As a few of you know my husband and sponsor lost his job recently and we are trying to get his on disability income support. It takes about 6 months for that to all be finalized so for the time being we have been directed to "ontario works". Does anyone know if this form of social assistance will be considered "Welfare" or will otherwise deem him an unsuitable sponsor?
Thanks
Just from doing a Google search, it looks like that might be considered welfare... but you should contact the offices. They will be happy to tell you if it is considered welfare or not.
Isn't he eligible for EI? It doesn't take nearly as long to set up those payments.
oh crap. he have already applied. And we are on our way to a meeting with them. I was thinking it was a form of early disability help cause the process takes so long.... do you think we can retract our appliction without hurting our case??
We dont know if we can get EI yet, we will file when the papers get here.
I'm sure you can! Just talk to the people when you get there.. explain your situation and ask to retract the application if you can. I just did a google search so I could be totally wrong.. so just talk to them about it and see if it is considered welfare first!
If you can get EI, that will start paying out fairly quickly, so you should get some money soon! I'm sorry you have to go through this headache!
thanks for your quick help this morning Dub. I had to run out the door after your second message. Yeah it was welfare lol. we almost got welfare without realizing it. I thought it was just some kind of advanced disability support because of the way we were referred to them. It seems like we have already applied and couldn't really retract our app, but we told them we aren't interested, and were only really looking for info on ODSP (disability). Also we didnt qualify for assistance this month anyway cause he still has a paycheck on the way. So Im hoping that the mere application doesn't hurt us!!!!
On a happier note he just got a job a few minutes ago :P. Taking pizza orders from home lol. It will be awesome to have him home with me all day. I just hope it pays enough to pay the bills!!
In the mean time we are going to be dining at one of Ottawa's fine soup kitchens. I hear their chicken noodle is to DIE for! lol jk, I don't know why i feel so sarcastic right now. I'd better end this.
Wish us luck!
Im doing the same for you :)
That's a perfect job for him!! Hopefully it's enough to get you two by :)
Rene, I'm glad I was able to help.. the fact that I have no life is kinda depressing so it's good to know that I can still be of use sometimes.
I'm glad that you guys were able to avoid the welfare before it was too late, and I'm sure that the application won't change anything at all. He didn't actually GET money from welfare, so that's the main thing. Sometimes it's better to just call things what they are (welfare vs. ontario works)!
I'm also glad he got a home job that won't tax his body too much like the last job. I believe if he works under a certain amount of hours per week (don't know if it's full time or not) he could still get EI, so check into that. He may still also be able to get some disability benefits.
My heart just aches for you guys having to go to a soup kitchen tonight... if I had any sort of money or influence I would help you! :( You'll have my thoughts and prayers, and you can PM me anytime even if you just want to vent.
Not sure if it's the same in Ontario, but when I lost my job a few years ago I was actually sick and ready to go on sick leave -- got the pink slip at the same time go figure! But it worked out okay because I got 6 months severance with full benefits. When my benefits ran out I was eligible for EI, but because my doctor said I was still too sick to work again EI put me on medical EI for 15 weeks (max allowable for sick EI benefits). After that they expect you to be well enough to work therefore actively looking for work and they put me on regular EI. The economy crashed then too at the time, and they never did ask me for proof that I was looking for work (but I think that's a rare case).
If you call EI and want the sick benefits, you would need a doctors note. But they really only consider sick benefits when you are temporarily sick. So be careful how you word things, it may be safer to apply for regular EI benefits while you are waiting for disability...