Michelle Kungl’s incredible journey: Disability and disability insurance
Ontario’s narrow and rule-bound social assistance system: does it cover medical and disability-related expenses?
From the moment she was born, Michelle Kungl has been fighting — for her life, for independence, for every breath. She has battled every obstacle with a warrior’s spirit, but now, as an adult, she is up against her most daunting barrier yet: Ontario’s rule-bound social assistance system.
Michelle overcame impossible medical odds as a child. But as an adult she is fighting her most frustrating and seemingly impossible battle yet — convincing Ontario’s narrow and rule-bound social assistance system that she is disabled enough to receive help to cover her extraordinary medical and disability-related expenses.
For more than two decades, Pooran and other disability advocates have been urging Queen’s Park to ease the onerous reporting requirements and strict income and asset rules that govern ODSP. He is accompanying Michelle and Lyn to a meeting with provincial officials early next month to discuss her case.
Although Pooran acknowledges Michelle is somewhat unique — few with her level of disability work full time — her experience highlights the problem most people on social assistance face when they try to work or receive income from other sources. More than 900,000 Ontarians rely on social assistance, including more than 490,000 on ODSP. Barely 10 per cent of individuals receiving ODSP have employment income.
It is a key issue Community and Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek asked a provincial working group to address last summer as part of a review of Ontario’s income security system. The group’s 10-year blueprint for reform, is expected in October.
In the meantime, a ministry spokesperson said the government has already increased the amount individuals and families can deduct from their earnings for disability-work related expenses from $300 to $1,000 a month.
Read this whole story by By Laurie Monsebraaten Social justice reporter in here. See photos, here.
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