Social assistance payment glitch fixed, province says

The Ontario government says a glitch with social assistance transfers thatqueued up $20 million inoverpaymentshas been fixed though efforts are underway to retrieve $300,000 that did end up being received.

A spokeswoman for Social Services Minister HelenaJaczeksays the bug with the new software system was fixed within "24 hours" after being caught Monday during its maiden payout.

• Social assistance computer error sees millions paid out by mistake
• New software should be dumped until fixed, says official
• Software causes havoc for clients, case workers

Amber Anderson says the software allotted $20 million in money transfers and cheques to 17,000 clients with the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works welfare program.

She says 11,000 of the payments to individuals or families were stopped before they went out.

Anderson says around 6,000 of the wrongful direct transfers and cheques did make it out the door but were either pulled back or cancelled though 253 clients did receive a total of around $300,000 yet to be retrieved.

The Ministry of Community and Social Services says in a statement case workers are getting in contact with those clients to try and get the money back.