Ontario not doing enough to verify disability payment eligibility: auditor

Ontario is not doing enough to verify that people receiving disability benefits are actually eligible, with most approved applications marked "disabled for life" and very few ever reviewed, the auditor general has found.

In her annual report, Bonnie Lysyk said that in the past 10 years, the number of Ontario Disability Support Program recipientshas increased by 50 per cent, while the province's population has grown by only 12 per cent.

"There's likely people receiving money that are not entitled to it," Lysyk said.

"We've said [the government]should be looking at that to understand why that's happening and just make sure people who are entitled to it are financially entitled to it and are health-wise entitled to it."

Children, Community and Social Services Minister Todd Smith said the ministry is trying to develop smarter ways to identify andprioritize cases for review and confirm eligibility for ODSP benefits.

80% of applicants not subject to future medical reviews

"Clearly we've seen a steep increase in the number of peoplereceiving ODSP and we want to ensure that those who are receivingODSP actually should be receiving ODSP," he said.

A chart illustrating that figure "shocked the heck out of me," Lysyk said.

The annual cost of the program has risen by about 75 per cent in the past 10 years to about $5.4 billion, Lysyk said.

Over the past four years, the auditor found that the government conducted fewer than two per cent of the eligibility reviews that its own directives say it should.

System stacked against recipients, advocate says

The government could have found $375 million in overpayments and terminated 11,700 cases, leading to $165 million in annual savings,she said. In the past 10 years, Ontario has overpaid ODSP recipientsby nearly $1.1 billion and written off about $400 million in overpayments, the report found.

"I feel like they try to put a lot of blame on the recipients," he said.

New Democrat John Vanthof said a lot of people are already falling through the cracks in the ODSP system and have a hard time accessing services.