Changes to OSDP and Ontario Works Guidelines for arts grants recipients

As a part­ner in the ODSP and Arts Grants Coali­tion MANO is pleased to announce  a recent change to the rules in the Ontario Dis­abil­i­ty Sup­port Pro­gram (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) will be a huge step for­ward for artists in Ontario who get ben­e­fits from these income sup­port pro­grams and receive arts grants.

On Decem­ber 13, 2017, the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty and Social Ser­vices (MCSS) announced that, effec­tive that day, arts grants are exempt as income and assets in both ODSP and OW. This means that artists who are on OW or ODSP and receive an arts grant will no longer have the mon­ey deduct­ed from their month­ly ben­e­fits, and will not have to risk becom­ing inel­i­gi­ble for con­tin­u­ing sup­port from these pro­grams. This impor­tant change will give artists on ODSP or OW the abil­i­ty to pur­sue the cre­ation of their art with­out fear of los­ing their month­ly income and the health and oth­er ben­e­fits that ODSP and OW pro­vide. It will also reduce the huge admin­is­tra­tive bur­den that artists pre­vi­ous­ly faced with report­ing the funds to ODSP or OW.

Please see HERE for the full infor­ma­tion bul­letin and please cir­cu­late to your memberships.