Hospital, Rehab, Jail, Travel

Hospital
This included hospitals, rehab and psych facilities.

If you are in hospital, for the first 3 months, your cheque should not change.

If you do not have shelter costs, you should still get the full amount of the basic needs portion of ODSP.

After 3 months, they can reduce your cheque so that you only get $122 for your basic needs and your full shelter portion.

Jail
If you go to jail your cheque will be suspended after the first month. However, during the first month, you will get your basic needs for the days you are not in jail but if you got a full cheque, the days you were in jail will be counted as an overpayment. you should get your full shelter portion for that month.

If you are in jail on weekends, you will get your full shelter cheque but only the portion of your basic needs for the days you are out.

Travel and Absence from Ontario
You are not allowed to leave Ontario for more than 30 days. If you do, you will have money taken off of your cheque and/or be cut off depending how long you are gone for.

There are 3 exceptions to this policy but you have to get approval in advance:
1. Health - if this is the case, you need to provide a written request to leave Ontario for a medically prescribed reason. There are exceptions to this if you, say, go travelling and end up not being able to return home because of an illness or injury that you, your spouse, kids or caregiver get.

2. School - if you are going to attend post secondary school out of Ontario, request to go in advance and in writing. You can leave the province for up to 12 months on approval.

3. Exceptional Circumstances - this includes something really important that may happen in your life that you have to be away for a while. At OCAP, we see this most commonly when people have to leave Ontario to care for a sick parent or child, but there are other circumstances as well. The best thing to do is get approval in advance to ensure that you are covered. If you don't get approval in advance, ODSP will review your absence and whether it was necessary and if they decide it was, they can retroactively approve your absence. If you do not keep your apartment while you are gone, you will not get the shelter portion of your cheque. If you have already gotten your shelter portion of your cheque, it will be considered an overpayment.

If you are leaving for more than 3 months, it has to be approved by an income support manager. So, if you are denied by a worker, they aren't allowed to deny it and you can fight it on those grounds.