Applications / DAU Report

Applications Process/Disability Adjudication Unit (DAU) Working Group Report

The Applications Process/DAU Working Group has met a number of times with Ministry officials. The group has documented and presented the many problems applicants experience with the complex, lengthy process when applying to ODSP. We have told the Ministry that too often people with serious disabilities are denied and have to appeal, which takes about another year, and it takes too long for people to get their ODSP pay actually started.

The Ombudsman of Ontario too has been interested in ODSP. A recent report by the provincial Ombudsman pointed out the lengthy delays in making decisions about medical applications at the Disability Adjudication Unit. And what is even more unfair, people who have to wait for eight months or a year for their applications to be decided, lost money because ODSP would only pay retroactive benefits for four months prior to the DAU decision. The report is called ‘Losing the Waiting Game' and can be found at Ombudsman Site

The government has recently indicated they are taking action to reduce the backlog and delays at the DAU. They say that by the end of this year, it will take at most four months to decide whether someone is disabled after the application is complete. And they also changed the law, effective May 25, 2006, to remove the four month rule on the payment of retroactive benefits.

Steps are also being taken to speed up the time it takes for people to start receiving benenfits once the DAU decision has been made. Effective June 1, 2006 people who are receiving Ontario Works (OW) benefits while applying to ODSP will have the ODSP benefits granted based the financial assessment made by OW. ODSP offices no longer need to re-confirm financial eligiblity for applicants to ODSP from OW. This is a welcome change that the Coalition had long advocated for.

However, the Coalition and others are still pushing the government to act on one of the Ombudsman's recommendations: that ODSP reimburse all the people affected before May 25, 2006 by the four-month rule, who unfairly lost benefits. So far the government has not agreed to do so, but says they will report back to the Ombudsman in fall 2006. The Coalition suggests that people concerned about this issue speak or write to their local Member of Provincial Parliament. Anyone directly affected, who has lost money because they were granted ODSP prior to May 25, 2006, can also complain to the provincial Ombudsman.