What are an Ontario Works recipient’s responsibilities?

General Rule: If your client is receiving Ontario Works, they, and the adult members of their family that receive money from the program, will have responsibilities which they have to meet in order to continue receiving assistance. If they don’t meet these responsibilities, any assistance they receive from Ontario Works could be reduced, terminated or suspended. If your client is single and doesn’t support a family on their Ontario Works payments, they will likely have their assistance cancelled if they don’t meet these responsibilities. If they are supporting a family, their payments might be suspended or reduced, but shouldn’t be cancelled.

Some general responsibilities that all Ontario Works recipients have:

1. Income & Employment-Related Responsibilities:
   • Agree to participate in employment assistance activities, as outlined in their Participation Agreement. For more information, see: “What Is a Participation Agreement?”
   • Make reasonable efforts to find, accept and keep a job
   • Report any earned income (e.g., employment, training program, CPP, etc.)
   • Make reasonable efforts to get any other income they are entitled to (e.g., spousal support, EI, etc.)
   • Repay money they are not entitled to (e.g., overpayments, Transition Child Benefit money received in the same month as the Ontario Child Benefit and/or the National Child Benefit Supplement, etc.)
2. Administrative Responsibilities:
   • Keep receipts and statements for income, assets and expenses, in case Ontario Works wants to verify them
   • Update Ontario Works on changes in circumstances (e.g., getting fired, being taken into custody, moving to a new address, etc.). For more information, see: “What are recipients required to report to Ontario Works?”
   • Provide documents to Ontario Works if requested
   • Attend meetings with Ontario Works if requested

How You Can Help:

• Step 1: If your client is having trouble meeting their responsibilities, help them contact their caseworker to talk about changes they can make to their Participation Agreement. 
• Step 2: If their caseworker doesn’t agree to the requested changes and your client wants to dispute the decision, refer them to a legal clinic.

More information on employment assistance activities can be found here.