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Canadian Press | May 31, 2006

Toronto - Ontario's Ombudsman is calling on the province to pay at least $6- million to disabled people who were denied support payments because of government delays.

Ombudsman André Marin is scathing in his criticism of Ontario's Disability Support Program, which his report describes as a “bureaucratic nightmare.”

Mr. Marin said there is a four-month limit on retroactive benefits for disabled people, even though on average it takes eight months to process an application.

He says that leaves many disabled people and their families struggling to pay bills without the support payments they were clearly entitled to.

The Ombudsman's report talks about applications falling “into a black hole” and vulnerable people paying the financial penalty “through no fault of their own.”

Mr. Marin said the program “systematically restricts payments to individuals as a result of its own delays,” and notes that many disabled people are too intimidated to complain.

“I cannot ignore the egregious impact on those who have already lost significantly because of the effect of this regulation and the Ministry's endemic delays in processing applications,” he wrote in his report.

“I believe the only way to make this situation right is for those who have lost the waiting game to receive the benefits they would have otherwise been entitled to if not for the Ministry's delay.”