5. Answer questions about living together

Make sure you first read Steps 1 to 4.

In Part 3 of the Questionnaire (for Applicants or Recipients who are living with another adult), the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) asks questions about whether you live together as a couple.

ODSP will ask the questions from Part 3 if your answers to Part 2 suggest that you have a financial relationship like that of a married couple. You should not have to answer the questions in Part 3 if your answers to Part 2 did not show this.

Questions in Part 3 of the Questionnaire

Part 3 is about whether the two of you are living together as a couple, which means that your relationship is like a marriage.

To find out about this, ODSP asks questions like:

• Do friends, family members, and others who know you, think you're a couple?
• Do schools, daycare centres, doctors, or other services and organizations you deal with, know the two of you as a couple?
• If you have children from another relationship, do they treat the person you're living with as a parent? Do your children think this person is your spouse?

Whether or not you have a sexual relationship with each other does not matter. ODSP is not allowed to ask about that.

If you do things together because of your disability

You might spend more time with the person you live with because of your disability. Or they might help you with things that are hard for you to do.

ODSP must look at the reasons you live or spend time together when they decide if you're a couple.

If you disagree with the decision

If ODSP decides that the person you're living with is your spouse, they'll say that you have to apply for assistance as a couple.

If you disagree with their decision, you may be able to appeal.

Talk to a community legal clinic if you disagree with the ODSP decision. They may be able to help you appeal the decision.