Government disability benefits

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Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00

Written by editor

PAOV — Have you had a pay raise in the last 27 years? People receiving Ontario Disability Support Payments (ODSP) can receive a maximum of $1,200 a month - an amount that hasn’t increased in nearly 30 years. With the cost of food, rent, and gas rising astronomically, living on so little is virtually impossible. Petition starter Serene is urging the provincial government to take immediate action to better support people who rely on Ontario’s disability support payments to survive. If you agree with Serene and think the government must increase disability support payments, sign the petition now.

40,216 have signed Serene Amsel’s petition. Let’s get to 50,000!

Disabled people in Ontario live in legislative poverty and no political party seems to care.

The most a single person on ODSP can make is $1200 a month, which has not been increased in twenty-seven years despite inflation and increased cost of living. ODSP recipients have discussed how they can hardly afford food, spending as little as $50 a week on groceries and taking appetite suppressants to stave off their appetite, unable to even eat three meals a day. One ODSP recipient on Reddit discussed eating dandelions and using a pickle bucket to do laundry as survival tips. When people are on ODSP because of severe mental health issues, treating those illnesses is impossible when they are suffering from the effects of poverty.

What’s worse is now ODSP recipients are applying for medical assistance in dying so that they don’t have to live in poverty anymore. The government is more willing to euthanize its people than to help them live comfortably.

It’s almost as if the government wants us to die because they see us as a waste of tax dollars. We can’t live with other people or even get married without fear of losing some of what little money we receive. Even homeless ODSP recipients receive much less than $1200/month.

We can’t let this go on any longer. We are people and we deserve to live comfortably and not struggle to survive. I implore the reader of this petition to share this as far and wide as possible and generate discussion so that it may reach our government.

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