Population Aging and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)

Authors

  • Don Kerr Professor, Department of Sociology, Kings University College at Western University
  • Tracy Smith-Carrier Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Kings University College at Western University
  • Juyan Wang Western University
  • Dora Tam Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary
  • Siu Ming Kwok Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v6i4.382

Keywords:

Disability, Social Assistance, Income support, Demography, Population Aging

Abstract

The number of beneficiaries on social assistance in Ontario is not of minor importance, with almost a million (964,182) participants province wide in 2016.   The number of persons on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) has rapidly increased, from about 280,000 in 2003 to over 475,000 in late 2016, for a rather dramatic increase of about 70 per cent.  The reasons for this increase in ODSP are not straightforward, although population aging has frequently been cited as an important factor contributing to this growth.  The primary purpose of the current paper is to provide a quantitative fix as to the relative importance of population growth and shifts in Canada’s age distribution to the rather pronounced increase in ODSP participation. We estimate here that demography alone can be considered responsible for only about 28 per cent of the overall growth in ODSP over the 2003-2014 period.  The relatively modest impact of demography was less than initially anticipated in light of the distinct age/sex pattern of ODSP participants and some rather important shifts in the age sex structure of Ontario.  

Author Biographies

Don Kerr, Professor, Department of Sociology, Kings University College at Western University

Professor, Department of Sociology, Kings University College at Western University

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Kings University College at Western University

Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Kings University College at Western University

Dora Tam, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

Siu Ming Kwok, Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

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Published

2017-11-24

How to Cite

Kerr, D., Smith-Carrier, T., Wang, J., Tam, D., & Kwok, S. M. (2017). Population Aging and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 6(4), 33–55. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v6i4.382

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 4 (2017)

Section

Articles

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