1. Complete your application and get the decision

When the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) makes a decision about your assistance, they're supposed to put it in writing. This is called a Notice of Decision.

The Notice of Decision is supposed to include the reasons for the decision.

The Notice of Decision comes from:

• the Disability Adjudication Unit, if the decision is about whether you're a person with a disability
• your local ODSP office, if the decision is about anything else, such as whether you qualify financially

Being refused for financial reasons

Your local ODSP office decides whether you qualify financially for income support.

If they say that you don't qualify financially and you appeal that decision, you should still go ahead with the next step in your application. You can do this while you wait for the Social Benefits Tribunal to decide about your appeal.

Completing the Disability Determination Package

For most people, the next step in their application is completing the Disability Determination Package. You do this to show that you're a “person with a disability”.

You get a Disability Determination Package from the ODSP worker. The forms have to be completed and you have to send them to the Disability Adjudication Unit.

It's important to do this. If you win your appeal about qualifying financially, you might be able to get income support from the date that the Disability Adjudication Unit received your completed application.

But if you're someone who does not need to prove that they meet the ODSP definition of a “person with a disability”, you don't have to do this. This is because your application is complete when you give the local ODSP office all the information they need to decide whether you qualify financially.

If your income support is being cut off or reduced for financial reasons

You may want to contact your ODSP worker if:

• you don't understand the decision
• you don't understand the reasons for the decision
• you can give ODSP information that might change the decision

Talking to your worker might help. But you don't have to do this. And if your income support is cut off or reduced because of a decision by the Disability Adjudication Unit, your worker can't change that decision.

Getting help

For help and advice about appealing, contact a community legal clinic.