Ontario Works caseloads rise slightly

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

More than half of the region’s Ontario Works cases are located in the City of Oshawa.

The region’s average quarterly caseload was 8,929 in 2018, up 0.1 per cent from 2017.

A staff report indicates Oshawa had the highest average number of cases by a large margin.

In 2018, Oshawa averaged 4,870 cases, which was 2.86 per cent of Oshawa’s population of 170,120.

The next highest percentage belongs to Brock, which had a per cent of 1.06, but also only had an average caseload of 129, and a population of 12,130.

The second highest average number of cases belongs to Ajax, which had 1,148, or 0.9 per cent per population, and a population of 127,840 in 2018.

Ontario Works (OW) is a government agency that helps those who are in financial need.

The organization offers two types of      assistance, the first being financial assistance, which provides income support for basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

The second service OW provides is employment assistance. This type of assistance includes workshops on resume writing and interviewing, job counseling, job-specific training, and access to basic education.

By providing access to education, clients can finish high school or to improve their language skills.

The region saw increases in caseloads in three of four quarters in 2018, up 34 in the second quarter, 48 in the third and 60 in the fourth.

But commissioner of social services Dr. Hugh Drouin notes the reason the average went up so little is due to a considerable drop in caseloads during the first quarter of 2018 compared to 2017.

In 2017, the caseload for the first quarter was 8,969, whereas in 2018 it was 8,847, a drop of 122, or 1.4 per cent