Will Ontario Works Pay for School?

October 20, 2009 by Ontario Works
Filed under: Education

One of the most often-asked questions about welfare is, “will Ontario Works pay for school?”. The short answer is, yes; but certain conditions may apply depending on the region you are receiving welfare in.

Ontario Works is able to issue money over and above the basic amount of social assistance that you receive each month. Some of the money is classified as “mandatory”, while the other is “discretionary”. It is very important to understand the difference between the two benefits.

Mandatory Ontario Works Benefits

Mandatory Benefits are benefits that must be issued when certain criteria are met or exceeded. For example, medical travel and transportation benefits are mandatory in Ontario. If you are able to verify (prove) to the Ontario Works office that you have a medical appointment, OW must issue you funds in order for you to make it to that appointment. This should not be the subject of too much discussion, but still there may be times when you have to prove your eligibility, to the satisfaction of the caseworker. Are dental appointments considered medical appointments? It depends on who you ask.

Another example of a mandatory benefit is money to start a new job. Once again, upon proof of the new job and your written request, the caseworker must issue you the benefit in a reasonable amount of time. The goal is to get to work as quickly as possible.

Mandatory benefits are considered “entitlements”; if you are eligible for a monthly cheque from Ontario Works, you are eligible for the mandatory benefit. Therefore, if you are denied any entitlement that is written into the law, you may follow the appeal process to try and rectify the problem to your own satisfaction. Your caseworker should explain the appeal process to you, but if they don’t you may want to call your local community legal clinic for help.

Cost sharing for mandatory benefits is split 80/20 with the province paying $0.80 on every dollar that is issued, while the municipality picks up the other 20%.

Discretionary Ontario Works Benefits

Discretionary Benefits are benefits that the Ontario Works office can approve – or deny – for any number of reasons. For this reason, you are not able to appeal the denial of Discretionary Benefits, for their issuance is at the discretion of the municipality that you live in. They take the money from the province and decide what to do with it.

Cost sharing for discretionary benefits is split evenly 50/50. The result is a much higher cost to the municipality running the welfare office.

An example of discretionary benefits are monies issued for “employment-related expenses”. The definition of this is stretched by the imagination.

And this is where school comes in.

Will Ontario Works Pay for my Higher Education?

Ontario Works does not pay for post-secondary education (college, university, etc.), but it can cover some of the associated costs leading up to school. Because college can be considered training, you may meet the eligibility criteria for some mandatory benefits. Otherwise, employment-related expenses can be accessed in order to offset the costs of some school start-up fees. In this scenario, think of Ontario Works like a spring-board used to dive into school. Sometimes that little extra bit of help makes all the difference in the world.

These costs can be:

Ontario College Application Service fees
transportation allowances in order to make appointments with employment and guidance counsellors
some books and materials, if these are not included in the OSAP assessment and you must pay yourself

The lesson here is that issuing/receiving public money can be a very complex process. Know and understand what you are talking about before you make an application for benefits. Always put it in writing and ask, ask, ask! Hopefully in the future, the government will invest more in higher education for those welfare recipients that strive for those types of goals.

Tags: college, Education, Ontario Works, OSAP, OW, post-secondary, Retraining, school, university