If the next Ontario government wants to change the course of food insecurity in the province, the place to start would be to ensure that their social assistance programs, Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), provide sufficient financial support for recipients to meet basic needs.
Statistics Canada has monitored household food insecurity for over 20 years through the Household Food Security Survey Module, which asks households about their experiences of deprivation ranging from worrying about running out of food to going whole days without eating, all due to a lack of money.
Since the start of this monitoring, we’ve known that households relying on social assistance have the highest rates of food insecurity. These households are also the most likely to be severely food insecure, meaning they have reduced food intake, missed meals, or worse, because they didn’t have enough money.
In 2023, 70% of households relying on OW or ODSP were food-insecure and 43% were severely so.*
Living in a food-insecure household puts people at greater risk of a wide range of chronic mental and physical conditions and makes it harder for them to manage existing health problems. As a result, they require more healthcare services, including hospitalization and emergency room visits, stay longer in the hospital, incur greater public healthcare costs, and are more likely to .
The consequences for people’s health are greatest for those living in severely food-insecure households. The cost of healthcare for an adult living in a severely food-insecure household in Ontario is more than double that of someone in food secure household.
OW and ODSP are income support programs of last resort, meant to help households through difficult times and support low-income people with disabilities after they have exhausted all other options. However, the current designs are failing the people who qualify for these income supports.
Social assistance reform is necessary to reduce severe food insecurity in Ontario and enable recipients to live healthy, productive lives
A third of severely food-insecure households in Ontario in 2023 received some support from OW or ODSP.*
Improving the financial circumstances of social assistance recipients could drastically reduce severe food insecurity in the province and lessen the burden of food insecurity on the provincial health care system at a time when it is under mounting stress.
Social assistance is a critical policy lever for food insecurity because it dictates so much of recipient households’ financial circumstances. Research has repeatedly shown that the high risk of food insecurity social assistance recipients face is a function of how much financial support they get. When provincial governments provide more through these programs, the risk of food insecurity drops.
The financial support provided by social assistance programs in Ontario is far from being enough to afford necessities. The current maximum amounts for a single individual to cover basic needs and shelter each month are only $733 for OW and $1,368 for ODSP.
Every year public health units across Ontario estimate the cost of a basic nutritional diet in their regions to show what people can afford on different incomes. Through this work, the inadequacies of OW and ODSP have been extensively documented for years now. (See full table and links to individual reports below)
Even after considering all the other provincial and federal benefits available, single people on OW and ODSP in most regions can’t afford the cost of food and average rent.
While households with children receive more income from social assistance, provincial/federal child benefits, and other tax credits, the costing work shows that they have little leftover for other needs.
The inadequate support means it is much harder for the programs to reach their goals of helping Ontarians going through hard times to transition to gainful employment and enabling people with disabilities and financial need to live a dignified and independent life.
Recent changes to ODSP were far from enough for affording basic needs
After 4 years of no change, ODSP saw some improvement to the rates in 2022, when the core components of the benefit saw a 5% increase. These rates were then indexed to inflation in 2023, but some components, such as the Special Diet Allowance and pregnancy/breast feeding nutritional allowance, did not increase or receive indexation.
In addition to an increase and indexation, the earning exemptions for ODSP were also increased from $200 to $1000, meaning that benefit payments would not be clawed back until the recipient earned over $1000 in employment income instead of $200.
Despite these increases, the benefit’s value is still 4% short of keeping up with inflation since 2018, meaning that recipients are still worse off now than they were 7 years ago. Food costing by public health units back then had already shown that the benefit amounts were not enough to cover food, shelter, and other essentials.
Despite record rise in cost of living, the support provided by OW has not changed since 2018
Despite the fact that 44% of social assistance beneficiaries were supported through OW, the program has not seen any change since 2018. OW has been excluded from rate increases, indexation, and earning exemptions increases.
During this time, the cost of living, as measured by the Ontario Consumer Price Index, has risen by 21 percent, meaning that OW recipients have effectively lost 21 percent of their already limited purchasing power over the past 7 years.
We need government accountability on reconciling social assistance with the true costs of living
When the UN Rapporteur on the right to food visited Canada in 2012, he expressed concern about the then already high rates of food insecurity and the erosion of social protections, specifically the lack of accountability for provincial social assistance programs to provide enough money for an adequate standard of living and allow recipients to realize their right to food.
Unfortunately, little has changed since.
It has now gotten to the point where Toronto, Mississauga, and Kingston have declared food insecurity as an emergency, with a united call for improvements to social assistance. More cities are also looking to do the same.
Listen to our interview with Press Progress’ Sources podcast on the recent emergency declarations. After three cities in Ontario declare food insecurity an emergency, experts hope for more action from Doug Ford
Municipal governments and municipal service managers, who are responsible for administering and delivering social assistance programs in Ontario, witness the consequences of inadequate support firsthand and have long advocated for increases to match the cost of living.
Social assistance reform is also critical for addressing the rising homelessness, another key municipal concern, with the number of social assistance recipients experiencing homelessness almost doubling over the past two years. The vast majority (85%) of unhoused social assistance recipients are receiving OW. Since they become ineligible for the shelter allowance component of social assistance, it becomes even more difficult to transition into secure housing situations.
The desperation and inability to meet their food needs independently given the inadequacy of their incomes is also exemplified by the high proportion of food bank clients receiving OW and ODSP. Feed Ontario reports that almost two-thirds of food bank clients in Ontario were reliant on social assistance.
While food bank use is not a good indicator of the prevalence of household food insecurity in a community because most food-insecure households don’t seek food charity, the demand that food banks face is tightly intertwined with policy decisions on social assistance.
There is also wide consensus on the need for social assistance reform from health organizations like the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, Ontario Dietitians in Public Health and Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, in recognition of the importance of addressing food insecurity for protecting people’s health and the stability of the healthcare system.
It is more important than ever for the Ontario government to act on social assistance.
With more economic uncertainty and the threat of higher rises in the cost of food, shelter, and other necessities on the horizon, social assistance recipients, who have been struggling for a long time, will be forced into even more dire situations if nothing is done.
Increasing and indexing OW rates should be a priority for all platforms given the impossibility of recipients meeting their basic needs on this program now.
At the same time, there must be a concerted effort to reexamine and redesign aspects of both OW and ODSP and how they intersect with employment and other government supports so that the benefits are sufficient to cover the costs of basic needs. That includes increasing benefit amounts, indexation, increasing earnings and asset exemptions, maximizing benefits by creating a flat rate regardless of shelter situation, and more.
It is also critical for the Ontario government to evaluate the impacts of changes to OW and ODSP on food insecurity and continue to revise these programs as needed to ensure that they support rather than undermine recipients’ food security.
Better data that allows for the examination of food insecurity separately for OW and ODSP recipients and of household’s food insecurity over time is not available but would help greatly to inform policy design.
Additional Reading
How much money single persons on OW and ODSP have left for other necessities after rent and food in 2024
(See linked public health unit reports for methodology and other income scenarios)
These numbers show how much is leftover or short for single adults on OW and ODSP after the cost of food (based on the Nutritious Food Basket) and average rent (as reported by CMHC) in their area, based on the maximum basic and shelter amounts from social assistance and eligible provincial and federal tax credits.
| Public Health Unit |
Single Person, OW |
Single Person, ODSP |
| City of Hamilton Public Health Services |
-$538 |
-$263 |
| Durham Region HealthDepartment |
-$588.00 |
-$363 |
| Eastern Ontario Health Unit |
-$263 |
$267 |
| Grey Bruce Health Unit |
-$496 |
$88 |
| Haliburton, Kawartha, PineRidge District Health Unit (Kawartha Lakes) |
-$1,232 |
-$648 |
| Haliburton, Kawartha, PineRidge District Health Unit (Haliburton County) |
-$903 |
-$319 |
| Haliburton, Kawartha, PineRidge District Health Unit (Northumberland County) |
-$1,207 |
-$623 |
| Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox& Addington Public Health (Kingston) |
-$596 |
-$306 |
| Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox& Addington Public Health (Napanee) |
-$434 |
$150 |
| Middlesex-London Health Unit |
-$522 |
-$172 |
| Niagara Region Public Health |
-$525 |
-$192 |
| Public Health Sudbury &Districts/a> |
-$421 |
-$2 |
| Simcoe Muskoka District HealthUnit |
-$679 |
-$281 |
2023 – information from public health units that have not released 2024 updates yet
Commentary | Story
Ontario Election 2025: Putting a plan for adequate social assistance on the table
February 14, 2025
If the next Ontario government wants to change the course of food insecurity in the province, the place to start would be to ensure that their social assistance programs, Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), provide sufficient financial support for recipients to meet basic needs.
Statistics Canada has monitored household food insecurity for over 20 years through the Household Food Security Survey Module, which asks households about their experiences of deprivation ranging from worrying about running out of food to going whole days without eating, all due to a lack of money.
Since the start of this monitoring, we’ve known that households relying on social assistance have the highest rates of food insecurity. These households are also the most likely to be severely food insecure, meaning they have reduced food intake, missed meals, or worse, because they didn’t have enough money.
In 2023, 70% of households relying on OW or ODSP were food-insecure and 43% were severely so.*
Living in a food-insecure household puts people at greater risk of a wide range of chronic mental and physical conditions and makes it harder for them to manage existing health problems. As a result, they require more healthcare services, including hospitalization and emergency room visits, stay longer in the hospital, incur greater public healthcare costs, and are more likely to .
The consequences for people’s health are greatest for those living in severely food-insecure households. The cost of healthcare for an adult living in a severely food-insecure household in Ontario is more than double that of someone in food secure household.
OW and ODSP are income support programs of last resort, meant to help households through difficult times and support low-income people with disabilities after they have exhausted all other options. However, the current designs are failing the people who qualify for these income supports.
Social assistance reform is necessary to reduce severe food insecurity in Ontario and enable recipients to live healthy, productive lives
A third of severely food-insecure households in Ontario in 2023 received some support from OW or ODSP.*
Improving the financial circumstances of social assistance recipients could drastically reduce severe food insecurity in the province and lessen the burden of food insecurity on the provincial health care system at a time when it is under mounting stress.
Social assistance is a critical policy lever for food insecurity because it dictates so much of recipient households’ financial circumstances. Research has repeatedly shown that the high risk of food insecurity social assistance recipients face is a function of how much financial support they get. When provincial governments provide more through these programs, the risk of food insecurity drops.
The financial support provided by social assistance programs in Ontario is far from being enough to afford necessities. The current maximum amounts for a single individual to cover basic needs and shelter each month are only $733 for OW and $1,368 for ODSP.
Every year public health units across Ontario estimate the cost of a basic nutritional diet in their regions to show what people can afford on different incomes. Through this work, the inadequacies of OW and ODSP have been extensively documented for years now. (See full table and links to individual reports below)
Even after considering all the other provincial and federal benefits available, single people on OW and ODSP in most regions can’t afford the cost of food and average rent.
While households with children receive more income from social assistance, provincial/federal child benefits, and other tax credits, the costing work shows that they have little leftover for other needs.
The inadequate support means it is much harder for the programs to reach their goals of helping Ontarians going through hard times to transition to gainful employment and enabling people with disabilities and financial need to live a dignified and independent life.
Recent changes to ODSP were far from enough for affording basic needs
After 4 years of no change, ODSP saw some improvement to the rates in 2022, when the core components of the benefit saw a 5% increase. These rates were then indexed to inflation in 2023, but some components, such as the Special Diet Allowance and pregnancy/breast feeding nutritional allowance, did not increase or receive indexation.
In addition to an increase and indexation, the earning exemptions for ODSP were also increased from $200 to $1000, meaning that benefit payments would not be clawed back until the recipient earned over $1000 in employment income instead of $200.
Despite these increases, the benefit’s value is still 4% short of keeping up with inflation since 2018, meaning that recipients are still worse off now than they were 7 years ago. Food costing by public health units back then had already shown that the benefit amounts were not enough to cover food, shelter, and other essentials.
Despite record rise in cost of living, the support provided by OW has not changed since 2018
Despite the fact that 44% of social assistance beneficiaries were supported through OW, the program has not seen any change since 2018. OW has been excluded from rate increases, indexation, and earning exemptions increases.
During this time, the cost of living, as measured by the Ontario Consumer Price Index, has risen by 21 percent, meaning that OW recipients have effectively lost 21 percent of their already limited purchasing power over the past 7 years.
We need government accountability on reconciling social assistance with the true costs of living
When the UN Rapporteur on the right to food visited Canada in 2012, he expressed concern about the then already high rates of food insecurity and the erosion of social protections, specifically the lack of accountability for provincial social assistance programs to provide enough money for an adequate standard of living and allow recipients to realize their right to food.
Unfortunately, little has changed since.
It has now gotten to the point where Toronto, Mississauga, and Kingston have declared food insecurity as an emergency, with a united call for improvements to social assistance. More cities are also looking to do the same.
Listen to our interview with Press Progress’ Sources podcast on the recent emergency declarations. After three cities in Ontario declare food insecurity an emergency, experts hope for more action from Doug Ford
Municipal governments and municipal service managers, who are responsible for administering and delivering social assistance programs in Ontario, witness the consequences of inadequate support firsthand and have long advocated for increases to match the cost of living.
Social assistance reform is also critical for addressing the rising homelessness, another key municipal concern, with the number of social assistance recipients experiencing homelessness almost doubling over the past two years. The vast majority (85%) of unhoused social assistance recipients are receiving OW. Since they become ineligible for the shelter allowance component of social assistance, it becomes even more difficult to transition into secure housing situations.
The desperation and inability to meet their food needs independently given the inadequacy of their incomes is also exemplified by the high proportion of food bank clients receiving OW and ODSP. Feed Ontario reports that almost two-thirds of food bank clients in Ontario were reliant on social assistance.
While food bank use is not a good indicator of the prevalence of household food insecurity in a community because most food-insecure households don’t seek food charity, the demand that food banks face is tightly intertwined with policy decisions on social assistance.
There is also wide consensus on the need for social assistance reform from health organizations like the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, Ontario Dietitians in Public Health and Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, in recognition of the importance of addressing food insecurity for protecting people’s health and the stability of the healthcare system.
It is more important than ever for the Ontario government to act on social assistance.
With more economic uncertainty and the threat of higher rises in the cost of food, shelter, and other necessities on the horizon, social assistance recipients, who have been struggling for a long time, will be forced into even more dire situations if nothing is done.
Increasing and indexing OW rates should be a priority for all platforms given the impossibility of recipients meeting their basic needs on this program now.
At the same time, there must be a concerted effort to reexamine and redesign aspects of both OW and ODSP and how they intersect with employment and other government supports so that the benefits are sufficient to cover the costs of basic needs. That includes increasing benefit amounts, indexation, increasing earnings and asset exemptions, maximizing benefits by creating a flat rate regardless of shelter situation, and more.
It is also critical for the Ontario government to evaluate the impacts of changes to OW and ODSP on food insecurity and continue to revise these programs as needed to ensure that they support rather than undermine recipients’ food security.
Better data that allows for the examination of food insecurity separately for OW and ODSP recipients and of household’s food insecurity over time is not available but would help greatly to inform policy design.
* Author’s calculations using the Canadian Income Survey 2022 Public Use Microdata File. Estimates were limited to households with unattached individuals living alone or one economic family, which as the vast majority of households in Ontario, to ensure responses regarding food insecurity reflect the entire household.
Additional Reading
How much money single persons on OW and ODSP have left for other necessities after rent and food in 2024
(See linked public health unit reports for methodology and other income scenarios)
These numbers show how much is leftover or short for single adults on OW and ODSP after the cost of food (based on the Nutritious Food Basket) and average rent (as reported by CMHC) in their area, based on the maximum basic and shelter amounts from social assistance and eligible provincial and federal tax credits.
2023 – information from public health units that have not released 2024 updates yet