The Social Assistance Summaries series tracks the number of recipients of social assistance (welfare payments) in each province and territory.
In this section you will find:
Ontario’s social assistance program (description)
Social assistance is the income program of last resort. It is intended for households who have exhausted all other means of financial support. Every province and territory has its own social assistance program(s), and no two are the same. For modelling of total incomes available to social assistance recipients, visit the Welfare in Canada report.
In Ontario, social assistance is composed of two programs:
- Ontario Works, which provides income and employment assistance to people in financial need; and
- Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which is intended to help people with disabilities and their families live as independently as possible, and to reduce or eliminate disability-related barriers to employment.
Both Ontario Works and ODSP provide a range of allowances and benefits.
Ontario Works
Ontario Works includes an amount for shelter and basic needs such as food and clothing. In addition, employment assistance helps clients find, prepare for, and maintain a job.
Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
ODSP income support helps with the cost of basic needs as well as providing certain health- and employment-related benefits.
People with disabilities can also voluntarily access support for employment to prepare for, find, and keep a job. Individuals do not have to receive ODSP income support to be eligible for employment programming.
Under the Ontario Disability Support Program Act, being a person with a disability means:
- The recipient has a substantial mental or physical impairment that is continuous or recurrent and is expected to last one year or more.
- The direct and cumulative effect of the recipient’s impairment results in a substantial restriction in their ability to work, care for themselves, or take part in community life.
- The recipient’s impairment and its likely duration and restrictions have been verified by an approved healthcare professional.
How many people claim social assistance?
In 2023-24, there were, on average, 613,298 cases (families and single adults) and 916,947 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children) in Ontario’s social assistance programs.
Among the cases, 40 per cent (245,246) were recipients of Ontario Works and 60 per cent (368,052) were recipients of ODSP. And among the beneficiaries, 46 per cent (420,592) were recipients of Ontario Works and 54 per cent (496,355) were recipients of ODSP.
The total number of social assistance cases increased by 27,831 and the beneficiaries increased by 34,617 in 2023-24. These increases in recipients came from Ontario Works (cases and beneficiaries) and from ODSP cases.
To access data on cases and beneficiaries of social assistance in Ontario, including disaggregated data, download the spreadsheet here.
Ontario Works
On average, there were 245,246 cases receiving Ontario Works in 2023-24, a sharp increase of almost 28,000 from 2022-23. The number of beneficiaries also increased to about 420,600 in 2023-24, over 36,000 more than in the previous year.
The number of cases and beneficiaries, on average, increased by 12.7 and 9.5 per cent, respectively. Since 2016-17, both cases and beneficiaries had been decreasing, and, in 2021-22, reached their lowest since we began tracking social assistance numbers in 1996-97.
Figure 1ON: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of Ontario Works, 1997-98 to 2023-24
Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
In 2023-24, there were, on average, 368,052 cases and 496,355 beneficiaries receiving ODSP. After steadily rising since the early 2000s, both numbers decreased between 2020-21 and 2022-23. From the previous year, the number of cases increased 0.1 per cent by 224 while beneficiaries, on average, decreased 0.3 per cent by about 1,700.
Figure 2ON: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of ODSP, 1997-98 to 2023-24
What proportion of the population receives social assistance?
In 2023-24, on average, 7.2 per cent of people in Ontario under 65 received Ontario Works or ODSP, which is about 1 in 14.
The proportion of people under 65 receiving ODSP decreased to 3.9 per cent in 2023-24, the fourth year in a row the number decreased. Previously, the proportion had increased consistently since 2005-06, reaching a high of 4.3 per cent in 2019-20.
The proportion of Ontario Works beneficiaries declined sharply from 8 per cent in 1997-98 to 4 per cent in 2001-02. Since then, it has remained within a range of 2.9 to 4.1 per cent. In 2021-22, the proportion reached its lowest point at 2.9 per cent, but it increased in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, rising to 3.3 per cent.
Note: The total population under 65 is estimated on July 1 of the fiscal year (e.g., July 1, 2023, for 2023-24), whereas social assistance beneficiary data is a fiscal year average (April 1 to March 31).
Figure 3ON: Yearly beneficiaries of Ontario Works and ODSP as a proportion of the under-65 population of Ontario, 1997-98 to 2023-24
Who is receiving social assistance (disaggregated data)?
This section examines disaggregated data on cases and beneficiaries by household type, and cases receiving employment income.
Household type
In 2023-24, on average, unattached singles comprised the majority of social assistance cases among households for both programs, representing 163,878 (67 per cent) of Ontario Works and 296,780 (81 per cent) of ODSP. For both programs, single parents were the second largest percentage of cases, representing 61,464 (25 per cent) for Ontario Works and 32,918 (9 per cent) for ODSP.
For Ontario Works, single parent households had the highest proportion of beneficiaries, on average, representing 178,794 (about 43 per cent) followed by unattached singles, representing 39 per cent. Unattached singles comprised the majority of ODSP beneficiaries, representing 296,780 (60 per cent), followed by single parent households, representing 85,946 (over 17 per cent).
Figure 4ON: Cases and beneficiaries of Ontario Works by household, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Cases
Beneficiaries
Figure 5ON: Cases and beneficiaries of ODSP by household, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Cases
Beneficiaries
Employment income
In Ontario, employment income refers to any employment earnings reported in the most recent income reporting period.
For individuals receiving assistance from Ontario Works and ODSP, recipients are required to report any earnings they or their family members receive during a specific reporting period. The reported income can impact the amount of financial assistance they receive in the following month.
There are two exceptions:
- Earnings of children under 18 years of age are fully exempt.
- If the primary applicant or their family member is enrolled full-time in high school or postsecondary education, exemptions may apply to their earnings or the family member’s earnings.
In 2023-24, on average, 8.2 per cent of Ontario Works cases had employment income. Cases receiving ODSP are more likely to have employment income at 10.3 per cent. ODSP numbers have steadily increased since 2020-21, while OW numbers dropped in 2023-24 compared to last year.
Figure 6ON: Percentage of Ontario Works and ODSP cases with employment income, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Additional disaggregated data on gender and age is available for download below.
It’s important to note that while the sex distribution of Ontario Works and ODSP are typically balanced between males and females, the sex of single households reveals a more pronounced gender pattern. Typically, unattached singles are predominantly male, while single parents are primarily female.
Access to data
The data on social assistance recipients in Ontario is available for download, including:
- Total number of cases and beneficiaries;
- Percentage of beneficiaries relative to the total under-65 population;
- Cases and beneficiaries by household type;
- Cases and beneficiaries by sex;
- Single households by sex;
- Adults beneficiaries by age category; and
- Percentage of cases receiving employment income.
Data notes
- The data reflects the average number of cases and beneficiaries over the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31).
- The numbers include First Nations living on reserves.
- Ontario Works was proclaimed on May 1, 1998, and replaced the General Welfare Assistance Act (GWA).
- Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) was proclaimed on June 1, 1998, and replaced the Family Benefits Act (FBA).
- Data prior to June 1998 have been adjusted to reflect Ontario Works and ODSP.
- Click here for more information about how the data is gathered.
Resources
- Download the all-Canada report as a PDF
- Download the data for Ontario
- Download the data for all of Canada
- Further breakdowns on social assistance caseload data in Ontario can be found on the province’s website