these
barriers include mental health conditions,
addictions and homelessness. Although the
Ministry expects service managers to help
recipients overcome these barriers, it does not
analyze and assess whether service managers
are effective in assisting recipients to over-
come their employment barriers. If service
managers do not make progress assisting
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Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
these individuals, it is possible that they will
not leave Ontario Works for employment for
many years.
•
The Ministry does not measure whether
recipients nd stable employment to
become self-reliant. A one-time Ministry
study that examined recipient exits to
employment in 2013 found that 35% of these
individuals returned to Ontario Works within
about a year-and-a-half of their exit. However,
the Ministry’s current performance measures
do not measure whether individuals leaving
the program retain employment over time or
later return to Ontario Works.
•
The Ministry does not know whether
service managers are meeting its staff-
to-recipient guidelines. We found that the
Ministry does not collect information from
service managers on the number of casework-
ers they employ and their recipient caseload
(recipient-to-caseworker ratio). It also does
not compare service manager caseloads to its
caseload guidelines to assess whether service
managers are staffed to effectively deliver
the Ontario Works program. We compared
the recipient caseloads of the service man-
agers we visited and found that one of the
service managers signicantly exceeded the
Ministry’s guidelines for a typical recipient
caseload in each of the last ve years. On
average, in 2017/18, caseworkers at this ser-
vice manager had a caseload of 158 recipients
compared with the Ministry’s guidelines of
between 90 and 120 recipients per case-
worker. In addition, all four of the service
managers we visited exceeded the Ministry’s
caseload guidelines for recipients with signi-
cant barriers to employment, which Ministry
guidance suggests may need to be as low as
45 recipients to each caseworker.
•
The Ministry’s IT system is inadequate for
caseworkers to manage recipient cases.
We found that the Ministry’s IT system, Social
Assistance Management System (SAMS),
does not have the functionality to allow case-
workers to record recipient skills, barriers to
employment, or referrals to training or com-
munity services in a way that would enable
service managers to gather and analyze such
factors for their entire caseload. Without this
information, service managers face challenges
to understanding the prole of recipients on
their caseload, tracking recipients’ progress
toward obtaining employment, and designing
suitable training and employment programs
for the individuals on their caseload.
•
The underlying cause of overpayments to
recipients is not tracked, limiting the abil-
ity of service managers to prevent them.
We found that service managers do not have
the ability to record the reason that overpay-
ments occur in their information system
(SAMS). Without consolidated data to under-
stand the most common systemic causes of
overpayments, service managers are unable
to identify which of their processes they need
to improve to prevent or reduce the number
of overpayments in the future.
•
Ministry efforts to prevent fraudulent spe-
cial diet applications are insufcient. The
Ministry is aware that the special diet allow-
ance is not always administered as intended,
and that some recipients are using it to
supplement their monthly income rather than
to pay for extra dietary costs associated with a
particular medical condition. However, it has
not taken any action to address this issue.
•
Immigration status affecting recipient
eligibility is not consistently veried with
the federal government. The Ministry has
an agreement with the federal government
to obtain information on the immigration
status of Ontario Works recipients. However,
it does not use this agreement to check that
all recipients (who cannot demonstrate their
legal status in Canada) are still eligible, or
should be terminated from Ontario Works
because they are no longer legally permitted
497Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
to remain in Canada or have already been
removed from the country. We reviewed
Ontario Works recipient data and identied
over 500 individuals where there is a risk that
they may no longer be eligible for Ontario
Works. We asked the Ministry to request that
the federal government check the status of a
sample of these 500 individuals. However, the
Ministry informed us that the federal govern-
ment would not release the full results of any
completed checks to the Ministry because they
had been requested for the purposes of our
audit. As a result, the information the Ministry
obtained was limited to summary results on
the immigration status of these individuals.
These summary results identied eligibility
concerns for one-quarter of these individuals
for which the Ministry requires additional
information from the federal government to
conrm their eligibility. Therefore, we were
unable to complete our work in this area.
The following are some of our specic concerns
about the delivery of the Ontario Works program
by service managers:
•
Critical information is overlooked by
caseworkers, increasing the risk of errors
in determining applicant eligibility. At the
four service managers we visited, we found
that caseworkers did not always investigate
red ags in applicant information or obtain
or review required documentation relevant
to assessing eligibility for Ontario Works,
including in as many as 60% of the les we
reviewed at one of the service managers. In
one case, for example, a caseworker failed to
identify that people in Canada on work per-
mits are considered temporary residents and
are not eligible for Ontario Works. As a result,
overpayments totalling more than $9,200
were made to this ineligible recipient.
•
Overpayments can occur because all ser-
vice managers do not reassess recipients
when required. At two of the four service
managers we visited, we found that in 20% to
35% of the recipient les we reviewed, case-
workers did not meet with recipients at least
once every two years as required to review
their nancial information and status to
conrm that they remain eligible for Ontario
Works and the amount of nancial assistance
they are receiving. If service managers do not
perform these reassessments on time, there
is a risk that overpayments may be made for
several months or years to recipients who are
no longer eligible for assistance or eligible for
a lower amount of assistance.
•
Caseworkers do not consistently work with
recipients to help them progress toward
obtaining employment. At the four service
managers we visited, caseworkers did not
always meet with recipients on a timely basis
to review their progress in activities designed
to help them nd employment, including in
50% of the les we examined at two service
managers. Caseworkers are required to meet
recipients at least once every three, four or six
months, yet in several of the les we exam-
ined, periods between reviews were longer
than one year, or twice the maximum allow-
able time. In one case, a recipient’s progress
had not been reviewed for approximately
three years.
•
Decisions to waive recipient employment
participation requirements are question-
able when not supported with evidence.
At the four service managers we visited, we
found that caseworkers did not always obtain
sufcient evidence to conrm that recipients
are unable to participate in activities designed
to help them obtain employment. At one of
the service managers, we found that in as
many as 40% of the les we reviewed recipi-
ents’ were allowed not to participate without
evidence to explain the reason for this. This
included, for example, a recipient deferred
due to medical reasons for a period of one
year without supporting medical documenta-
tion as required.
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Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
This report contains 19 recommendations, with
45 action items, to address our audit ndings.
OVERALL MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social
Services (Ministry) welcomes the advice of the
Auditor General with respect to the delivery and
oversight of the Ontario Works program. This
program provides a vital service to the people
of Ontario to help those in need nd sustainable
employment and achieve self-reliance. The Min-
istry is committed to working with service man-
agers to implement an accountability model that
focuses on the achievement of outcomes and
the recommendations of the Auditor General
will be important as the Ministry moves forward
to improve the effectiveness and integrity of
the program.
OVERALL RESPONSE FROM
SERVICE MANAGERS
The four audited service managers welcome
the advice of the Ofce of the Auditor General
of Ontario and are committed to addressing the
Auditor General’s recommendations in order
to better serve the needs of all Ontario Works
recipients.
We will continue to review our existing
processes and take the additional steps that
are required to ensure that we comply with the
Ministry of Children, Community and Social
Services’ (Ministry) requirements. Through
our partnership with the Ministry, we will also
work to explore opportunities to increase the
efciency of existing processes to ensure that
our resources are used effectively.
We welcome the opportunity to reect on
how we can improve the delivery of Ontario
Works to help vulnerable Ontarians in nancial
need, and on how to best assist them to work
toward obtaining employment, and becoming
self-sufcient.
•
Service managers across Ontario are
approximately one year behind investi-
gating approximately 6,000 fraud tips
to ensure only eligible recipients are
receiving assistance. We noted that service
managers investigated about 17,000 fraud
tips in the last three years. More than 25% of
the investigations identied an overpayment,
and 10% resulted in terminating the recipient
from Ontario Works. Timely reviews of these
fraud tips are critical to identifying and mini-
mizing overpayments.
Overall Conclusion
Our audit concluded that the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services, together with
service managers, does not have effective systems
and procedures in place to ensure that only eligible
recipients receive nancial assistance and that
recipients receive the employment supports they
require to obtain employment and become self-
reliant. We found that service managers were not
taking sufcient steps to ensure that all recipients
are eligible for the program, and that all recipients
are participating as required in employment assist-
ance activities aimed at obtaining employment. As
well, changes to the Ministry’s Social Assistance
Management System are required in order for the
Ministry and service managers to improve their
administration of the program.
Our audit also concluded that the Ministry
does not have effective systems and processes to
measure, evaluate and publicly report on the effect-
iveness of the Ontario Works program. While the
Ministry does collect some relevant performance-
related information from service managers, other
critical information about recipients is not system-
atically collected or not used to measure and evalu-
ate the effectiveness of the Ontario Works program.
This includes information on recipient barriers to
obtaining employment and employment sustain-
ability. In addition, the Ministry does not report the
information it does collect on recipient employment
outcomes to the public.
499Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
2.0 Background
In Ontario, social assistance is provided by the Min-
istry of Children, Community and Social Services
(Ministry) under two programs:
•
Ontario Works—for unemployed or under-
employed people in temporary nancial need;
and
•
Ontario Disability Support Program—
intended to help people with eligible disabil-
ities live as independently as possible and to
reduce or eliminate disability-related barriers
to employment.
In 2017/18, these two programs provided social
assistance to approximately 610,000 individuals
as well as to their qualifying family members for
a total of 950,000 people a month, on average.
Approximately 60% of these individuals received
assistance through the Ontario Disability Sup-
port Program and 40% received assistance from
Ontario Works. Total provincial transfer payments
for these two programs totalled $8.1 billion in
2017/18, which accounted for 5.3% of total prov-
incial expenditures. Transfer payments for Ontario
Works, the subject of this audit, were almost $3 bil-
lion in 2017/18.
2.1 Overview of Ontario Works
The Ministry’s Ontario Works program is a social
assistance program that provides nancial and
employment assistance to unemployed or under-
employed Ontarians who are in temporary nancial
need. Ontario Works provides nancial assist-
ance to help eligible applicants with basic living
expenses such as food, clothing, and shelter. It also
provides various employment assistance activities
for eligible applicants intended to increase their
employability and to help them obtain employment
and become self-reliant.
To be eligible for assistance, applicants must
demonstrate nancial need by providing evidence
that their income and asset levels are below speci-
ed amounts. In addition, applicants are also
required to sign an agreement to participate in
activities designed to gain skills to progress toward
obtaining sustainable employment, unless granted
a deferral. Applicants who can be granted a deferral
include applicants who are sole-support parents
with pre-school-aged children, applicants with
caregiver responsibilities, or applicants experien-
cing exceptional circumstances such as illness.
The Ontario Works Act, 1997 (Act) and its regu-
lations govern the delivery of the Ontario Works
program. The Act gives the Ministry the authority
to designate delivery agents to administer the pro-
gram. The Ministry has designated 47 Consolidated
Municipal Service Managers and District Social
Services Administration Boards as well as 101 First
Nations—referred to in this report as service man-
agers—to deliver the program. A service manager
is typically either a large municipality or a grouping
of smaller ones. In 2017/18, the Ministry provided
almost $3 billion in transfer payments to service
managers to deliver the Ontario Works program;
service managers provided Ontario Works assist-
ance to approximately 250,000 cases and 454,000
beneciaries (individuals plus their dependents) a
month, on average.
2.1.1 Role of Ministry and Service
Managers in Delivery of Ontario Works
Service managers are responsible for delivering the
Ontario Works program to eligible individuals who
live in their geographic area in accordance with the
Act and its regulations, as well as program direc-
tives and policies issued by the Ministry. Service
managers operate local Ontario Works ofces that
residents use to access services. Appendix 1 lists
service managers, their respective number of local
ofces, Ministry funding, and caseloads for the
2017/18 scal year.
Service managers’ primary responsibilities
include:
500
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
•
determining applicants’ initial and ongoing
eligibility for the program;
•
providing recipients with nancial assistance
and supports to help them to work toward
obtaining employment; and
•
establishing processes to prevent and detect
fraud, recover overpayments and prevent the
misuse of assistance.
The Ministry is responsible for administering the
Ontario Works program, including setting overall
program requirements and standards for program
delivery that service managers must follow.
Figure 1 shows the governance structure for the
Ontario Works program as of May 2018. The Min-
istry enters into contracts with service managers
to deliver Ontario Works and provides funding to
service managers to cover the costs of delivering
the program. Funding provided to service managers
includes reimbursement for the nancial assistance
payments made to Ontario Works recipients, and
funding to cover service managers’ program deliv-
ery costs which includes providing employment
supports to Ontario Works recipients, and admin-
istration costs. The Ministry is also responsible
for monitoring service managers’ delivery of the
program within the context of the Act, regulations,
directives and policies it has developed.
2.1.2 Number of Ontarians Receiving
Ontario Works Assistance
Since our last audit of the program in 2009, the
average number of Ontario Works cases increased
by almost 25% from 202,000 to 250,000 in
2017/18. Over this same period, the population
in Ontario increased by approximately 10%. The
majority of the increase in the Ontario Works case-
load occurred in 2009/10 following the downturn
in the economy that began in late 2008. Figure 2
illustrates the average monthly number of cases
and beneciaries each scal year between 2003/04
and 2017/18.
Although the number of Ontario Works cases
has remained stable over the past ve years,
the Ministry told us that it is still higher than its
pre-recession levels. In contrast, the unemploy-
ment rate was 5.8% in 2017/18, down from 6.3%
in 2007/08. The Ministry explained that policy
changes since 2008 have increased the number of
people eligible for the Ontario Works program. For
example, the amount of assets a person is permitted
to have has risen, which has allowed more people
to qualify. In addition, the Ministry said that once
on Ontario Works, individuals and families may
have circumstances that hinder their exit from the
program such as a low level of education, or loss of
jobs in their industry such as manufacturing.
The average length of time individuals are
accessing Ontario Works has also increased, from
19 consecutive months in 2008/09 to 35 con-
secutive months in 2017/18. Figure 3 shows the
increase in number of consecutive months spent on
Ontario Works between 2008/09 and 2017/18.
2.1.3 Provincial Cost of Ontario Works
Total Ministry funding provided to service man-
agers for the Ontario Works program has increased
by approximately 60% from $1.9 billion in 2008/09
when we last audited the program to nearly
$3.0 billion in 2017/18 as illustrated in Figure 4.
Key reasons for the increase include:
•
an increase of 19% in the average number of
Ontario Works recipients and beneciaries
from 380,000 in 2008/09 to 454,000 in
2017/18 as shown in Figure 2;
•
nancial assistance rate increases since 2009
ranging from 1% to 2% each year, and as high
as 4.8% in 2014 for single recipients;
•
changes to applicant asset and income exemp-
tions, and other policy changes;
•
the Ministry’s estimated annual costs associ-
ated with key changes in the last ve years,
and projected costs of key changes for the
next three years (Appendix 2);
•
a change in February 2017 to end the deduc-
tion of child support income from social
assistance payments (at the time that it
501Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Figure 1: Ontario Works Governance Structure, May 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
* Ontario Works Administrators are employees of the 47 Consolidated Municipal Service Managers and District Social Services Administration Boards referred to in this report as service managers. Ontario Works Administrators
are individuals appointed by service managers, with the approval of the Ministry, to oversee the delivery of the program in accordance with the
Ontario Works Act
. Administrators report to senior management within their
municipalities, and are accountable to the Ministry through the Regional Program Ofce in their geographical area.
• Business Services
• Program Integrity
• Ontario Works Support Unit
• Operational Improvement
• Business Support Services
• Accountability and Oversight
• Business Operations and
Support Services
• Business Technology Solutions
• Services Initiatives Unit
• Social Assistance Modernization
• Policy Operations and Program Design
• Policy Design and Implementation
Deputy Minister
Director
Social Assistance and Municipal Operations Branch
Director
Social Assistance Service Delivery Branch
5 Ministry Regional
Program Offices
Ontario Works Administrators*
Program Delivery – Municipal Responsibility
Municipal Service Managers
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
5 Units 4 Units 3 Units
Director
Ontario Works Branch
Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM)
Social Assistance Operations Division
Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM)
Social Policy Development Division
502
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
implemented this change, the Ministry esti-
mated that it would increase Ontario Works
nancial assistance expenditures by approxi-
mately $48 million each year from now on);
and
•
a gradual increase in the percentage of total
nancial assistance and employment assist-
ance expenditures that the Province reim-
burses to municipalities.
Historically, the provincial and municipal gov-
ernments have shared the costs of Ontario’s social
assistance programs. However, in 2008 as part of
the Provincial-Municipal Service Delivery Review
and Agreement, the Province and municipalities
Figure 2: Average Monthly Ontario Works Caseload and Beneciaries, 2003/04–2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Cases
Beneficiaries
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
400,000
450,000
500,000
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
Figure 3: Average Number of Consecutive Months Recipients Are on Ontario Works, 2008/09–2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
19
18
19
20
22
24
27
32
34
35
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/152015/162016/172017/18
503Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
reached a consensus that the Province would fully
fund the cost of nancial assistance and employ-
ment assistance expenditures to reduce uncertainty
and volatility in municipal expenditures. To
implement this change, the Province increased the
proportion of expenditures that it funded over a
nine-year period beginning in 2010. Because of this
agreement, the provincial share of Ontario Works
nancial assistance and employment assistance
expenditures has increased from 80% at the time of
our last audit to 100% beginning in 2018. Figure 5
illustrates the annual changes to provincial-munici-
pal cost-sharing arrangements.
The Ministry also pays up to 50% of service
managers’ administration costs. This has not
changed since our 2009 audit. However, since
2011/12 the Ministry has provided service man-
agers with the exibility to use program delivery
funding (for administration and employment costs)
interchangeably according to their local needs.
Therefore, the Ministry may reimburse service
managers for more than 50% of their administra-
tion costs.
2.2 Eligibility for Ontario Works
Service managers are responsible for determining
an applicant’s eligibility for Ontario Works. To be
eligible for assistance, applicants must meet the
eligibility criteria set out in the Ontario Works Act,
1997 and its regulations. Applicants must live in
Ontario and be legally entitled to reside in Canada
permanently. An exception is refugee claimants
who are eligible even though they have yet to be
granted the right to stay in Canada permanently.
Figure 4: Provincial Transfer Payments to Service Managers and Average Monthly Caseload, 2008/09–2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Program Delivery
Financial Employment
Average Monthly Assistance Assistance Administration Total
Caseload # ($ million) ($ million) ($ million) ($ million)
2017/18 250,292 2,399 210 366
2,975
2016/17 252,247 2,279 204 375
2,858
2015/16 250,640 2,174 196 353
2,723
2014/15 246,903 2,013 189 365
2,567
2013/14 252,767 1,888 184 362
2,434
2012/13 259,819 2,031 177 328
2,536
2011/12 260,766 1,998 173 332
2,503
2010/11 251,280 1,924 189 318
2,431
2009/10 237,634 1,803 193 205
2,201
2008/09 202,181 1,534 171 194
1,899
Figure 5: Ontario Works Provincial-Municipal Cost Sharing 2009–2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Financial Assistance and Employment Assistance Cost Share %
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Ongoing
Provincial Share 80.0 80.6 81.2 82.8 85.8 88.6 91.4 94.2 97. 2 100.0 100.0
Municipal Share 20.0 19.4 18.8 17. 2 14.2 11.4 8.6 5.8 2.8 0.0 0.0
504
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Applicants must be willing to make efforts to
nd, prepare for and keep a job. They also must
demonstrate nancial need by providing evidence
that their income and asset levels are below speci-
ed amounts. Unless specically exempt, all of an
applicant’s assets are included in the determination
of eligibility. Exemptions include an applicant’s
house and vehicle. To be eligible, as of September
2017, a person’s net assets must be worth less than
$10,000 if the person is single and $15,000 if the
person has a spouse. Prior to September 2017, the
asset limits were $2,500 for a single person and
$5,000 for a person with a spouse.
2.2.1 Role of Caseworkers in Determining
Eligibility for Ontario Works
People seeking help from Ontario Works can apply
online, in person at a service manager’s Ontario
Works ofce, or by telephone. The Ontario Works
caseworker’s responsibilities begin when an
applicant makes contact to schedule an in-person
meeting. At that meeting, the caseworker begins
the process of determining if the applicant quali-
es for assistance. Caseworkers are responsible for
verifying information provided by the applicants to
prove their eligibility and carrying out applicable
third-party checks, such as with Equifax Canada
Inc. and the Canada Revenue Agency. Service
managers carry out third-party checks using the
information-sharing agreements that the Ministry
has entered into.
If an applicant qualies for Ontario Works and
becomes a recipient, the caseworker will create a
formal plan, referred to as a participation agree-
ment. The participation agreement is a plan that
sets out the employment activities, including their
duration, that the recipient will undertake. The
recipient must sign this agreement and carry out
the agreed activities as a condition of receiving
assistance. The activities in the agreement are
intended to help the recipient gain skills and prog-
ress toward sustainable employment.
All recipients must participate in employment
activities unless the caseworker waives their
requirement to participate. The Ontario Works
regulations set out the circumstances under which
service managers may defer an applicant’s require-
ment to participate. These circumstances include:
•
if the participant is a sole parent with pre-
school-aged children;
•
if the participant is a caregiver for a family
member;
•
if, in limited cases, the participant is over 65
years of age and does not qualify for the full
Old Age Security pension or the Guaranteed
Income Supplement; or
•
if exceptional circumstances apply to the
participant.
Following the initial appointment, caseworkers
are typically required to meet with Ontario Works
recipients every three months to adjust the participa-
tion agreement as the recipient progresses or their
circumstances change, and to discuss other pro-
grams and supports that can help the recipient. Min-
istry policy also requires caseworkers to meet with
recipients at least once every two years to review
recipients’ nancial status and information to ensure
that they remain eligible for Ontario Works.
2.2.2 Demographics of Ontario Works
Recipients
As of March 2018, more than 60% of Ontario Works
cases were single recipients without children. Over
60% of Ontario Works recipients were born in Can-
ada, and the primary recipients of Ontario Works
were between the ages of 25 and 34 years. As well, as
of March 2018, 44% of all Ontario Works recipients
lived in the Greater Toronto Area. These demograph-
ics have remained relatively stable since our last
audit, not changing more than 5% in each of these
categories when compared with March 2018. Fig-
ures 6 to 9 illustrate the demographics of Ontario
Works cases by family structure; residency status in
Canada; age of applicant; and geographical location.
505Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
2.3. Financial Assistance for
Ontario Works Recipients
Eligible Ontario Works applicants receive nancial
assistance for basic needs and shelter, and may
qualify for other allowances such a special diet
allowance, pregnancy nutritional allowance or
remote communities’ allowance. The amount of
nancial assistance and allowances available are set
by the Province and are based on family size. Fig-
ure 10 shows the rates for basic needs and shelter
at the end of the 2017/18 scal year and at the time
of our last audit in 2008/09.
Figure 6: Ontario Works Cases by Family Structure,
March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Couples wit
hout
children (2%)
Singles wit
hout
children (6
1%)
Couples with children (8%)
Singles wit
h
children (29%)
Figure 8: Ontario Works Cases by Residency Status in Canada, March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
1. Refugee Claimants are individuals who have made a claim for refugee status, but have not yet had their status determined. Refugee claimants are eligible for
Ontario Works effective the date they formally make a claim for refugee protection.
2. Convention Refugees relate to asylum seekers approved by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and granted convention refugee status. They are
eligible to apply for Permanent Residence, but in these cases have not yet done so and retain the status of convention refugees.
Born in
Canada (63%)
Born outside
Canada (37%)
Canadian
Citizen (43%)
Permanent
Resident (32%)
Convention
Refugee
2
(5%)
Refugee
Claimant
1
(20%)
Figure 7: Percentage of Ontario Works Cases by
Geographical Location, March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
City of
Ottawa (8%)
City of
Toronto (30%)
Rest of Ontario (48%)
Rest of Greater
Toronto Area (14%)
506
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
In addition, eligible applicants receive assist-
ance for health and non-health-related expenses,
referred to as mandatory and discretionary bene-
ts. Mandatory health-related benets include drug
coverage; discretionary health-related benets
include dental care for adults. See Appendix 3 for a
list of mandatory and discretionary benets.
The Ministry does not prescribe the rates for dis-
cretionary benets; therefore, service managers have
the authority to set rates they deem appropriate.
Service managers also have the authority to provide
any health or non-health-related benet they feel
is appropriate where failure to provide this benet
would harm the health of the recipient. Service man-
agers can set the rate for the discretionary benets
they provide, but the Ministry provides maximum
funding of $10 per Ontario Works case per month.
Figure 11 shows the type of nancial assistance
and associated costs provided by service managers
Figure 9: Ontario Works Cases by Age of Head of Family,* March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
* The Head of Family is the applicant.
1,591
16,494
21,009
77,074
57,225
44,219
29,024
1,365
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000
Under 18
18–21
22–24
25–34
35–44
45–54
55–64
Over 64
Age
Figure 10: Maximum Monthly Ontario Works Basic Needs and Shelter Rates in 2008/09 and 2017/18 ($)
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Single Person with Couple with
Single Person One Child Couple Two Children
2008/09 2017/18 2008/09 2017/18 2008/09 2017/18 2008/09 2017/18
Basic needs 216 337 360 354 429 486 429 486
Shelter allowance 356 384 560 632 560 632 660 744
Total Maximum
Allowance
572 721 920 986 989 1,118 1,089 1,230
Figure 11: Breakdown of Financial Assistance
Payments to Ontario Works Recipients, 2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
* Other benets and allowances include mandatory and discretionary
benets described in Appendix 3.
Other Benefits and Allowances*
$168 million (7.0%)
Shelter
$1,159 million
(48.3%)
Basic Needs
$996 million (41.5%)
Special Diet
Allowance
$77 million (3.2%)
507Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
to Ontario Works recipients in the 2017/18 scal
year. Basic needs and shelter assistance made up
90% of the total amount of nancial assistance pay-
ments. Mandatory and discretionary benets and
other allowances comprised 7% of payments, and
special diet allowances accounted for 3% of pay-
ments to Ontario Works recipients.
The special diet allowance is available to recipi-
ents and their families who require a special diet
due to one or more approved medical conditions
from a list of more than 40. In order to be eligible
for the special diet allowance, applicants must sub-
mit an application form completed by a health-care
professional such as a doctor, nurse or dietitian.
Service managers use a special diet payment
schedule issued by the Ministry to determine the
amount of the allowance depending on the medical
condition. The monthly amounts vary from $30
to $59 (depending on age) for lactose intolerance,
$32 to $63 (depending on age) for a milk allergy,
$97 for an allergy to wheat, and up to $191 for an
individual with cystic brosis. An individual may
have multiple special requirements; however, the
total allowance for any one member of a family may
not exceed $250 per month.
2.4 Ontario Works Employment
Assistance
As noted in Section 2.2.1, Ontario Works recipi-
ents are required to participate in employment
assistance activities as a condition of eligibility for
receiving basic nancial assistance. These activities
include unpaid community service activities, or
employment support activities such as job search,
participation in basic education or job-specic
training and development of employment-related
skills. The Ministry requires service managers to
submit a service plan every two years. The plan
sets out how the service manager will invest in
employment-related strategies that best reect
their caseload, local conditions and priorities, and
offers the best results to their participants. Each
service manager is required to provide and make
available to recipients each of the programs listed
in Figure 12.
For Ontario Works recipients who are not yet
able to benet from one or more of these employ-
ment assistance activities due to personal circum-
stances—such as homelessness, transience, or lack
of available child-care—the Ministry requires ser-
vice managers to help these participants to resolve
these obstacles as a rst step toward participating
in employment assistance activities.
Figure 12: Ministry-Mandated Employment Activities
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Community Placements The program can help arrange placements in a community agency so that participants can
gain work experience. Participants will be able to practice skills, improve their condence
and get up-to-date job references and contacts.
Education Programs Education programs are available to help participants nish high school, improve language
skills or upgrade reading, writing or math skills.
Employment Placements The program can connect participants who are ready for a job with employers who are
hiring. The program can also help participants prepare for an interview and help with
training for a job, if required.
Job-Specic Skills Training If participants need special training or skills for a job, the program can assist with nding
help to develop those skills.
Learning, Earning and Parenting
(LEAP)
If participants are young parents between the ages of 16 to 25, LEAP provides supports to
nish high school, improve parenting skills, prepare for and nd work.
Literacy Screening and Training The program can help participants access help to improve reading, writing and math skills.
508
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
2.5 Oversight and Performance
Measurement
As described in Section 2.1.1, the Ministry enters
into contracts with service managers for the
delivery of Ontario Works. The Ministry’s primary
means of monitoring service managers’ delivery of
Ontario Works is through its team of approximately
30 regional program supervisors and program man-
agers who are responsible for the nancial monitor-
ing and oversight of individual or clusters of service
managers. These staff review service managers’
reimbursement claims for payments made to
Ontario Works recipients. They also negotiate con-
tracts with service managers and are expected to
review service managers’ progress reports related
to these contracts. These contracts are two years
in duration and require service managers to set
annual targets and report results for indicators that
include recipient employment earnings and the
percentage of recipients who nd employment. Fig-
ure 13 illustrates the performance indicators that
service managers were required to report on in the
calendar years following our 2009 audit.
The Ministry also requires service managers to
participate in its Eligibility Verication Process.
In this review process, the Ministry identies a
sample of Ontario Works cases as having a high
likelihood of missing or incorrect information. Such
information may affect a recipient’s eligibility or
the amount of assistance the recipient receives. The
Ministry identies the cases for eligibility verica-
tion by comparing a recipient’s income or expense
information to tax data. Equifax Canada then com-
bines this information with other consumer credit
information to provide the Ministry with the high-
est risk cases. The Ministry then assigns high-risk
cases for service managers to review to determine
whether the recipient still meets eligibility require-
ments and whether the amount of assistance should
be changed.
3.0 Audit Objective and Scope
Our audit objective was to assess whether the
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Ser-
vices (Ministry) with municipal service managers
have effective systems and processes in place to:
•
ensure only eligible recipients receive nan-
cial and employment support that is com-
mensurate to their needs, in accordance with
legislative and policy requirements; and
•
measure, evaluate, and publicly report on the
effectiveness of the Ontario Works program
in helping people in temporary nancial need
to nd employment.
In planning for our work, we identied the audit
criteria (see Appendix 4) we would use to address
our audit objective. These criteria were established
based on a review of applicable legislation, direc-
tives, policies and procedures, and internal and
external studies. Senior management at the Min-
istry and the service managers we visited reviewed
and agreed with the suitability of our objective and
related criteria.
We focused on the Ministry’s and service
managers’ activities in the ve-year period ending
March 2018. We conducted our audit between
Figure 13: Ontario Works Performance Indicators
Reported by Service Managers
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
2010–2015
Average monthly employment earnings per case
Average amount of monthly earnings at exit from Ontario Works
% of caseload with monthly employment income
% of caseload exiting to employment
Job retention rate since exiting to employment (in months)
Job retention rate % among those exiting to employment
Average length of time to exit assistance due to employment
2016–2018*
Average monthly employment earnings per case
% of caseload with employment earnings
% of caseload exiting to employment
% of total exits from assistance due to employment
* Service managers were required to select and report on only two of the
four employment outcome indicators between 2016 and 2018.
509Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
January 2018 and September 2018. We obtained
written representation from Ministry management
and the four service managers we visited that,
effective November 8, 2018, they have provided
us with all the information they are aware of that
could signicantly affect the ndings or the conclu-
sion of this report.
Our audit work was conducted at the Min-
istry and four of the 47 service managers across
Ontario: City of Toronto, City of Windsor, District
of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration
Board, and Regional Municipality of Peel. Collect-
ively, the four service managers we visited repre-
sented approximately 42% of the total Ontario
Works caseload in 2017/18. We also sent a survey
to all 47 service managers and received a response
from each of them to gain a better understanding
of how they deliver the Ontario Works program
across the province.
Our audit work included an analysis of poli-
cies and procedures, and relevant documents and
reports, as well as detailed discussions with staff
at the Ministry’s corporate ofce involved in the
design, funding, oversight and performance meas-
urement of the Ontario Works program.
We also met with the Ministry’s regional pro-
gram managers and supervisors responsible for
overseeing the nancial and operational perform-
ance of the four service managers we visited.
Our audit work at service managers included
interviews with key personnel responsible for
delivering the Ontario Works program in accord-
ance with legislative and policy requirements, as
well as interviews with caseworkers responsible for
providing services to Ontario Works recipients. We
also performed data analysis and reviewed Ontario
Works recipients’ les to determine whether service
managers comply with Ontario Works program
requirements, and to identify trends related to ser-
vice managers’ efciency, effectiveness, and compli-
ance with program requirements. We also obtained
information from service managers about the out-
comes of Ontario Works recipients that used their
employment services. However, we did not evaluate
service managers’ administration of contracts with
external parties that provide employment supports
to recipients.
In addition, to gain an understanding of Ontario
Works recipients’ experience in the program, we
spoke to senior staff at the Income Security Advo-
cacy Centre. The Centre is a community legal clinic
funded by Legal Aid Ontario that advocates on
behalf of low-income Ontarians and has provided
advice to the government on improving the Ontario
Works program.
We also reviewed the relevant audit reports
issued by the Ontario Province’s Internal Audit
Division in determining the scope and extent of
our audit work. We last audited the Ontario Works
program in 2009.
We conducted our work and reported on the
results of our examination in accordance with
the applicable Canadian Standards on Assurance
Engagements—Direct Engagements issued by the
Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada. This
included obtaining a reasonable level of assurance.
The Ofce of the Auditor General of Ontario
applies the Canadian Standards of Quality Control
and, as a result, maintains a comprehensive quality
control system that includes documented policies
and procedures with respect to compliance with
rules of professional conduct, professional standards
and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
We have complied with the independence
and other ethical requirements of the Code of
Professional Conduct of the Canadian Professional
Accountants of Ontario, which are founded on
fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, pro-
fessional competence and due care, condentiality
and professional behaviour.
510
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
4.0 Detailed Audit
Observations: Ministry of
Children, Community and
Social Services
4.1 Cost of Ontario Works
Increasing but Ministry Does Not
Effectively Oversee or Hold Service
Managers Accountable
4.1.1 Service Managers Do Not Always
Comply with Ministry Requirements
The Ministry contracts with service managers
to deliver Ontario Works but it is the Ministry’s
responsibility to ensure that the service managers
comply with legislation and Ministry policies
designed to ensure that the program is effective.
However, we found that the Ministry does not
conduct inspections of service managers to conrm
their compliance despite the fact that the provincial
share of Ontario Works nancial assistance and
employment assistance expenditures increased
from 80% at the time of our last audit in 2009
to 100% in 2018. When service managers do not
complete requirements that affect, for example,
eligibility, or do not do so on a timely basis, ineli-
gible recipients may remain undetected for longer,
resulting in larger overpayments that service man-
agers must later recover (discussed in Section 4.4).
Our audit identied several areas where the
Ministry needs to take steps to improve service man-
agers’ compliance to ensure that only those who are
eligible for the program receive assistance and that
individuals progress toward obtaining employment.
These issues are discussed in Section 5, which
details our observations about service managers.
Specically, in relation to eligibility, we found:
•
third-party checks of nancial informa-
tion were not performed in many cases
(Section 5.1.1);
•
critical information relating to establish-
ing eligibility was not always obtained or
reviewed (Section 5.1.2);
•
individuals’ ongoing eligibility was not always
reassessed every two years as required by
Ministry policy (Section 5.1.3);
•
targeted eligibility reviews of recipients with
a high risk of ineligibility were not always
completed (Section 5.1.4); and
•
fraud tips and incarceration alerts were
not always reviewed or investigated within
the timeframes required by the Ministry
(Section 5.1.5).
Relating to ensuring that individuals progress
toward obtaining employment to become self-
reliant, employment results varied from a low of 2%
of recipients nding employment during 2017/18 at
one service manager visited to 15% at another ser-
vice manager visited. Regarding compliance with
Ministry requirements, we identied that:
•
not all the decisions to exempt recipients from
employment activities were supported with
the required evidence (Section 5.2); and
•
not all recipients had met with their case-
worker as regularly as required by Ministry
policy to ensure that they were participating
in employment activities (Section 5.3.1).
4.1.2 Ministry Cancelled its Process to
Review Service Manager Compliance and
Seven Years Later It Has Yet To Replace It
The Ministry stopped completing reviews that
assess service managers’ compliance with Ontario
Works requirements in 2011 with the intent of
replacing them with a new risk-based program to
monitor service managers. However, as of 2018,
seven years after it stopped completing compliance
reviews, it has yet to implement a process to replace
these reviews.
At the time of our 2009 audit, and up until 2011,
the Ministry’s staff conducted compliance reviews
of service managers. Compliance reviews consisted
of examining a sample of Ontario Works recipient
511Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
case les to assess whether the service manager
complied with program requirements and stan-
dards. These reviews covered areas such as recipi-
ent eligibility and nancial assistance, the provision
of discretionary benets, overpayment collection,
and the completion, appropriateness, and effective-
ness of recipient participation agreements.
In our 2009 Annual Report, we noted that these
compliance reviews identied many of the same
issues and concerns that we raised during our audit
at that time.
RECOMMENDATION 1
We recommend that the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry)
re-institute its reviews of service managers’
compliance with Ontario Works requirements,
or implement a suitable process, to reinforce
to service managers the need to comply with
requirements designed to ensure:
•
nancial assistance is provided in the correct
amount and only to eligible individuals; and
•
recipients progress toward obtaining
employment to become self-sufcient.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and acknowledges that strengthened oversight
processes and tools are required to achieve
greater accountability in meeting Ministry
requirements designed to ensure service man-
agers provide nancial assistance in the correct
amount to eligible individuals and that recipi-
ents progress toward obtaining employment to
become self-sufcient.
The Ministry will establish a multifaceted
outcomes-based approach with required tools
and processes to ensure service managers effect-
ively and efciently achieve program objectives
and client outcomes.
This outcomes-based approach to account-
ability, supported by appropriate data analysis
and reporting, will place the onus on service
managers to have the appropriate strategies and
controls in place to meet Ministry requirements
including the achievement of positive outcomes
for recipients. This approach emphasizes clearly
dened expectations while providing service
managers with exibility to meet the needs of
their communities.
By April 2020, the Ministry will:
•
dene and clearly communicate expecta-
tions, requirements, standards and targets
which will include program oversight, and
eligibility verications;
•
develop a strong agreement based on the
Ontario Government’s Transfer Payment
Accountability best practices, with specic
expectations, reporting requirements,
corrective actions, and risk management
requirements;
•
implement a series of new mechanisms to
proactively identify and prevent perform-
ance and eligibility issues;
•
establish a process to actively monitor a
range of performance indicators covering
service delivery and management against
targets; and
•
benchmark performance results as means for
continuous improvement of operations.
This approach will be further strengthened
by the end of 2020/21 with:
•
a Risk-Based Certicate of Assurance process
to be completed by service managers;
•
targeted Quality Assurance reviews by the
Ministry to validate the accuracy and con-
sistency of service manager reported nd-
ings; and
•
third-party reviews for targeted situations
when signicant concerns or opportunities
are identied.
512
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
service managers, and found that almost 30% of
service managers did not have any targets in their
contracts for the number of recipients expected to
leave the program for employment. These service
managers had only chosen and set targets for the
Ministry’s two performance indicators related to
measuring employment earnings for recipients of
Ontario Works.
Furthermore, we found that service managers
are required to assign a points weighting to achiev-
ing each of the targets set and are considered
to have achieved the outcomes built into their
contracts if they exceed a certain threshold of
points. The Ministry advised us that 23 out of 47
service managers in Ontario had already achieved
enough points at the end of 2017, the rst year of
the current contracts, to meet their two-year con-
tractual obligation. This suggests that the targets
established in these contracts are of little value in
encouraging service managers to improve their
performance to help recipients to nd employment
and become self-sufcient.
RECOMMENDATION 2
To hold service managers accountable for
delivering the Ontario Works program in com-
pliance with the program’s requirements, and
to improve program outcomes, we recommend
that the Ministry of Children, Community and
Social Services (Ministry) update its contracts
with service managers to include:
•
requirements to comply with Ontario Works
legislation, Ministry directives and polices;
•
additional performance indicators and
meaningful targets to measure service man-
agers’ progress in assisting Ontario Works
recipients nd employment and become
self-sufcient;
•
targets for service delivery, including
reducing and preventing overpayments; and
•
mechanisms to hold service managers
accountable for meeting the terms of the
agreements.
4.1.3 Ministry Contracts with Service
Managers Lack Mechanisms to Hold
Service Managers Accountable
Contracts Do Not Specify Program Requirements
or Service Delivery Targets that Service Managers
Must Meet
We found that the contracts with service managers
for the delivery of Ontario Works do not include a
requirement for service managers to comply with
Ontario Works legislation, Ministry program direc-
tives or key Ministry policies. For example, one of
the Ministry’s key policies is the requirement for
service managers to participate in its Eligibility
Verication Process described in Section 2.5; how-
ever, the contracts do not include a requirement for
service managers to complete these reviews.
In addition, the contracts also do not include
measures and targets for service delivery (based on
the standards dened in the Ontario Works legisla-
tion and Ministry directives) such as reducing
overpayments, improved overpayment collection
and timely investigation of fraud referrals.
Service Managers’ Administration and
Employment Assistance Funding Is Not Linked to
Their Performance
The current contracts with service managers
(described in Section 2.5) include a requirement to
achieve annual performance targets for indicators
relating to recipient employment earnings and the
percentage of recipients who nd employment. The
contracts also allow the Ministry to recover funds
when service managers do not achieve these targets.
However, the Ministry advised us that it has never
exercised its ability to recover funding from service
managers for failing to achieve these targets.
In addition, for the performance indicators that
the service managers currently report on, service
managers are only required to pick and set targets
for two of the Ministry’s four indicators (as noted in
Figure 13). We reviewed the indicators chosen by
service managers for 2017, the rst year of the cur-
rent two-year contracts between the Ministry and
513Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and will implement, for April 2020, a compre-
hensive service contract with service managers
for the delivery of Ontario Works, reecting
principles and requirements of the Ontario
Government’s Transfer Payment Accountability
Directive. This contract will act as one of the
primary mechanism for governing the account-
ability relationships and interactions between
the Ministry and service managers.
The service contract will include specic
expectations including complying with program
requirements, reporting requirements, correct-
ive actions and risk management requirements.
The Ministry, in consultation with service man-
agers, will establish key performance indicators
as well as appropriate targets related to service
delivery and those that demonstrate recipients’
progress toward nding employment and
becoming self-sufcient.
The Ministry is also exploring further enhan-
cing the service contract by the end of 2020/21
with provisions for Certicate of Assurance,
Quality Assurance Reviews and third-party aud-
its where warranted to hold service managers
accountable for meeting the terms of these
agreements.
4.2 Ministry Lacks Targets
and Performance Indicators to
Improve the Effectiveness of
Ontario Works
4.2.1 Only 10% of Recipients Find
Employment and the Ministry Has Not
Taken Action to Improve Results
We found that the Ministry has not set provincial
targets for the number of Ontario Works recipients
it expects to nd employment. It also does not
combine the employment results it collects from
individual service managers to monitor and evalu-
ate the overall effectiveness of the Ontario Works
program in getting recipients into the workforce.
To understand how many recipients typically
nd work and leave the program annually, we
combined the monthly data collected by the Min-
istry from service managers for the percentage of
recipients who leave the program for employment.
We found that province-wide, only 10% to 13% of
Ontario Works recipient cases left the program for
employment in the last ve years, including just
10% in 2017/18. Figure 14 shows the province-
wide results over the last ve years for exits to
employment, as well as the results we calculated
for the Ministry’s performance indicators related to
recipient employment earnings.
Ministry Does Not Compare Service Manager
Employment Results to Identify Best Practices
and to Take Corrective Action
We found that the Ministry does not compare the
employment results it collects from service man-
agers to identify best practices and instances that
require corrective action. We analyzed these results
and found signicant differences between service
managers’ employment results that the Ministry
should follow up. For example, in 2017/18, at
one-third of all service managers, the percentage
of recipient cases exiting to employment was more
than 20%, but at one-fth of service managers, it
was less than 10%. Figure 15 shows the service
managers with the highest and lowest percentage
of exits to employment compared with the provin-
cial average.
As described in Section 5.4, we found that the
employment supports for Ontario Works recipients
offered by the four service managers we visited
varied. Therefore, it is important for the Ministry
to investigate the links between service manager
employment supports and recipient employment
outcomes to take action to improve results.
514
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Ministry Does Not Publicly Report on Recipient
Employment Outcomes
The Ministry reports various statistics about the
Ontario Works program publicly on its website
including the number of recipients on assistance;
recipient demographics; the length of time recipi-
ents spend on assistance; and the percentage of
recipients with earnings. However, the Ministry
does not publicly report on the number and
proportion of Ontario Works recipients who nd
employment each year. Reporting these results
would provide Ontarians with information on the
effectiveness of the program in helping individuals
to get a job.
4.2.2 Ministry Does Not Have Targets to
Reduce Rapidly Increasing Time Recipients
Are on its Temporary Assistance Program
The intent of the Ontario Works program is to
provide temporary nancial assistance to those in
need to help them nd employment and become
self-sufcient. However, we found that similar to
our observations when we last audited this pro-
gram in 2009, the Ministry has not dened what it
considers to be a temporary period. In addition, as
shown in Figure 3, we found that recipient time on
assistance has almost doubled, from an average of
19 consecutive months in 2008/09 to nearly three
years in 2017/18.
Despite this trend, we found that the Ministry
has not established province-wide or service man-
ager specic targets and performance indicators
for recipient time on assistance. It also does not
currently have targets and performance indicators
in place that measure the length of time it takes
Ontario Works recipients to nd employment. We
noted that until 2015, the Ministry did have an
indicator that measured how long it took recipients
that left Ontario Works for employment to do so.
However, the Ministry stopped tracking data and
measuring outcomes for this indicator in 2015 in
order to implement its Information Technology
system, and it has yet to replace the indicator with
a new one.
In other jurisdictions, we found that some Can-
adian provincial social assistance programs measure
and report on an individual’s time on assistance.
For example, British Columbia’s Income Assistance
program reports the median time on assistance
Figure 14: Ontario Works Performance Indicator Results, 2013/14–2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
% of caseload exiting to employment 13 12 9 10 10
% of caseload with employment earnings 10 10 11 12 12
Average monthly employment earnings per case* ($) 732 778 810 778 815
* A case refers to a single individual or a family unit on social assistance (for example, a family on social assistance is counted as one case).
Figure 15: Service Managers’ Performance Indicator Results, 2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
% of % of Average Monthly
Caseload Exiting Caseload with Employment Earnings
to Employment Employment Earnings per Case ($)
Province 10 12 815
Service Manager High 29 22 966
Service Manager Low 2 9 698
515Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
for those it considers employable. In addition, the
Saskatchewan Assistance Program reports on the
percentage of individuals it deems employable who
leave the program within six months.
Ministry Lacks Information to Explain Increasing
Time on Assistance
We noted that the Ministry has data for the length
of time on assistance province-wide and by service
manager, but it does not regularly analyze and com-
pare time on assistance to labour market conditions
or to the demographics of recipients. Such compari-
son could improve its understanding of the reasons
for the growing duration of time on assistance. In
addition, the Ministry does not compare differences
in time on assistance between service managers to
determine whether these differences are reasonable
and to take corrective action where they are not.
According to our analysis of Ministry data for
2017/18, the average length of time an individual
spent on Ontario Works at one service manager
could be more than twice as long as the average
at another, depending on where in Ontario an
individual lived. Figure 16 shows the differences in
the average length of time on assistance between
service managers in Ontario.
Ministry Employment Indicators Do Not Measure
Whether Recipients Find Stable Employment
The Ministry’s current performance indicators
relating to whether an individual has found
employment do not measure whether recipients
nd stable employment. This is because these indi-
cators do not make the distinction between those
who temporarily leave Ontario Works—such as for
seasonal work or a temporary contract—and those
who have found long-term employment. Individ-
uals who are on and off Ontario Works for tempor-
ary work count as an exit to employment every time
they leave the program. We noted that until 2015,
the Ministry did have indicators that measured how
long individuals who left the program for employ-
ment kept their job. However, the Ministry stopped
tracking data and measuring outcomes for these
indicators in 2015 in order to implement its Infor-
mation Technology system and has yet to replace
them with new ones.
Although the Ministry’s current performance
indicators do not track the proportion of individ-
uals who leave Ontario Works for employment and
remain employed, the Ministry provided us with
a study it did that examined cases of recipients
who left the program for employment between
January and March 2013. The study found that
35% had returned to Ontario Works assistance by
October 2014.
4.2.3 Ministry Lacks Performance Indicators to
Measure and Improve Outcomes for Recipients
with Signicant Barriers to Employment
The Ministry requires service managers to assist
recipients on Ontario Works to overcome barriers
that hinder their ability to prepare for or search for
employment. However, we found that the Ministry
does not have performance indicators and related
targets to measure the effectiveness of service man-
agers’ efforts in assisting recipients to overcome
those barriers.
In our survey, almost 90% of service managers
across the province identied mental health
Figure 16: Comparison of Average Number of Consecutive Months Recipients Are on Ontario Works,
2013/14–2017/18
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
Provincial Average 24 27 32 34 35
Service Manager High 30 35 40 41 42
Service Manager Low 11 13 16 17 19
516
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
system. We found that the Ministry does not require
service managers to complete this information. As a
result, this missing information limits the Ministry’s
ability to monitor the progress of these recipients
toward obtaining employment and becoming
self-sufcient.
RECOMMENDATION 3
To improve the effectiveness of the Ontario
Works program in helping people to obtain
employment and become self-sufcient, and to
assess the effectiveness of the service managers
it funds, we recommend that the Ministry
of Children, Community and Social Services
(Ministry):
•
establish performance indicators and targets
for recipients’ length of time on assistance;
•
establish performance indicators and targets
to measure whether recipients obtain sus-
tainable employment;
•
establish performance indicators and targets
that provide sufcient information to help
the Ministry measure the progress of service
managers in helping recipients resolve their
barriers to employment;
•
monitor the performance of the program
and service managers to identify and
take corrective action where targets and
expectations are not being met; and
•
publicly report on the effectiveness of the
Ontario Works program in helping recipients
to nd and retain employment.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation.
To support continuous quality improvement and
spreading of best practices, the Ministry is devel-
oping a performance measurement framework
with extensive input from service managers and
people with lived experience. The framework
will include indicators for recipients’ length of
time on assistance; sustainability of employment
obtained; and measures of whether barriers to
employment are being removed over time.
conditions or addictions as two of the most signi-
cant barriers to employment faced by individuals on
their caseload. Other signicant barriers reported
by many service managers included homelessness
and unstable housing and lack of education and
skills. Service managers indicated that individuals
with multiple barriers to employment often need
to stabilize their life before trying to enter the
job market.
According to our analysis of data from the
Ministry, about 100,000 individuals, equivalent
to approximately 36% of adults receiving Ontario
Works as of March 31, 2018, had been categorized
by their caseworker as needing to stabilize their life
and requiring assistance to overcome their employ-
ment barriers. Figure 17 shows the percentage of
recipients on Ontario Works as of March 31, 2018,
according to their category of current objective,
such as stabilizing their life, training, nding
employment, or retaining a job.
If service managers do not help these recipients
that represent 36% of the adult caseload to progress
in stabilizing their life, it is possible these individ-
uals will not leave the Ontario Works caseload for
employment for many years. But the Ministry does
not measure these categories to see how successfully
recipients are moving from one objective to the next
and to eventual stable employment.
Another concern was that, as shown in Fig-
ure 17, about 10% of recipients (28,000) did not
have an objective recorded in the Ministry’s IT
Figure 17: Objectives of Ontario Works Recipients,
March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
% of Total
Recipients
Life stabilization 36
Preparing for employment 14
Training 7
Finding employment 26
Retaining employment 7
No objective 10
Total 100
517Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
4.3 Ministry Does Not Know
Whether Service Managers
are Delivering Ontario Works
Cost-Effectively
4.3.1 Service Managers May Not Be
Meeting Ministry Staff-to-Recipient
Guidelines
As described in Section 2.1.1, the Ministry provides
funding to service managers to cover the costs
of delivering Ontario Works. However, we found
that the Ministry does not obtain data on service
manager stafng levels, such as the number of case-
workers employed, to analyze and assess whether
service managers are staffed according to Ministry
established guidelines, and allocate sufcient staff
to deliver the Ontario Works program effectively.
The Ministry established guidelines in 2008 that
indicated a suitable caseload was between 90 and
120 recipients per Ontario Works caseworker. How-
ever, it does not require service managers to adhere
to these guidelines—service managers can set their
own stafng levels.
We obtained data on service manager stafng
and determined that there are signicant
differences between service managers’ caseworker-
to-recipient caseloads. As illustrated in Figure 18,
we found that the caseload at one of the service
managers we visited was signicantly higher
than the caseload at all three of the other service
managers we visited. In addition, we noted that this
service manager’s caseload—which reached as high
as 214 cases per caseworker in 2015—signicantly
exceeded the Ministry’s 2008 guidelines in each of
the last ve years.
The Ministry’s guidelines also suggested that for
recipients with signicant barriers to employment,
a lower recipient-to-caseworker ratio of 45:1 may
be necessary. As of March 31, 2018, at the four ser-
vice managers we visited, between 28% and 44%
of adults in their Ontario Works caseloads were
identied as requiring life stabilization activities,
and therefore had signicant employment barriers
to overcome. Therefore, it is possible that all four
The framework is expected to be nalized
by the end of 2018/19. Following its comple-
tion, the Ministry, in consultation with service
managers, will establish targets for key account-
ability measures that align with the framework.
These measures and the associated targets will
be incorporated into service contracts by April
2020. The Ministry will then monitor the per-
formance of the program and service managers
to identify and take corrective actions where
warranted. The Ministry will also explore and
identify the appropriate mechanisms to report
performance publicly.
RECOMMENDATION 4
To improve the efciency and effectiveness of
the Ontario Works program, which is intended
to provide temporary assistance, we recommend
that the Ministry of Children, Community and
Social Services (Ministry) assess the suitability
of the program as it is currently designed and
take steps to improve its effectiveness in meet-
ing the needs of recipients who have signicant
employment barriers and require extensive
assistance to become employed, or who received
assistance for lengthy periods of time without
successfully obtaining employment.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and acknowledges that improvements to the
program can be made to support those with sig-
nicant employment barriers. The Ministry will
review the effectiveness of the Ontario Works
program in supporting these recipients, which
will include identifying opportunities with part-
ner ministries such as Training, Colleges and
Universities, Health and Long-Term Care, and
Municipal Affairs and Housing to integrate local
supports to help recipients nd and maintain
employment, with a focus on life stabilization
interventions for those with signicant barriers
to employment.
518
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
of the service managers we visited are exceeding
what the Ministry considers an optimal recipient-
to-caseworker ratio.
We note that service manager responses to our
survey also identied concerns about caseloads.
Many service managers explained that one of the
challenges to effective delivery of the program was
not being able to spend enough time with Ontario
Works recipients. Responses indicated that staff
face challenges dealing with recipients who have
multiple barriers including mental health issues,
addictions, literacy concerns, and lack of hous-
ing. Service managers told us that staff generally
require more time to handle such cases.
4.3.2 Ministry Does Not Compare
Differences in Service Manager
Administration Costs to Determine if
Reasonable
We found that there are signicant differences
between administration costs to deliver the Ontario
Works program at the service managers. As noted
in Section 2.1.3, the Ministry funds at least 50% of
service managers’ administration costs. However,
the Ministry does not analyze the costs to identify
whether they are reasonable and if not, what cor-
rective measures are needed. As well, the Ministry
has not investigated the impact of these differences
on the quality of services provided to Ontario
Works recipients.
We analyzed and compared service managers’
administration costs (see highs, lows and aver-
ages in Figure 19) and found differences between
service managers, including signicant differences
that ought to be followed up by the Ministry. Specif-
ically, we found costs for internal services, such as
legal, accounting and human resources, averaged
less than $100 per Ontario Works case at 21 (45%)
service managers, whereas at 12 service managers
the cost per case was over $200, and as high as
$700 at one service manager.
Figure 18: Average Annual Caseloads at Service Managers Visited by the Ofce of the Auditor General of Ontario,
2014–2018
Source of data: Ontario Works Service Managers
Service manager 1
Service manager 2
Service manager 3
Service manager 4
2008 Ministry Guideline (90–120)
154
214
172
162
158
109
113
110
108 108
154
110
116
105
100
85
82
74
86
84
0
50
100
150
200
250
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
519Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
as it relates to improving outcomes for recipients
in a cost-effective manner. The Ministry will also
undertake a robust analysis of service managers’
delivery expenditures to identify and share
best practices as well as ongoing monitoring of
expenditures to ensure that spending is con-
ducive to achieving recipient outcomes. These
reviews will be completed by the second quarter
of 2020/21.
The Ministry is also undertaking a review
of the current Ontario Works program delivery
funding model. This review will consider a new
model that reects the most effective approach
to cost sharing to maximize recipient outcomes.
This review will be completed by the second
quarter of 2020/21.
4.4 Ministry Efforts to Prevent
Overpayments and Improve Their
Collection is Limited
As of March 31, 2018, $730 million in outstanding
overpayments to recipients remain uncollected,
representing an increase of $100 million from
the total of $630 million in overpayments that
were outstanding as of March 31, 2014. Figure 20
illustrates new annual overpayments, recoveries,
and write-offs in each of the last ve years,
including whether they relate to active or inactive
(former) recipients.
RECOMMENDATION 5
To ensure that service managers deliver
the Ontario Works program efciently and
effectively, we recommend that the Ministry
of Children, Community and Social Services
(Ministry):
•
collect, analyze and compare service man-
ager stafng and recipient caseloads both
among service managers and with Ministry
guidelines, and then to follow up on signi-
cant differences to identify promising prac-
tices and instances that require corrective
action to improve outcomes;
•
compare the costs of service managers to
deliver the Ontario Works program to under-
stand and identify the reasons for such dif-
ferences and to take corrective action where
necessary; and
•
evaluate whether the proportion of service
managers’ program delivery costs that it
funds is effective in improving outcomes for
Ontario Works recipients.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation.
To ensure that service managers are delivering
the program efciently and effectively, the
Ministry will undertake a review of service man-
agers’ caseworker-to-recipient ratios as well as
stafng models to identify promising practices
Figure 19: Service Manager Program Delivery Costs per Ontario Works Case, January to December 2017 ($)
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Ofce General Ofce
Accommodation
1
Expenditures
2
Technology
3
Internal Services
4
Provincial Average 166 96 67 196
Service Manager High 373 439 246 700
Service Manager Low 67 23 6 4
1. Includes costs such as annual rental of a building.
2. Includes costs such as furnishings, building maintenance, telephone and postage.
3. Includes computer hardware, software, networks, operating costs, and maintenance.
4. Includes costs associated with administration services such as legal, accounting and human resources.
520
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Overpayments of nancial assistance to recipi-
ents occur when an individual receives a payment
greater than the benet the individual was entitled
to receive. There are a variety of reasons for over-
payments, ranging from delays in reporting chan-
ges to personal and nancial circumstances, failure
to disclose relevant nancial information, misrepre-
sentation of relevant personal and nancial facts,
and administrative errors.
4.4.1 Ministry Requires Service Managers
to Reassess Eligibility Only Every 24 Months,
Increasing the Risk That Overpayments
Remain Undetected
In January 2012, the Ministry revised its policy
for how frequently service managers are required
to reassess a recipient’s eligibility to continue to
receive Ontario Works benets from every 12
months to every 24 months. However, we found
that one of the four service managers we visited
had its own policy to continue to perform eligibility
reassessments every 12 months in order to better
prevent large overpayments that could otherwise
occur if changes in recipient circumstances go
undetected. In addition, in response to our survey,
more than 15% of service managers said that their
policy for nancial reassessments continued to be
every 12 months. As described in Section 4.4.3,
identifying overpayments as early as possible while
a recipient is still receiving assistance can increase
the proportion of overpayments that a service man-
ager can successfully recover.
Figure 20: Overpayments 2013/14–2017/18 ($ million)
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Beginning Ending
Balance New Balance
April 1 Overpayments Recoveries Write-offs Adjustments* March 31
2013/14
Active 134 69 (52) 0 (13) 138
Inactive 463 52 (33) (2) 12 492
Total 597 121 (85) (2) (1) 630
2014/15
Active 138 187 (138) (2) 12 197
Inactive 492 56 (32) (50) (16) 450
Total 630 243 (170) (52) (4) 647
2015/16
Active 197 131 (93) (2) (43) 190
Inactive 450 86 (79) (2) 39 494
Total 647 218 (172) (4) (5) 684
2016/17
Active 190 98 (91) (3) (24) 170
Inactive 494 59 (46) (2) 22 527
Total 684 157 (137) (5) (2) 697
2017/18
Active 170 82 (60) 0 (20) 172
Inactive 527 55 (39) (3) 18 558
Total 697 137 (99) (3) (2) 730
* Adjustments primarily relate to changes in the status of Ontario Works recipient cases with overpayments between active and inactive.
521Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
4.4.2 Underlying Causes of Overpayments
Not Tracked, Limiting Ability of Service
Managers to Prevent Them
We found that service managers do not have the
ability to record in their information systems the
reason that overpayments occur. The reason for
overpayments is determined by the Ministry’s IT
system, but these system-generated reasons are
too general to understand why an overpayment
occurred. Without data to understand the most
common systemic causes of overpayments, along
with data to analyze how caseworkers or the infor-
mation system identied the overpayment, service
managers are unable to identify how to prevent or
reduce systemic overpayments in the future.
As a result, service managers were only able
to tell us anecdotally what they thought the most
common causes of overpayments were. According
to service manager responses to our survey, the
most common reason for overpayments was due to
undeclared income or assets by the recipient. Other
common reasons included unreported changes to
the recipient’s circumstances, such as a spouse or
child moving out, and recipient incarcerations.
Service managers also reported that
caseworkers can make mistakes when inputting
recipient information, leading to overpayments,
and that the complexity of the IT system—the
Social Assistance Management System—
contributes to this.
RECOMMENDATION 6
To reduce the number and size of overpayments
to recipients, we recommend that the Ministry
of Children, Community and Social Services
(Ministry):
•
revisit its decision that extended the
timeframe for reassessing recipient eligibility
from every 12 months to every 24 months
with a view to selecting a risk-based time
period that most effectively prevents
overpayments; and
The Ministry told us that it revised its policy
for nancial reassessments from 12 months to
24 months because it planned to require service
managers to supplement these reassessments with
its Eligibility Verication Process (described in
Section 2.5). This verication process had service
managers review recipient les that the Ministry
identied as most at risk of being ineligible.
However, the Eligibility Verication Process was
suspended for more than two years, between Nov-
ember 2014 and March 2017, and the verication
process is still not functioning as intended (see Sec-
tion 5.1.4).
Ministry Does Not Track Whether Service
Managers Complete Financial Eligibility
Reassessments
As discussed in Section 5.1.3, at the service
managers we visited we found that caseworkers
did not always complete nancial eligibility
reassessments within the 24-month timeframe
required by the Ministry. In our follow-up in 2011
to our 2009 Annual Report, the Ministry advised us
that the new, more effective computer system that
it was going to develop would be able to identify
non-compliance with program requirements such
as completing nancial eligibility reassessments.
However, we found in this audit that the Ministry
has not ensured that all service managers use the
current information system (Social Assistance
Management System) in a way that would enable
the Ministry to track when an Ontario Works
recipient’s eligibility was reassessed. Therefore, the
Ministry is unable to determine whether all service
managers complete these reassessments within the
required two-year period and take the necessary
corrective action.
522
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
•
enhance its systems and processes to deter-
mine and record the cause of overpayments
to enable service managers to analyze and
take action to minimize their occurrence.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and that action should be taken to reduce the
occurrence of overpayments where possible,
and will be undertaking the following in
2019/20, to support enhanced efforts in
the prevention and timely detection of
overpayments:
•
enhancing its data analytics capacity as well
as third-party information sharing to identify
high risk cases; and
•
increasing the number of eligibility reviews
completed on cases with a higher likelihood
of overpayments.
In addition, the following initiatives are part
of the Ministry’s service delivery modernization
plan that the Ministry expects will have
an impact on reducing the occurrence of
overpayments:
•
introducing exible and convenient service
channels (e.g., online) for recipients
to report earnings and changes in
circumstances in a timelier manner; and
•
streamlining the process for accessing
federal benet programs for recipients aged
65 and older to reduce the occurrence of
overpayments.
The Ministry also acknowledges that
information on the reasons for overpayments
would help service managers take appropriate
action in addressing their occurrence and
will determine the best means to collect this
information, analyze results and ensure action is
taken by the end of 2019/20.
4.4.3 Ministry Could Have Assisted Service
Managers to Recover Millions More in
Overpayments
We found that across all service managers, 76%
of outstanding overpayments had been made to
individuals who were no longer Ontario Works
recipients. We also found that service managers
recover signicantly fewer overpayments from
former recipients than from current recipients. As
of March 31, 2018, total outstanding overpayments
were $730 million. Of that, 76%, or $558 million,
relate to inactive (former) Ontario Works recipients
as shown in Figure 20. Ministry data shows that
during 2017/18, service managers collected just
$39 million, or 7%, of the $582 million related
to inactive accounts. However, during this same
period, they collected $60 million, or 24%, of the
$252 million related to active accounts.
We noted that service managers can recover
overpayments of nancial assistance to individuals
who are receiving assistance through automated
deductions from future payments until the
overpayment is repaid. However, for individuals
who no longer receive assistance, recovery of
overpayments is generally time consuming and
requires more effort. Therefore, identifying
overpayments as early as possible while individuals
are still actively receiving Ontario Works benets
can increase the proportion of overpayments
recovered by service managers.
At Least $35 Million of Overpayments Could
Have Been Recovered but Plan to Increase Debt
Repayment Rate from 5% to 10% Cancelled
Service managers can seek a rate of repayment
up to 10% on overpayments, but generally charge
active recipients 5%. In July 2015, the Ministry
received Treasury Board approval to increase
the default recovery rate for overpayments to
active Ontario Works recipients from 5% to 10%.
However, it later decided not to go ahead with the
planned change due to concerns about the impact
on recipients.
523Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
The Ministry estimated that if the 10% default
recovery rate had been implemented, it would
have recovered additional overpayments of at least
$35 million between April 2016 and March 2018
from active Ontario Works recipients.
Increasing the rate of recovery for overpayments
also increases the chances that the government will
recover a larger proportion of the overpayments
since the proportion of total overpayments
recovered from active recipients in 2017/18
was more than three times that recovered from
former recipients.
Ministry Did Not Act on Advice to Use CRA’s
Collection Program to Recover Millions More
from Former Recipients
In our 2009 Annual Report, we recommended
that the Ministry evaluate the merits of referring
overpayments owed by inactive recipients from
the service managers for collection to the Canada
Revenue Agency’s Refund Set-Off program
(Program). In our 2011 Annual Report follow-up,
the Ministry advised us that a working group it
had established to review overpayment policies
and practices had recommended that this Program
be expanded to all service managers because
the amounts collected exceeded the costs of the
collection efforts. However, the Ministry did not
take steps to implement the Program across all
service managers to help recover overpayments
from former recipients.
Currently, only one service manager uses this
Program. From 2013 to 2017 (the most recent
data available), the service manager has recovered
overpayments totalling $4.5 million from over
6,000 individuals that otherwise would have been
difcult to recover because the individuals were no
longer receiving nancial assistance from Ontario
Works. This service manager told us that this is an
example of an efcient and cost-effective means to
collect overpayments.
The Program works in the following way:
Ontario Works overpayments are debt due to the
service managers, but at the Ministry’s discretion,
they may also be deemed debt due to the provincial
government. In such cases, the service manager
can transfer overpayment cases to the Ministry’s
Financial Service Unit for collection through the
Canada Revenue Agency’s Program. Under this
Program, the Canada Revenue Agency acts as a
collection agency for the Province by intercepting
an individual’s income tax refund, GST rebate
and provincial tax credits, and transferring that
money to the Province to repay the Ontario Works
overpayment.
We noted that the Ministry of Finance also uses
this Program to collect Ontario Student Assistance
loans from individuals who have defaulted on
their repayment.
4.4.4 Ministry Has Limited Oversight
of Service Managers’ Effectiveness
Recovering Overpayments
Ministry Cannot Determine the Amount of
Overpayments It Recovers from Recipients
Ministry data from SAMS indicates that
overpayments to recipients total almost
$900 million in the last ve years. However, the
Ministry conrmed that there may be invalid
overpayments and is unable to determine what
proportion of the $900 million relates to these
invalid overpayments. As described in our 2015
Annual Report on SAMS—Social Assistance
Management System, in 2014/15 and 2015/16
overpayments increased because of problems
during the implementation of this system.
Figure 20 illustrates the substantial increases
to overpayments in these years. As a result, the
Ministry gave service managers the ability to
input arrears (money owed to recipients from the
program) into SAMS in order to be able to offset
overpayments recorded in error. For example, in
order to cancel a $1,000 erroneous overpayment,
the service manager could input a debt of $1,000
from the program to the recipient to offset the
overpayment. While this example does not indicate
524
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
a true overpayment, the $1,000 overpayment and
recovery would be included in the Ministry’s data
on total overpayments and recoveries in Figure 20.
The Ministry advised us that the system-related
issues that were causing the creation of erroneous
overpayments have been resolved. Nevertheless,
the Ministry informed us that there are still valid
scenarios in which caseworkers should manually
reduce overpayments by inputting arrears into
SAMS. We found that the Ministry does not monitor
service managers’ continued use of this override to
reduce overpayments.
Because the Ministry is unable to determine
what proportion of overpayments and recoveries
recorded each year relate to these manually offset
overpayments, total recoveries may not reect
actual recoveries from Ontario Works recipients.
As a result, the Ministry cannot accurately monitor,
compare or assess service managers’ effectiveness
in recovering overpayments.
Ministry Does Not Review the Effectiveness of
Service Managers’ Practices for Recovering
Overpayments
We found that the Ministry does not review the
effectiveness of service managers’ practices for
recovering overpayments, despite the fact that
service managers recover overpayments at rates
that differ signicantly. In 2017/18, recovered
amounts ranged from an average of $160 per case
at one service manager, to an average of $2,700 at
another service manager.
This lack of oversight can have an impact
on the amount of money recovered and paid
back to the government. In addition, starting in
January 2018, the Ministry now funds 100% of
payments to Ontario Works recipients (discussed
in Section 2.1.3). As a result, any money owed
by current or former recipients is due in full to
the Province.
The Ministry requires service managers to
attempt to recover inactive recipients’ overpayment
debt through voluntary repayment plans and
through the use of a private debt collection
agency if service managers choose to use one. In
our survey, only six of the Province’s 47 service
managers reported that they use a collection
agency. Therefore, while it is possible that recovery
rates could appear to be higher than they are due to
caseworkers creating arrears to offset overpayments
(as described earlier in this section), the Ministry
should still follow up on these differences between
service managers and take necessary action to
improve recovery rates.
RECOMMENDATION 7
To increase the rate at which service managers
recover overpayments, and to have the
necessary information to assess service manager
efforts to recover overpayments, we recommend
that the Ministry of Children, Community and
Social Services (Ministry):
•
analyze and reconsider increasing the
default recovery rate from active Ontario
Works recipients to the extent that it does
not cause undue nancial hardship;
•
expand the use of the Canada Revenue
Agency’s program to recover overpayments
from former recipients through tax refunds;
•
implement the necessary changes to its
systems to separate overpayments to, and
recoveries from recipients recorded in error;
and
•
review and compare service manager
practices to recover overpayments to
determine if they are effective, and to take
corrective action where they are not.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and that the recovery of overpayments can be
improved. By the end of 2019/20, it will assess
the impact of increasing the default recovery
rate from active Ontario Works recipients to the
extent that it does not cause undue nancial
hardship on recipients. Also by the end of
525Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
2019/20, in consultation with service managers,
the Ministry will:
•
complete an assessment of expanding
the use of the Canada Revenue Agency’s
program from former Ontario Works
recipients. Options and recommendations
will be developed based on this assessment,
and will take into consideration cost
benet, and potential policy, process and
technology changes;
•
identify opportunities to enhance
overpayment recovery practices, systems,
and reporting methods to separate
overpayments to and recoveries from
recipients recorded in error;
•
review and compare current processes
and practices for recovering overpayments
from Ontario Works recipients and share
best practices with all service managers to
facilitate corrective action; and
•
develop and review options for most
effective management and collection of
overpayments from individuals who are no
longer social assistance recipients.
4.5 Ministry Efforts to Ensure
Only Eligible Applicants Receive
Funding for a Special Diet are
Insufcient
As described in Section 2.3, the special diet
allowance is available to recipients and their
families who require a special diet due to an
approved medical condition. The Ministry has
identied that the sustainability of the special diet
allowance, which it provides to both Ontario Works
and Ontario Disability Support Program recipients,
is a signicant concern, as the take-up rate and
expenditures continue to grow. For Ontario Works,
province-wide, the total amount spent on the special
diet allowance in 2017/18 was $77 million, and the
average number of monthly Ontario Works cases
receiving the allowance was approximately 40,000,
representing 16% of the caseload. This compares
with $67 million and approximately 30,000 cases
representing 15% of the caseload in 2008/09.
The Ministry also advised us that it is aware that
the special diet allowance is not always adminis-
tered as intended, and that some recipients may be
using it to supplement their monthly income rather
than to pay for extra dietary costs associated with a
particular medical condition.
In our 2009 Annual Report, we also highlighted
the possible abuse of the special diet allowance
through applicants visiting health-care profession-
als who were known to be predisposed to approve
such requests.
In our follow-up in the 2011 Annual Report, the
Ministry advised us that it had begun to use its IT
system to identify questionable trends in a timely
manner so that action could be taken. However, it
has been four years since the last time the Ministry
carried out an assessment of the special diet uptake
and trends, including engaging medical experts to
help identify improbable trends.
As we discuss in the following sections, we
noted numerous concerns that highlight the need
for additional Ministry oversight of the special diet
allowance.
4.5.1 More than 25% of Ontario Works
Cases at One Service Manager Receive Diet
Allowance Compared with 13% Across the
Rest of the Province
We analyzed data provided to us by the Ministry
and identied that at one of the service managers
we visited, which has the largest caseload in
Ontario, 26% of Ontario Works cases in 2017/18
were receiving an allowance for a special diet. By
comparison, our analysis identied that for the rest
of the Province’s 46 service managers, an average
of just 13% of Ontario Works cases received an
allowance for a special diet.
526
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
requesting an additional application completed by a
different health-care professional.
4.5.2 Prevalence of Health Conditions
Requiring a Special Diet Among Recipients
Several Times Greater than National Rate
Wheat and milk allergies are among the most
common reasons why Ontario Works recipients are
given a special diet allowance. We compared the
prevalence of allergies to wheat and milk among
Ontario Works recipients to published estimates for
the Canadian population as a whole and found that
the prevalence of these allergies among Ontario
Works recipients is many times higher.
According to a national research network on
allergic diseases established by Innovation, Science
and Economic Development Canada, while the
rate of self-reported allergy to any food is around
7.5%, the self-reported allergy to milk and wheat is
just 0.7% and 0.4% across Canada. In contrast, we
found that 4% of all Ontario Works recipients were
receiving a special diet allowance for an allergy to
milk, and 5% were receiving a special diet allow-
ance for an allergy to wheat. More signicantly, at
the service manager with the largest Ontario Works
caseload, 9% of recipients received a special diet
allowance for an allergy to milk, and 12% were
receiving an allowance for an allergy to wheat.
RECOMMENDATION 8
So that all Ontario Works recipients are treated
fairly and only receive allowances for a special
diet if they have a medical condition that
requires it, we recommend that the Ministry
of Children, Community and Social Services
(Ministry) review the proportion of recipients
that the special diet allowance is provided at
different service managers to:
•
identify, investigate, and address improbably
high trends in the proportion of recipients
who receive the special diet allowance; and
Some Doctors Authorizing Disproportionate
Number of Special Diet Applications
We analyzed the number of special diet applications
completed between January 2015 and March 2018
at the service manager with the largest caseload in
Ontario and found that a small number of doctors
had authorized a disproportionate number of appli-
cations compared with other doctors in the same
geographic area, and elsewhere in the Province.
Our analysis indicated that between January 2015
and March 2018 ten individuals (nine doctors and
one dietician) approved 23% of all applications
at this service manager. One doctor in particular
approved 6% of all applications.
We found that six of these doctors had been
subject to disciplinary action from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (College) for
a variety of allegations and charges, including one
for signing off on special diet applications that
recipients did not require. We also identied that
another doctor who had signed off on the most
special diet applications in the province during
this period had a disciplinary hearing notice issued
against him dated June 2018. Some of the charges
against him relate to special diet applications,
these include:
•
submitting and endorsing applications for the
special diet allowance for individuals he had
either not assessed or not properly assessed;
•
accepting cash payments from individuals
seeking execution of special diet allowance
forms;
•
directing special diet allowance applicants to
undergo diagnostic imaging in the absence of
medical indications; and
•
directing special diet allowance applicants
to undergo diagnostic imaging at facilities
where he held a nancial interest.
The Ministry was not aware of the disciplinary
hearing scheduled for this doctor and had not
issued instructions to service managers to ag
special diet applications from this doctor pending
the outcome of the hearing. Service managers have
the option to conrm the need for a special diet by
527Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
•
reinforce with service managers the need
to be diligent in providing the special diet
allowance, and in the case of unusual trends,
request medical records or a second applica-
tion completed by a different health-care
professional.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and will review special diet allowance
approval trends by the beginning of 2019/20,
and take steps to address identied areas of
concern. The Ministry will also take immediate
action to reinforce with service managers
the Ministry’s expectations when approving
special diet allowances, including following
up on irregularities that were identied over
the course of the Auditor General’s audit. This
includes requesting medical records or a second
application completed by a different health-care
professional.
RECOMMENDATION 9
We recommend that the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry) work
with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Ontario (College) and that the Ministry:
•
refer physicians to the College suspected
by service managers and the Ministry of
approving questionable applications for a
special diet allowance;
•
work with the College to share information
with the Ministry on physicians that the Col-
lege is currently investigating or has previ-
ously sanctioned in regard to the special diet
application; and
•
distribute to all service managers a list of
doctors the Ministry suspects of approving
questionable applications for a special diet
allowance, including doctors the College is
investigating or has previously sanctioned.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and will take immediate action to review
the integrity of the special diet allowance to
identify anomalies in regard to the approval
and provision of the allowance, including
questionable applications. The Ministry will
take appropriate action, including working
with the College of Physicians and Surgeons
of Ontario, where warranted, and share
information with both the College and delivery
partners wherever possible.
4.6 Service Managers Offer
Different Benets, Resulting in
Inequities Across the Province
The Ministry allows service managers to determine
which discretionary benets they wish to provide
and in what amount. However, we found that
the Ministry is not aware of the extent of the
differences between service managers or the impact
of such differences on recipients.
At the four service managers we visited, we
found that the discretionary benets Ontario
Works recipients were eligible to receive varied.
For example, we found that two service managers
offered orthotics and orthopaedic footwear, one
service manager offered orthotics only, and the
other service manager did not provide either
orthotics or orthopaedic footwear. We also
identied differences in what service managers
provided for baby supplies. For example, one
service manager offered up to $500 per child to
purchase a crib, $500 to purchase a bed where an
infant has outgrown a crib, up to $250 per child to
purchase a car seat, and $250 to purchase a stroller.
Conversely, another service manager offered one-
time allowances for new-born babies of $260 for a
crib and $100 for clothing.
In addition, we noted that there are differences
between service managers’ total expenditure for
discretionary benets. Service managers can bill
528
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
the Ministry for funding of up to $10 per Ontario
Works case per month for discretionary benets.
However, we found that in 2017/18, approximately
one-third of service managers contributed
additional municipal funding and spent more
than the maximum funding made available by the
Ministry, with four service managers spending at
least 30% more than the funding allocation from
the Ministry. In contrast, two-thirds of the service
managers spent less than the funding allotted by
the Ministry, with four service managers spending
less than half of the maximum funding.
RECOMMENDATION 10
So that Ontarians in nancial need are treated
fairly and have access to benets that support
their progression towards employment
regardless of where in Ontario they seek
assistance from the Ontario Works program,
we recommend that the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry):
•
review and analyze the differences in
discretionary benets provided by service
managers, and their impact on recipient
outcomes; and
•
based on this analysis, establish guidelines
for issuing these benets to support local
decision-making.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation.
The Ministry will undertake an analysis on the
provision of discretionary benets across service
managers to identify local strategies that have
had a positive impact on recipient outcomes to
support local decision-making by the second
quarter of 2020/21. Based on this analysis, the
Ministry will develop best practice guidelines that
will be used where applicable, when discussing
performance concerns with service managers as
part of the Ministry’s broader efforts in improving
the employment outcomes of recipients, and
monitoring service manager performance.
4.7 Service Managers Not
Satised with IT System for
Recipient Case Management
Although the Ministry has spent over $290 million
to develop and implement the Social Assistance
Management System (SAMS) to manage social
assistance programs, including Ontario Works,
45 service managers (96%) reported in our
survey that they were not satised with SAMS for
recipient case management.
The service managers indicated that SAMS is not
designed to record and track key information they
need to effectively manage the progress of their
Ontario Works recipients. For example, although
service managers can record notes about individual
recipients in SAMS, they cannot generate reports
on these notes to analyze recipients’ skills, barriers
to employment, or referrals to training or commun-
ity services for their entire caseload. This recipient
information can only be reviewed in SAMS on a
case-by-case basis.
Without this data, service managers face
challenges to understand the prole of recipients on
their caseload, track recipients’ progress or design
suitable training or employment programs to help
their recipients work toward obtaining employment.
Service Managers Using Their Own IT and Manual
Systems, Leading to Additional Costs
SAMS was launched in 2014 and has been set
up at all 47 service managers. Costs to maintain
and operate SAMS are over $50 million annually.
Nevertheless, we found that one of the four service
managers we visited had developed its own IT
system for case management. Another service
manager we visited was planning to purchase its
own IT system. The use of an alternative system
creates additional costs and causes inefciencies due
to the need to maintain information in more than
one system. The service manager that was planning
to purchase a case management system estimated
that it would cost about $550,000 to do so.
529Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
In addition, approximately one-third of service
managers also reported in our survey that they
use alternative software or track recipients’ skills,
referrals, progress, and appointments manually
using spreadsheets. Some service managers were
doing this before SAMS but retained these methods
because SAMS did not have the functions that they
needed.
RECOMMENDATION 11
To ensure that service managers are able to
monitor and track recipients’ progress toward
nding employment, we recommend that the
Ministry of Children, Community and Social
Services (Ministry) improve its systems to
strengthen its case management capabilities
for service managers to better track recipients’
skills, barriers to employment, referrals to
employment and community programs, and
recipient progress.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation
and acknowledges that the range of tools used
by service managers to monitor recipients’
progress toward nding employment can
be enhanced. The Ministry will work with
service managers to identify opportunities
to enhance systems, tools and reporting
capabilities by the start of 2020/21. As the
operator of Employment Ontario, which delivers
employment and training services to Ontarians,
the Ministry will also engage the Ministry of
Training, Colleges and Universities in this work
as part of our broader efforts to integrate local
employment services to help recipients nd and
maintain employment.
4.8 Information Affecting
Recipient Eligibility is Not
Consistently Veried with the
Federal Government
We found that the Ministry does not always conrm
whether individuals receiving Ontario Works
continue to live in Canada, or are legally entitled to
reside in Canada, both of which are requirements to
be eligible for Ontario Works.
We noted that the Ministry has an agreement
with the federal government’s Immigration,
Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to obtain
information on the immigration status of Ontario
Works recipients, including:
•
removal orders from Canada, indicating
that an individual may no longer be legally
allowed to remain in Canada; and
•
the date an individual with a removal order
left Canada.
However, we found that the Ministry does not
use this agreement to check that all recipients of
Ontario Works (who cannot demonstrate their
legal status in Canada) are still eligible or should
be terminated because they are no longer legally
permitted to remain in Canada or have already
been removed from the country. Service managers
can request these checks from the IRCC on a case-
by-case basis at their discretion, but the Ministry
does not know how often they do so.
We reviewed Ontario Works recipient data in the
Ministry’s Social Assistance Management System
(SAMS), and identied over 500 individuals where
there is a risk that they may no longer be eligible
for Ontario Works. For example, we found that
there were individuals who have been receiving
nancial assistance for several years and are listed
in SAMS as a refugee claimant. Given the extent of
time, these individuals should have had their claim
assessed and if accepted be identied in SAMS
as a permanent resident; otherwise, if rejected,
they would no longer be eligible and should be
terminated from Ontario Works. In addition, we
also identied that some of these recipients had
530
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
not met their caseworker in over one year to update
their participation agreement even though there
is a requirement for caseworkers to meet with
recipients every three months.
We asked the Ministry to request that the
IRCC check the status of these 500 individuals.
However, the Ministry informed us that because
the arrangement it has in place with the IRCC
involves using a manual process to check the
immigration status of individuals on a case-by-case
basis, the IRCC would not be able to check the 500
individuals and only be able to check 50 individuals
in the timeframe needed to complete our audit
work. Although the IRCC subsequently completed
checks on the 50 individuals, the Ministry informed
us that the IRCC decided it would not release the
full results of these checks to the Ministry because
they had been requested for the purposes of our
audit rather than for the Ministry’s oversight of
Ontario Works. As a result, the information the
Ministry obtained was limited to summary results
on the immigration status of these individuals.
These summary results identied eligibility
concerns for one quarter of these individuals for
which the Ministry requires additional information
from the IRCC to conrm their eligibility.
Therefore, we were unable to complete our work in
this area.
In addition, as part of our audit, we also asked
the Ministry if it was able to obtain information
from the federal government’s Canada Border
Services Agency (CBSA) to nd out details about
the travel history of other Ontario Works recipients.
The Ministry informed us that it does not currently
have an information sharing agreement with the
CBSA and therefore cannot check whether Ontario
Works recipients are in the country.
RECOMMENDATION 12
To conrm that only eligible individuals receive
nancial assistance from Ontario Works, we
recommend that the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry):
•
identify recipients with risk factors
related to their eligibility and utilize its
agreement with the federal government
to validate the immigration status of these
recipients. Where recipients are determined
to be ineligible for Ontario Works, take
appropriate action to terminate them and
recover any overpayments;
•
work with the federal government to
increase the efciency of their information
sharing to allow for timely checks of the
immigration status of all applicable Ontario
Works recipients; and
•
work with the Canada Border Services
Agency to establish an information sharing
agreement to obtain information about the
travel history of Ontario Works recipients
and to identify recipients who are no longer
eligible for Ontario Works.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation.
It is currently engaged with Immigration,
Refugees and Citizenship Canada in an effort
to modernize its information sharing practices
with the goal of a fully automated information
exchange to enable more timely exchange of
information, reduce administrative effort, and
improve the overall efcacy of information
exchange processes.
The start of implementation is targeted
for the second quarter of 2019/20. It involves
centralization at the Ministry, of status
validation activities, which will serve to
enhance the Ministry’s capacity to identify
cases with immigration statuses that may
constitute risk relative to Ontario Works
eligibility, and improve the overall processing
time in instances where a change in status
renders a recipient ineligible for Ontario
Works. The Ministry will use this information
to identify individuals who are not eligible
for Ontario Works and close their Ontario
531Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Works case, as well as to identify and recover
overpayments made to these individuals.
In addition, the Ministry agrees that
opportunities exist to improve verication that
recipients are meeting the immigration status
requirements for the program. The Ministry
will assess options, such as the establishment
of a data sharing arrangement with the Canada
Border Services Agency, to accomplish this.
The Ministry has targeted completion of this
assessment by the end of 2019/20.
5.0 Detailed Audit
Observations: Service
Managers
5.1 Service Managers Do Not
Consistently Assess Recipients’
Relevant Information to Ensure
They are Eligible
5.1.1 Required Third-Party Verication
Checks Not Always Completed to Conrm
Recipients are Eligible
Service managers are required to check whether
information provided by applicants regarding
their assets and income is accurate by using
outside sources, such as the Canada Revenue
Agency and Equifax Canada Inc. They are also
required to do a similar verication when they
reassess nancial information provided by cur-
rent recipients to ensure that they are still eligible
for the program and are receiving the appropri-
ate nancial assistance. However, similar to the
observations in our 2009 Annual Report, we found
service managers frequently do not undertake
third-party verications.
Our review of a sample of Ontario Works
recipient les at three of the four service managers
we visited identied that no third-party verication
checks were completed during the application
process in 15% to 70% of the les. The remaining
service manager informed us that it decided not to
complete any third-party verication checks from
2014 to the end of 2017 unless it identied a specic
reason to do so in individual applicant cases.
We noted that when the Ministry last reviewed
service manager les in 2011, it required that
service managers complete at least one third-party
verication to deem the le compliant. However,
the Ministry still does not monitor to ensure that
service managers are meeting that requirement.
The Ministry also does not prescribe which specic
third-party verication checks service managers
must complete, although it identied the Canada
Revenue Agency and Equifax Canada as the most
important resources during the application process.
Using data provided by the Ministry, we found
that service managers across Ontario had used the
Canada Revenue Agency as a resource for fewer
than one-quarter of all new applications between
June 2012 and May 2018.
Our survey of Ontario’s 47 service managers
identied that service managers across Ontario
have different policies for which third-party
verication checks to do, particularly during an
individual’s application. For example, all but
two service managers required a third-party
verication check with Equifax Canada to verify
applicant information. However, just 43% of service
managers reported that they required verication
of applicant income and other related eligibility
information with the Canada Revenue Agency’s
tax information. Figure 21 shows the number and
proportion of service managers that reported that
they require key third-party verication checks
both to conrm applicant information and when
reassessing recipients for their ongoing eligibility
for Ontario Works.
532
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
5.1.2 Caseworkers Often Overlook Critical
Applicant Information, Increasing Risk of
Errors Determining Eligibility
We found that Ontario Works caseworkers did
not always obtain documents that established an
applicant’s eligibility for the program—such as
documents that prove the applicant was legally
entitled to reside in Canada. We also found that
caseworkers did not always investigate red ags
in applications, leading to potential mistakes
in determining an applicant’s eligibility for the
program and the correct amount of nancial
assistance.
We reviewed Ontario Works recipient case les
at the four service managers we visited and found
that in approximately 20% to 60% of these les,
caseworkers either did not obtain or did not review
relevant application information.
Instances at the service managers we visited
included the following:
•
An applicant’s spouse provided a work
permit document as evidence of permanent
residency status in Canada. The caseworker
failed to identify that individuals with work
permits are classied as temporary residents
(visitors) for the purposes of the Ontario
Works program and are not eligible for
nancial assistance. The spouse was included
as a member of the benet unit and the
applicant received nancial assistance based
on the higher rate available to couples. The
couple received nancial assistance payments
from January 2016 up until the time of our
audit. Furthermore, in February 2017, the
caseworker provided $405 to the recipient’s
spouse for the renewal of their work permit.
We estimate that the service manager over-
paid this recipient by approximately $9,200
between January 2016 and May 2018.
•
For a family of seven (two adults and ve chil-
dren), there was no evidence on le, such as
a Permanent Resident Card or valid passport,
Figure 21: Service Managers’ Policies for Using Third-Party Verication Checks
Prepared by the Ofce of the Auditor General of Ontario
# of 47 Service % of 47 Service
Managers Doing Managers Doing
Type of Third-Party Check Mandatory Check Mandatory Check
At Initial Application
Canada Revenue Agency 20 43
Equifax Canada 45 96
Ministry of Transportation 7 15
Ontario Student Assistance Program 7 15
Employment Insurance 25 53
National Child Benet Supplement 17 36
At Financial Eligibility Review
Canada Revenue Agency 32 68
Equifax Canada 39 83
Ministry of Transportation 11 23
Ontario Student Assistance Program 4 9
Employment Insurance 19 40
National Child Benet Supplement 12 26
Note: Results are based on the responses from the 47 service managers across the province to a survey conducted by the Ofce of the Auditor General of Ontario.
533Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
to prove their status in Canada, which is a
requirement to be eligible for Ontario Works.
The service manager conrmed that the
caseworker had failed to obtain the required
documents. In addition, the recipient may not
have declared all of their business interests as
required. We found that the recipient appears
to have an interest in two active businesses.
However, this individual had only declared
one of the two businesses to their caseworker.
Social media posts indicate that the recipi-
ent’s businesses are active; however, the
recipient has not reported any income to their
caseworker in the last two years. This family
may not be eligible for Ontario Works if their
income exceeds the permitted thresholds or if
they do not have residency status in Canada.
This family has received $41,116 since Sep-
tember 2016 when they applied for Ontario
Works.
5.1.3 Not All Service Managers Reassess
Recipients’ Eligibility to Ensure Only Those
Eligible for the Program Receive Assistance
Ministry policy requires that caseworkers meet
with Ontario Works recipients at least once every
two years to review their nancial information
to ensure that they remain eligible for Ontario
Works. At two of the four service managers we
visited, we found that in 20% to 35% of the les we
reviewed, caseworkers had not met with recipients
at least once every two years to obtain updated
information and assess whether the recipients
continued to be eligible for Ontario Works, and
the amount of nancial assistance they were
receiving. We found that the remaining two service
managers we visited did a good job of reviewing
the continued eligibility of recipients at least once
every two years, as required.
RECOMMENDATION 13
So that only people who are eligible for
Ontario Works receive nancial assistance and
in the correct amount, we recommend that
service managers:
•
work with the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry)
to conrm and formalize the requirement
to use the third-party verication checks
that will be most effective in verifying an
individual’s nancial circumstances;
•
take steps to reinforce the requirement that
caseworkers review and document their
review of all relevant information required
by the Ministry when determining applicant
eligibility and nancial assistance; and
•
reassess the ongoing eligibility of Ontario
Works recipients in the time period required
by Ministry policy.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with the
recommendations. All four service managers
will work with the Ministry and other service
managers to identify and then establish the use of
the third-party verication checks that are most
effective in verifying the nancial circumstances
of Ontario Works applicants and recipients.
All four service managers also agree to
take further action to ensure that caseworkers
understand the steps they are required to take
to determine applicant eligibility and nancial
assistance and reinforce the requirement to do
so. Further steps to ensure that the ongoing
eligibility of Ontario Works recipients is
re-assessed every 24 months will be taken by the
two service managers that did not consistently
meet this requirement. The remaining two
service managers are committed to continuing
to re-assess the ongoing eligibility of recipients
either every 12 months, or every 24 months as
required by the Ministry.
534
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
5.1.4 Service Managers Did Not Complete
High-Risk Targeted Eligibility Reviews
Assigned to Them by the Ministry
Between November 2014 and March 2017, the
Ministry suspended its Eligibility Verication
Process (described in Section 2.5) that had service
managers review recipient les that the Ministry
identied as most at risk of being ineligible to
focus on implementing the Social Assistance
Management System (SAMS) IT system.
The Ministry reintroduced the process in April
2017. However, we found that between April 2017
and March 2018, service managers across Ontario
completed only 57% of the 43,650 eligibility veri-
cation cases assigned to them within the 2017/18
year as required. In addition, service managers
cancelled 14% of the cases assigned to them if
they determine that the Ministry should not have
selected the case for review, for example if the
client had moved to another Ontario Works ofce.
The four service managers we visited completed
reviews for approximately 19,000 cases. The
percentage of reviews completed varied from 88%
at one service manager, to 28% and 24% at two of
the others.
We found that the Ministry does not have a
process in place to assess whether service managers
review cases assigned to them effectively, or
whether service managers only cancel the review
of cases when it is appropriate. In addition, we
found that the Ministry did not take any action
against service managers who did not complete the
eligibility verication cases assigned to them.
Completing the eligibility verication cases
is important because the process often results in
signicant changes to eligibility, which affects
payments to recipients. For example, in 2017/18,
the rst scal year the process was reinstated,
18% of the completed reviews (about 4,500
cases) resulted in service managers identifying
overpayments totalling $10.8 million, and 17% of
the completed reviews (about 4,200 cases) resulted
in the recipient being terminated.
RECOMMENDATION 14
So that only eligible recipients are provided with
Ontario Works nancial assistance and in the
correct amount, and to prevent overpayments
to recipients from increasing, we recommend
that service managers complete the eligibility
verication reviews assigned to them by the
Ministry of Children, Community and Social
Services (Ministry) on a timely basis.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with
the recommendation. Eligibility verication
reviews are an important step in ensuring only
eligible individuals receive Ontario Works
and to minimize overpayments. All four of
the service managers agree to take steps to
ensure completion of the reviews assigned to
them by the Ministry on a timely basis. Two
service managers also commit to providing
ongoing feedback to the Ministry on its process
to select eligibility verication cases for
review, to maximize the efcient use of their
resources, and/or to address issues that cause
overpayments.
5.1.5 Service Managers Do Not Investigate
Fraud Tips Promptly to Ensure Only Those
Eligible for the Program are Receiving
Assistance
As of March 2018, Ontario’s 47 service managers
had a backlog of approximately 6,000 fraud tips
that were on average approximately one year old
that they had not reviewed or investigated. We also
found that investigated fraud tips often result in
identifying recipient overpayments and terminating
ineligible recipients.
Service managers may receive allegations of
fraud from either external or internal sources. For
example, members of the public can provide tips
535Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
through the Ministry’s Welfare Fraud Hotline if
they suspect someone is receiving Ontario Works
assistance that they are not eligible for. Internally,
service manager staff can make a referral for
a fraud investigation if they discover apparent
discrepancies in a recipient’s case.
Once a tip is received, the Ministry requires that
service managers:
•
complete a review of the fraud tip within 30
days of receiving it;
•
if further investigation is warranted, complete
an investigation within six months of
completing the review; and
•
if evidence of potential fraud is found, refer
the case to the police (discussed below).
If an investigation conrms recipients received
funds that they were not entitled to, service
managers will reduce the recipients’ assistance or
terminate the case if they are found to be ineligible
and set up an overpayment to recover the overpaid
assistance.
The Ministry’s data indicates that between
January 2015 and March 2018, service managers
across Ontario completed approximately 17,000
reviews and fraud investigations. We reviewed data
from the Social Assistance Management System on
the outcomes of these reviews and investigations
and identied that more than 25% of them resulted
in the service manager identifying an overpayment
and 10% resulted in the service manager
terminating the recipient.
However, as of March 2018, more than 6,000
fraud tips had not been reviewed that were on
average a year old, including approximately 2,000
fraud tips at the four service managers we visited.
Province-wide, we found that approximately 90%
of these 6,000 referrals had not been reviewed
within the required 30 days, including 90% of the
2,000 referrals at the service managers we visited,
to determine whether further investigation was
warranted. Furthermore, about 45% of the fraud
tips had not been reviewed for more than a year,
including 44% of the 2,000 outstanding referrals
at the service managers we visited. Among these
outstanding tips, the most common reasons for
the tips were suspected undeclared income and
incarceration. Ontario Works recipients who are
incarcerated are not eligible to receive assistance;
service managers receive notications from
correctional services informing them of recipients
who are incarcerated.
If fraud tips are not reviewed within the 30-day
requirement, there is a risk that ineligible people
could be receiving payments for a long period of
time, leading to the need to recover even larger
overpayments when the service manager completes
the investigation. For example, one of the service
managers we visited received two incarceration
tips in 2015 based on the Ministry’s information-
sharing agreement with the Ministry of Community
Safety and Correctional Services. The tips indicated
that a recipient had been incarcerated. The service
manager completed its investigation almost two
years later in July 2017 and found that the recipient
was incarcerated from July 2015 to October 2016.
While incarcerated, this individual continued
receiving monthly social assistance payments. The
investigation resulted in nding an overpayment of
approximately $10,200. Had the service manager
commenced an investigation earlier, the size of the
overpayment could have been reduced.
In our 2009 Annual Report, we also reported
that service managers did not follow up on fraud
tips in a timely manner. Despite the Ministry
advising us at that time that it would improve fraud
investigation processes through the development of
additional oversight tools, the Ministry has still not
addressed this issue.
Service Managers Not Following Ministry Policies
Regarding Referrals to Police
We also found signicant differences among
Ontario’s 47 service managers in the number of
referrals to police concerning suspected fraud
by recipients relative to the number of fraud tips
received by the service manager for investigation.
Five service managers reported in our survey
that they had not referred any cases of suspected
536
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
•
refer cases of suspected fraud to authorities
for investigation and prosecution.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with the
recommendations. All four service managers
commit to ensuring that internal processes
and procedures are in place to review and
investigate fraud allegations within the
timeframes required by the Ministry of Children,
Community and Social Services (Ministry) to
help identify and minimize overpayments to
Ontario Works recipients. One of the service
managers also commits to working with the
Ministry to improve the quality and usability of
the management information relating to fraud
referrals available to service managers. Three of
the service managers committed to continuing
to refer cases of suspected fraud to authorities
for investigation and prosecution; the remaining
service manager will formalize and document
a better process through a memorandum
of understanding with their Police Services
department to allow for the investigation of
suspected fraud cases.
5.2 Decisions to Waive Recipient
Participation Requirements Are
Questionable When Not Supported
with Evidence
At the four service managers we visited, our review
of recipient les found examples where the require-
ment for individuals to participate in activities
to work toward obtaining employment had been
deferred without appropriate documentation to
support the deferral. This varied from about 5% of
recipient les we reviewed at one service manager,
to 40% of the les at another. For example:
•
A recipient who was not required to
participate in employment assistance
activities between February 2017 and
Ontario Works fraud to the police. This included
one of the four service managers we visited that
had received approximately 1,700 fraud referrals
and completed 1,000 investigations since 2015.
The service manager explained that it does not
refer cases of suspected fraud to the police for
prosecution because it believes that investigating
social assistance fraud is not one of the local police
services’ priorities. In comparison, another service
manager that responded to our survey received
just 88 fraud referrals since 2015, completed 71
investigations and referred 20 cases to the police.
This service manager indicated that since 2011,
85% of cases it referred to the police resulted in
a conviction. We contacted this service manager
who advised us that their staff are well trained and
are able to gather evidence and present a complete
and accurate case to the authorities, and that they
have an excellent relationship with the local police,
prosecutors and judges.
The Ministry’s policies state that if there is
sufcient evidence to suspect intent to commit
fraud, service managers must refer these cases
to the police for investigation and possible
prosecution under the Criminal Code. In addition,
Ministry policy requires every service manager to
develop protocols and procedures with the local
police services and the Crown Attorney’s Ofce for
the effective investigation and prosecution of cases
of suspected social assistance fraud. In our survey
of service managers, we found that only 60% had
such a protocol in place, which includes three of the
four service managers we visited.
RECOMMENDATION 15
To ensure that only eligible individuals receive
Ontario Works nancial assistance and that
overpayments to recipients are identied
and minimized, we recommend that service
managers take steps to:
•
review and investigate allegations of fraud
within the Ministry of Children, Community
and Social Services’ required timeframe; and
537Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
February 2018 due to “Injury, illness or
disability.” However, the le had no medical
documentation in support of the deferral.
•
The requirement for a recipient to partici-
pate in employment activities was deferred
between May 2016 and October 2017 because
the recipient declared that he was a caregiver
for his wife. However, there was no written
conrmation from a doctor on le regarding
care-giving assistance as required by the Min-
istry. This individual subsequently provided
a medical note in April 2018 in support of
continuing his deferral from participating
in employment activities, but we found that
the doctor’s note did not conrm these care-
giving responsibilities. The service manager
agreed with our assessment of the informa-
tion contained in the medical note and
committed that it would follow up with this
individual to rectify the matter.
20% of Recipients Deferred from Participating in
Employment Support Activities
We analyzed data from the Ministry’s Social
Assistance Management System that indicates
that as of March 2018, 20% of all Ontario Works
recipients were deferred from participating in
employment support activities. Figure 22 identies
the number of participants that caseworkers had
granted a deferral from participation to, and the
reason for the deferral, and Figure 23 illustrates
the average length of deferrals.
RECOMMENDATION 16
To help Ontario Works recipients progress
toward obtaining sustainable employment, we
recommend that service managers take steps to
ensure that they only waive the requirement to
participate in employment support activities in
eligible circumstances when supported by the
necessary documentation.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with the
recommendation. All four service managers
agree to review their processes and to take steps
(such as providing training to caseworkers and
conducting audits) to ensure that caseworkers
only defer Ontario Works recipients from
participating in employment support activities
in appropriate instances that are clearly
supported with the necessary documentation.
Figure 23: Average Length of Deferrals from
Participation in Employment Activities, March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
# of Participants % of Total
Months Deferred Deferred
Less than 3 24,425 46
4–6 12,575 24
7–12 8,420 16
13–24 5,054 10
25+ 2,305 4
Total 52,799 100
Figure 22: Ontario Works Recipients Deferred from
Employment Activities, March 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
# %
Reason for Deferral Deferred Deferred
Sole support parent with
pre-school-aged child
13,456 26
Caregiver for a family member 3,207 6
65 years of age or older 659 1
Other exceptional circumstances:
Injury, illness or disability 26,903 51
Pregnancy and/or parental leave 4,637 9
Receiving Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board benets
9 0
Foster parent with child placement 49 0
Victim of family violence 205 0
Family medical leave 100 0
Under house arrest 123 0
Administrator approved* 3,431 7
Total 52,779 100
* Administrator approved deferrals relate to any other exceptional
circumstances where the service manager administrator is satised that
any degree of participation is impractical.
538
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
5.3 Service Managers Do Not
Always Work with Recipients
to Help Them Progress Toward
Obtaining Employment as Required
5.3.1 Caseworkers Do Not Consistently
Meet with Recipients to Ensure They
Reach Goals
Based on our review of a sample of recipient
les at the four service managers we visited,
we found that in 20% to 50% of the les we
reviewed, caseworkers did not meet with recipients
on a timely basis to review and update their
participation agreements as recipients progressed
toward their goals or their circumstances changed.
The participation agreement is a plan that sets
out the employment activities that the recipient
will undertake. Ministry policy requires that
caseworkers meet with recipients to review their
participation agreement at least once every three,
four or six months. Periods of four to six months
require a documented explanation for extending
the review period.
We found that in several of the cases we
reviewed, it had been longer than one year since
caseworkers had met with recipients to review and
update their participation agreements. In some
of these cases, the recipients’ only activity was an
independent job search. This included a case where
there was no update to a recipient’s participation
agreement for a period of approximately three
years, during which time the recipient’s only
approved employment assistance activity was to
search for a job.
We reviewed Ministry data for recipients
across all service managers and found that as of
March 2018, 17% of recipients with participation
agreements have independent job search as their
only activity assigned by their caseworker. For
nearly half of these participants, an independent
job search has been their only activity for six
months or longer; for one-quarter of these
participants it was longer than a year. The average
length of time these participants have been
receiving Ontario Works nancial assistance
is nearly three years. Considering that these
participants have been removed from the job
market for a signicant length of time, independent
job search alone may not be sufcient to help them
obtain employment.
5.3.2 Ontario Works Recipients are Not
Always Assigned Required Employment
Activities
At three of the four service managers we visited, we
found that in 5% to 15% of the les we reviewed,
caseworkers had not assigned employment
activities to recipients whose requirement
to participate in such activities had not been
deferred. As a result, there was no evidence that
these individuals were working toward obtaining
employment as required.
We analyzed data from the Ministry’s Social
Assistance Management System for all Ontario
Works recipients in the province that indicates that
as of March 2018 approximately 46,500 adults did
not have employment support activities assigned
to them. These recipients, who account for about
20% of adults receiving Ontario Works that have
not been deferred, are required to participate
in employment support activities. This includes
between 5% and 19% of recipients at the four
service managers we visited. The Ministry advised
us that at the time of our audit it had not yet
instructed service managers to address this issue
and ensure that recipients are assigned activities to
work toward obtaining employment.
RECOMMENDATION 17
To help Ontario Works recipients to progress
toward becoming self-sufcient and nd
employment, we recommend that service
managers take steps to:
•
meet with recipients regularly in accordance
with the Ministry of Children, Community
and Social Services (Ministry) requirements
539Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
to review and update their participation
agreements; and
•
assign appropriate employment support
activities to all participants.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with
the recommendations. To help Ontario
Works recipients progress toward obtaining
employment, all four service managers agree to
ensure that caseworkers meet with recipients
on a timely basis in accordance with Ministry
requirements to review and update recipient
participation agreements. All four service
managers also commit to taking steps to ensure
that caseworkers assign appropriate employment
support activities to all participants, with the
exception of those deferred.
5.4 Employment Supports and
Recipient Employment Results
Differ Between Service Managers
5.4.1 Participation in Employment
Placement and Job Specic Skills Programs
is Low Despite Higher Employment
Success Rates
As shown in Figure 12, service managers are
required to provide Ontario Works recipients
access to a range of employment activities. At the
four service managers we visited, we obtained
information about the employment support
programs (employment placements and job
specic skills training) they offered to recipients.
These programs ranged in length from several
days to several weeks, with the goal of helping
recipients to obtain employment. Examples of such
programs included:
•
Security and Protective Services Training:
A ve-week course designed to teach general
security guard duties, including six months
of post-program support to help participants
obtain employment.
•
Warehouse Operations Training: A training
program in warehouse operations and
material handling, including a six-month
work placement at the conclusion of training.
We found that the number of such programs
offered by the service managers we visited ranged
from three to approximately 50. In addition,
the percentage of Ontario Works recipients
participating in these programs at all four service
managers ranged from just 2% to 5%. Across all
four service managers we visited, the number of
those nishing such training programs who found
employment ranged from approximately 50% to
more than 75%.
The proportion of recipients nding
employment after completing these programs is
signicantly higher than the provincial average for
recipients leaving Ontario Works for employment,
which in 2017/18 was just 10% (see Section 4.2.) It
is also much higher than the percentage leaving the
program from these four service managers, which
ranged from 2% to 15% in 2017/18.
Two of the four service managers we visited told
us they would offer more capacity in these programs
if their Ontario Works employment assistance
funding was increased. However, one of these
service managers also noted that there are local
constraints such as the capacity of local delivery
partners to accommodate more participants. At
one of the service managers we visited, an external
review completed in 2014 determined that more
employment programs were needed to help
recipients nd employment. Since this review, this
service manager has started two pilot programs to
help more recipients to obtain employment.
5.4.2 Many Recipients Referred to
Employment Ontario but Service Managers
have Limited Information on Their Success
In addition to offering employment support
programs funded through Ontario Works, the
540
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
service managers we visited told us that they refer
recipients to Employment Ontario. Employment
Ontario delivery agents, funded by the Ministry
of Training, Colleges and Universities, provide
employment and training services and related
information for job seekers.
Although three service managers could tell
us the percentage of recipients they referred to
Employment Ontario, which ranged from 8% to
14% of their caseload, only one was able to provide
information to us on the success of the recipients
they referred. Service managers told us that once
a client is referred to Employment Ontario, the
Employment Ontario delivery agent has no require-
ment to report to Ontario Works service managers
on the outcomes of their clients.
The 2012 report by Don Drummond and the
Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public
Services, Public Services for Ontarians: A Path
to Sustainability and Excellence, recommended
streamlining and integrating employment services,
such as those offered by Ontario Works with
Employment Ontario. Additionally, the 2012
report from the Commission for the Review of
Social Assistance in Ontario, Brighter Prospects:
Transforming Social Assistance in Ontario,
recommended that the Province expand the
number of municipalities, where there is interest
and capacity, designated as Employment Ontario
deliverers. We noted that one of the service
managers we visited had been designated as an
Employment Ontario delivery agent. This service
manager highlighted several benets to being a
delivery agent, including increased communication
between the staff of the two programs, shared cost in
training for staff, joint job fairs, and a larger network
of employer relationships. While this service
manager’s local area had a similar unemployment
rate to the other three service managers we visited,
it had the highest percentage of recipients exiting to
employment in 2017/18 at 15%.
RECOMMENDATION 18
To increase the proportion of Ontario Works
recipients who obtain employment, we
recommend that service managers:
•
take steps to identify opportunities to
increase the proportion of recipients
referred to employment supports that have
successfully assisted recipients to obtain
employment; and
•
investigate the possibility and assess the
merits of becoming a delivery agent for
Employment Ontario.
RESPONSE FROM SERVICE
MANAGERS
The audited service managers agree with
the recommendations. To help more Ontario
Works recipients to both obtain employment
and become self-sufcient, all four service
managers agree to take steps to explore and
identify opportunities to increase the number of
recipients they refer to employment supports,
particularly those supports that have already
proven successful in assisting recipients to obtain
employment. The three service managers that
are not already delivery agents for Employment
Ontario agree to investigate the possibility and
assess the merits of becoming a delivery agent
for Employment Ontario; one of these service
managers plans to present the results of their
review to their Board in 2019. Another service
manager also indicated that it planned to work
with the Ministry of Children, Community and
Social Services, and Employment Ontario, to
develop an integrated assessment and referral
process for individuals that includes outcome
tracking and mandatory reporting.
RECOMMENDATION 19
To help increase the proportion of Ontario
Works recipients who obtain employment,
we recommend that the Ministry of Children,
541Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Community and Social Services (Ministry) work
with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and
Universities to:
•
share information between Employment
Ontario and Ontario Works that would help
service managers to monitor the progress
of Ontario Works recipients they refer to
Employment Ontario services in obtaining
employment; and
•
investigate opportunities to integrate the
employment services offered by Ontario
Works and Employment Ontario.
MINISTRY RESPONSE
The Ministry agrees with the recommendation,
and it will work with the Ministry of Training,
Colleges and Universities to:
•
share information between Employment
Ontario and Ontario Works that would help
service managers to monitor the progress
of Ontario Works recipients they refer to
Employment Ontario services; and
•
identify opportunities to integrate local
employment services offered by Ontario
Works and Employment Ontario, to help
recipients nd and maintain employment.
542
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Appendix 1: 2017/18 Ministry Funding and Service Manager Caseloads
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Total % Share Average
# of Local Funding of Total Monthly % Share of
Service Manager Ofces ($ million) Funding Caseload Caseload
Toronto Region
Toronto CMSM
1
15 918.2 30.9 75,230 30.1
Toronto Total 15 918.2 30.9 75,230 30.1
Central Region
Dufferin CMSM 1 6.4 0.2 538 0.2
Halton CMSM 4 25.3 0.9 2,006 0.8
Peel CMSM 2 241.3 8.1 18,736 7. 5
Simcoe CMSM 8 56.2 1.9 5,329 2.1
Waterloo CMSM 3 112.6 3.8 9,183 3.7
Wellington CMSM 3 24.9 0.8 2,091 0.8
York CMSM 4 59.5 2.0 5,744 2.3
Central Total 25 526.2 17.7 43,627 17.4
East Region
Cornwall CMSM 3 20.5 0.7 1,970 0.8
Durham CMSM 5 98.7 3.3 8,454 3.4
Hastings CMSM 4 31.0 1.0 2,496 1.0
Kawartha Lakes CMSM 2 17. 6 0.6 1,510 0.6
Kingston CMSM 2 29.2 1.0 2,602 1.0
Lanark CMSM 3 14.4 0.5 1,037 0.4
Leeds and Grenville CMSM 3 18.9 0.7 1,593 0.7
Northumberland CMSM 1 9.4 0.3 763 0.3
Ottawa CMSM 5 246.7 8.3 19,802 7. 9
Peterborough CMSM 1 39.9 1.3 3,536 1.4
Prescott and Russell CMSM 2 12.0 0.4 999 0.4
Prince Edward-Lennox and Addington CMSM 4 10.4 0.3 830 0.3
Renfrew CMSM 4 15.0 0.5 1,321 0.5
East Total 39 563.7 18.9 46,913 18.7
North Region
Algoma DSSAB
2
4 8.5 0.3 685 0.3
Cochrane DSSAB 6 18.7 0.6 1,454 0.6
Greater Sudbury CMSM 1 35.6 1.2 3,385 1.4
Kenora DSSAB 7 8.0 0.3 608 0.2
Manitoulin-Sudbury DSSAB 5 6.5 0.2 530 0.2
Muskoka CMSM 1 10.7 0.4 837 0.3
Nipissing DSSAB 3 27. 9 0.9 2,241 0.9
Parry Sound DSSAB 2 9.5 0.3 718 0.3
Rainy River DSSAB 2 1.8 0.1 219 0.1
543Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Total % Share Average
# of Local Funding of Total Monthly % Share of
Service Manager Ofces ($ million) Funding Caseload Caseload
North Region (Continued)
Sault Ste. Marie DSSAB 1 25.9 0.9 2,191 0.9
Thunder Bay DSSAB 8 33.1 1.1 2,905 1.1
Timiskaming DSSAB 2 9.3 0.3 684 0.3
North Total 42 195.5 6.6 16,457 6.6
West Region
Brant CMSM 1 25.1 0.8 2,002 0.8
Bruce CMSM 1 6.4 0.2 554 0.2
Chatham-Kent CMSM 1 30.9 1.0 2,552 1.0
Grey CMSM 1 15.0 0.5 1,327 0.5
Hamilton CMSM 4 145.2 4.9 12,297 4.9
Huron CMSM 1 5.7 0.2 441 0.2
Lambton CMSM 1 33.4 1.1 2,952 1.2
London CMSM 2 141.9 4.8 12,206 4.9
Niagara CMSM 5 108.5 3.6 9,767 3.9
Norfolk CMSM 2 14.9 0.5 1,254 0.5
Oxford CMSM 1 13.7 0.5 1,271 0.5
St. Thomas CMSM 1 15.8 0.5 1,417 0.6
Stratford CMSM 1 7. 5 0.3 658 0.3
Windsor CMSM 2 93.1 3.1 8,086 3.2
West Total 24 657.1 22.0 56,784 22.7
First Nations n/a 145.2 4.9 11,281 4.5
Adjustment for prior year funding (30.5) (1.0)
Total 145 2,975.4 100 250,292 100
1. Consolidated Municipal Service Manager (CMSM).
2. District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB).
544
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Appendix 2: Estimated Costs Attributable to Ontario Works Policy Changes, 2013/14–2020/21 ($ million)
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Introduced 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21
A $200 monthly at-rate earnings
exemption is introduced. (Earnings above
$200 per month continue to be subject to
a 50% exemption)
Sept 2013 18.6 33.4 35.0 35.0 35.0 35.0 35.0 35.0
Asset limit is increased to $2,500
for singles, $5,000 for couples
and an additional $500 for each
additional dependent
Sept 2013 1.0 6.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0
Child support payments no longer treated
as income for purposes of calculating
nancial assistance
Feb 2017 8.1 48.6 47. 5 47. 5 47. 5
Asset limits are increased for single adults
from $2,500 to $10,000; and for couples
from $5,000 to $15,000
Sept 2017 0.4 3.6 6.1 6.1
Total 19.6 39.4 46.0 54.1 95.0 97.1 99.6 99.6
545Ontario Works
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Appendix 3: Ontario Works Mandatory and Discretionary Benets, 2018
Source of data: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Benets Health-Related Non-Health Related
Mandatory
• assistive devices, batteries and repairs
• dental coverage for dependent children residing in
First Nations communities
• diabetic and surgical supplies
• drug coverage
• extended health benets
• eye examinations
• travel and transportation for medical purposes
• vision care for children
• advance (up-front) child care
• full-time employment benet
• guide dog benet
• other employment and employment assistance
activities benet
• transition child benet
Discretionary
• child care to attend a medical appointment
• dental care for adults
• energy and water conservation measures
• funerals and burials
• prosthetic appliances
• vision care for adults
• moving expenses
• special services, items or payment on a case-by-
case basis
• travel and transportation
• vocational training
546
Chapter 3 • VFM Section 3.11
Appendix 4: Audit Criteria
Prepared by the Ofce of the Auditor General of Ontario
Service Managers
1. Applications for Ontario Works assistance are processed and reviewed on a timely basis, and appropriate decisions on
eligibility are reached.
2. Payments to recipients for basic needs, shelter, and mandatory benets are correctly calculated and issued on a timely
basis to eligible recipients. Discretionary benets are granted based on demonstrated need, and the amounts issued are
reasonable and comparable for similar circumstances.
3. Ontario Works recipients are provided with appropriate and effective employment assistance activities suited to their needs
and local labour market conditions to assist them to nd sustainable employment.
4. Effective oversight processes are in place to ensure the Ontario Works program is delivered in accordance with legislative
and Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (Ministry) policy requirements and to provide the Ministry with
accurate operational, performance and nancial data.
5. Effective processes are in place to support the prevention and detection of fraud and for the timely recovery of
overpayments.
6. Service managers measure, evaluate and report on the effectiveness of their program delivery in helping people in
temporary nancial need nd employment. Corrective action is taken on a timely basis when issues are identied.
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
1. The Ministry has effective information systems and oversight processes in place to assess whether service managers are
delivering the Ontario Works program efciently and effectively, in accordance with legislative and program requirements,
and funding is used for intended purposes.
2. Meaningful performance measures and targets are established for the Ontario Works program. Results are monitored and
compared against targets to ensure that the intended outcomes of the program are achieved. Corrective action is taken on
a timely basis when issues are identied.
