Glossary
Halfway houses are also called “community residences”. When someone is serving a sentence, they may spend time in a halfway house.
The number of people in your household affects how much income assistance you can get. A household is also called a benefit unit.
A member of your household is someone who:
- lives with you, and
- is your dependant
A dependant is your:
- spouse,
- child or your spouse’s child who’s younger than 18,
- adult child or your spouse’s adult child who depends on you financially
If your spouse lives somewhere else but you’re still in a relationship, they’re part of your household. For example, they might be in another country waiting for a visa or away studying at school.
Income is how much money you get from any source. For example, income includes money you earn from a job, support payments, government benefits like workers’ compensation, or money that family or friends give you as a gift.
Income support is money you get from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) to help pay for living expenses, like housing and food. It also helps pay for some prescription drugs and may help pay for some dental services.
And some people can get:
- extra money to help pay for a special diet
- other benefits, such as costs for travelling to medical appointments
An inheritance is money or other property that you get from someone who has died. It can include life insurance money that you get when someone dies.
Most inheritances come from a parent, another relative, or a close friend.
Interim assistance is financial help you might be able to get while you wait for the Social Benefits Tribunal to decide your appeal.
Before you can appeal a decision about assistance from Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), you must ask for an internal review of the decision.
You can use this letter-writing tool to ask OW for an internal review or to ask ODSP for an internal review.
Someone in the office that made the decision reviews it and decides whether or not to change it. This is a different person than the one who made the decision you disagree with.
In Income Assistance, Child tax benefits
A legal representative is someone you choose to take care of your legal issues.
You can have different legal representatives for different legal issues. For example, you may have a legal representative who only represents you to the Canada Revenue Agency about a Canada child benefit issue.
The Canada Revenue Agency has a process you have to follow to authorize a representative.
Your net earnings are what’s left after your employer takes income tax and other things like Canada Pension Plan or Employment Insurance contributions or union dues from your pay.
Some people call this “take-home pay”.