Rental funding issues

Rental funding issues

August 31, 2016

31 August 2016

A woman applied for Ontario Works benefits and was told she qualified for $1,850 to cover the first and last month's rent payments for an apartment she was moving into in August.

A woman applied for Ontario Works benefits and was told she qualified for $1,850 to cover the first and last month's rent payments for an apartment she was moving into in August. However, a short time later, she was told she only qualified for $825 - the cost of the first month's rent - and wouldn't receive it until the end of the month. Meanwhile, the woman had moved out of her previous apartment on July 31 and was staying in a hotel with her 15-year-old daughter. Our Office intervened to ask why the funding amount changed, and why a funding recipient would only receive a rent payment at the end of the month. When it reviewed the file, local Ontario Works officials found two errors that had impacted the funding, including an error stating the woman had a place to live until the end of August. Ontario Works immediately arranged to send the money to the woman's landlord, and she moved into her new apartment.

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