Hamilton Ontario Works recipients staying in system longer
(CBC Hamilton, Samantha Craggs, July 12 2013)
New figures show that the number of Hamilton residents on social assistance is slowly returning to pre-recession levels. But those receiving it are having a harder time getting off.
The average time spent on Ontario Works before the 2009 recession was 18 months. So far in 2013, it's more than two years- 27.5 months.
The city is spending $5,735,800 over the next two years to try to bring those numbers down. To do that it will keep 30 workers hired to work more intensely with local OW recipients, said Joe-Anne Priel, general manager of community services....
In 2009, the city hired 30 extra staff to deal with the increase, paying for it using an OW reserve. The goal of reducing the caseload has been working. As of May, there are 12,950 Hamiltonians on OW. That number is expected to be about 10,000 by 2016....
Nearly half of OW recipients have been on social assistance for less than one year. Twenty-two per cent have been on it for one to two years, and the remaining — nearly one third — have been on OW longer than two years.
According to another CBC Hamilton story (about "Hamilton's increasingly bright employment picture"), the city's annual OW caseload stood at 10,035 in 2008. At 18 months per OW case on average, that was a pool of 180,630 jobless months. As of May 2013, with 12,950 OW cases in the city at 27.5 months per case on average, we now have a pool of 356,125 jobless months.