Stop the Cut to Community Start-Up, Raise the Rates Now!*
Schedule of Provincial Events Across Ontario (STARTING THIS THURSDAY IN KINGSTON!)

*The RAISE the RATES CAMPAIGN is endorsed provincially by a wide range of unions and organizations. To join and participate, please see here:
http://www.ocap.ca/node/947

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario, and allies across the province, are organizing a series of events this fall to demand that the McGuinty Liberals stop the cut to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit, and Raise the Rates of Social Assistance.

Cuts by the governments of Mike Harris and Dalton McGuinty have reduced welfare rates by 60% since 1995! This year`s Provincial Budget continued the rapid decline with rates that don`t even keep up with inflation. Following the previous gutting of the vital Special Diet benefit by the Liberals, this year`s Budget also brought a series of cutbacks for people on social assistance including the elimination of a benefit known as `Community Start-Up and Maintenance` (CSUMB). The government has announced it will eliminate this benefit in January 2013.

To download the poster for October 17th, click here!

Download the flyer here!

Day for the Eradication of Poverty
Wednesday October 17

Join Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and Jane-Finch Action
Against Poverty (JFAAP) at events throughout the day...

DOWNTOWN:

Save the Community Start-Up, Raise the Rates Now!

10:00 AM: Walk-in Clinic:
Find out about or apply for Community Start Up and Maintenance
Benefit, join us at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square
(west of the Eaton Centre, south of Dundas)

12.00 Noon: Meal and Rally @ Toronto City Hall Square (Bay/Queen):
March on the Provincial Government to Deliver all Applications
Collected that Day

A Province wide campaign is being built to save the CSUMB and, in
Toronto, OCAP is looking to contribute to this on October 17 with a
mass application for the benefit that will also demand the cutback be
reversed. We will hold a mass clinic to make people aware of how they
can apply for CSUMB and we will fill in application forms for all
those who wish to obtain it. Then, we will rally together and march on
the Government to put in these applications and many more from across
Ontario.

If you want to help build this event or learn how you and others in
your community can receive the CSUMB, give us a call today. More than
anything, come out on October 17 and help us stop McGuinty from
getting away with his plans to put people on the streets. Save the
Community Start Up Benefit, Raise the Rates NOW!

**Parkdale Meet-Up: 9:30am @PARC drop-in (1499 Queen St. West), tokens provided

This is a brief report on a small but important victory that we won today.

Last week H., an Ontario Works (OW) recipient, approached us for support in her struggle to access the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB). She had already sent in two written requests to access the CSUMB for a mattress, box-spring and bed-frame that she is entitled to under the regulations and provisions of the CSMUB. She has not accessed the CSUMB in the past two years. These two requests (with estimates), sent in first in the spring and then in early summer, were either ignored or lost by OW (which happens way too often!). When H. called her worker on August 28th to inquire into what had happened to her requests she was told that "singles aren't eligible for beds...unless there are special circumstances."

Stop the Cut to Community Start-Up Benefit! Help us distribute this important info flyer on CSUMB.

Since the Mike Harris cuts of the 1990’s people on Ontario Works and ODSP have seen the spending power on their cheques fall by close to 60%. This year`s Provincial Budget continued the rapid decline with rates that don`t keep up with inflation. Following the previous gutting of the vital Special Diet benefit, this year`s Budget also brought a series of cutbacks for people on social assistance including the elimination of a benefit known as `Community Start-Up`. This vital benefit is planned to be cut in January 2013

16,000 people a month benefit from Community Start-Up. It is one of the only ways that people on OW or ODSP can cover the costs of moving, save their housing and obtain the basic items they need to maintain a home. It is a defence against homelessness and a means by which many women are able to leave situations of domestic violence.

Today (April 24) OCAP members unfurled a banner in the legislature, demanding an increase to social assistance rates 55%, which is needed just to bring the rates back to what they were before the Mike Harris years...