What if someone has a home visit from an Ontario Works worker?

General Rule: Ontario Works workers can visit an applicant or recipient’s home unannounced. If your client refuses a visit without a valid reason, their income assistance can be cancelled. Some examples of valid reasons include:

• Your client or someone in their home is sick
• Your client has visitors in the home, and they don’t want them to know about their application for Ontario Works
• The visit would interfere with a religious practice (e.g., holiday, prayer, ritual, etc.)

How You Can Help:

• Step 1: If your client loses their Ontario Works as a result of refusing a home visit, ask them why they refused. If they think it was for a valid reason, help them contact their caseworker to explain the situation.
• Step 2: If the refused home visit resulted in Ontario Works cancelling your client’s income support and they would like to dispute it, refer them to a legal clinic and make sure they bring their Notice of Decision, if they have it.
• Step 3: If your client can’t receive legal advice, help them complete a form letter for internal review or draft their own letter. Make sure they submit their request within 30 days from when they received the Notice of Decision.
• Step 4: If your client is no longer receiving their income support or is receiving less income support than they usually do, help them make a plan to avoid further civil legal issues, like being evicted for not paying rent, missing support payments or running into debt issues for not paying outstanding bills. If your client will be unable to make these kinds of payments without their income support, you can help them find other funding (e.g., rent bank programs, etc.) or refer them for legal advice before the issues escalate.