City move means $1 million for low-income families
November 24, 2005

A Toronto survey suggests half of food bank use would end if the province ended its clawback of social assistance benefits from children.

Council is putting some financial muscle into its opposition of the provincial government's clawback of social assistance benefits from children. The move should mean that an extra $1 million dollars will flow into the pockets of low-income families in Hamilton.

That's about one-third of the amount the city receives as its share of a provincial seizure of federal child benefits for families. The federal government provides about $100 per child per month to low-income families, but the province deducts this dollar for dollar from welfare and disability payments and uses the money to pay bills for other social welfare programs.

Hamilton is allocated 20% of this clawback to use for various local programs, but council has repeatedly told the province it disagrees with the clawback in principle. This conflict means that cancelling the clawback would also end nearly $3 million a year in provincial grants to Hamilton and put numerous social welfare programs in financial jeopardy.

So the city has now decided to wean itself off this provincial subsidy and try to find a way to transfer the monies directly to the families for whom it was intended. The first step will free up about $1 million of the clawback monies by shifting several programs into the regular budget.

Staff expect that will be finalized by the end of June next year, although it's subject to the 2006 budget process. Asked when the rest of the clawback monies might be freed up, the city's manager of social services Jo Ann Priel told councillors she was " hopeful that we'd be able to do that in the 2007 budget year."

Local poverty activists are praising the move. Jeff Wingard of the Income Security Working Group said "the city identifying resources to take programs off of the clawback issue makes a strong statement about its commitment" to reducing poverty. At the same time he expressed disappointment that "families on social assistance are being asked to continue to carry the burden for the majority of programs for another year".

"In our community 15,000 people access food banks every month; 7000 of those are children." Photo from www.swvasecond harvest.org.

Wingard reminded councillors: "In our community 15,000 people access food banks every month; 7000 of those are children." He pointed to a Toronto survey that suggests half of food bank use would end if the province ended its clawback.

A local representative of the Ontario Association of Social Workers also supported the city move noting that it doesn't "let the provincial and federal governments off the hook" for a more permanent solution.

The method of moving the $1 million into the hands of the people who need it is not yet clear. Wingard urged the city to find a way "to return that money right on the cheque so that we can forego the administration costs and we can just get the money back to people directly". The council committee instructed staff to attempt to do this.

The staff recommendations can be viewed at http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/0728C0FC-28E7-4143
-A378-96CC0762BE5D/0/Nov22SPH05035aFCS05085a.pdf.