‘My mom wasn’t lazy, she got sick’: How ODSP kept her mother ‘trapped’ in poverty

‘My mom wasn’t lazy, she got sick’: How ODSP kept her mother ‘trapped’ in poverty

Ada McVean’s mother, Theresa, died on April 14, 2019 — the day before the Ontario Disability Support Program deposited her bi-monthly cheque.

McVean, a 24-year-old McGill student, thought it might help cover her 44-year-old mother’s funeral expenses but learned she’d would have to pay it back.​

Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) staff said they’d need the money to offset the costs of covering her funeral; they paid to ship her body from the hospital to the funeral home, cremation, and the cardboard box the ashes came in.​“I couldn’t just not give my mom a funeral,” McVean said, explaining that even […]

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