ODSP Application: How to Apply, the Disability Determination Package and Appeals

The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) gives income support and health benefits to Ontario residents with a disability who are in financial need. You can apply online, by phone or in person at a local ODSP office. ODSP checks your finances first; once you qualify financially, you get the Disability Determination Package for your health care professional to complete. Ontario says the process may take a few months. If you need money in the meantime, one online application covers Ontario Works and ODSP together.

On this page: Who can apply · How to apply · What you need · Financial check · Disability determination · How long · While you wait · After a decision · Review and appeal

Who can apply for ODSP?

You must be 18 or older, though you can start the application up to 6 months before your 18th birthday. You also have to live in Ontario and be in financial need, and either meet ODSP’s definition of a person with a disability or belong to a prescribed class (below). The asset limits are on the ODSP page.

Other disability programs, such as the Canada Disability Benefit and CPP disability, are separate applications (where to start). If you left ODSP and need it again, rapid reinstatement can restart it without a new disability assessment (leaving ODSP for work).

How do you apply for ODSP?

There are three ways in:

• Online, through Ontario’s social assistance application. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and one application covers you and the close family members you live with. Everyone included needs to be with you when you apply, to consent and confirm their details.
• By phone, on the Social Assistance Support Line at 1-888-999-1142 (TTY 1-800-387-5559), Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (ET).
• In person, by appointment at your local ODSP office.

Under Ontario’s ODSP policy, people who need money right away should apply through an Ontario Works office. On that route you first qualify financially for Ontario Works, and are then referred for the disability determination and given the package. If you’re on Ontario Works already, ODSP shouldn’t ask again for documents your Ontario Works office has checked (moving from Ontario Works to ODSP).

An advocate, friend or family member can come to the application interview with you. If a disability keeps you from making and signing the application, a responsible person can do it for you.

Is there an ODSP application form to print?

Ontario’s ODSP page lists three ways to apply and no printable application. The paper comes later: the Disability Determination Package, once you qualify financially. Other ODSP forms in Ontario’s forms catalogue are ones a caseworker may ask for. The Mandatory Special Necessities form is for people already on ODSP (extra benefits).

What do you need to apply?

Ontario suggests having your family’s identification and papers ready: social insurance numbers, OHIP cards, birth certificates, immigration papers, tax returns and banking information. The application asks for names, dates of birth and status in Canada, monthly income and assets, housing and other costs such as child care, and a bank account for deposits if you have one.

Financial check: do you qualify?

ODSP looks at your income and assets, living expenses, family size and make-up, and shelter costs; the limits are on the ODSP page. A caseworker from your local office reviews the application and calls within 15 business days to book a verification appointment. There, you’re asked for papers that back up your application, such as:

• proof of income or work
• shelter costs and proof that you live in Ontario
• bank statements for at least the month before you applied, up to 12 months in some cases
• details of other assets, such as stocks, bonds or investments

You may also sign a consent letting ODSP check information about you with other government programs and organizations. If nothing more is needed, the caseworker tells you within 15 business days whether you qualify financially. If not, you can ask ODSP to review your information again, under the deadline set out in review and appeal.

Disability determination: how does ODSP decide?

• You have a substantial physical or mental impairment that is continuous or recurrent and is expected to last 1 year or more.
• The combined effect of the impairment on looking after yourself, getting around in the community and functioning in a workplace causes a substantial restriction in at least one of those everyday activities.
• The impairment, how long it is likely to last and the restriction it causes have been verified by an approved health care professional.
• A person appointed by the Director of ODSP decides whether you meet the definition.
• You complete a Disability Determination Package with your health care professional and return it within 90 days, or your application is treated as withdrawn unless you ask in writing for an extension and it is approved.
• You do not have to go through the disability determination if you belong to a prescribed class; you must still apply and meet every other ODSP eligibility requirement (income, assets, living in Ontario and so on).
• Prescribed class: you receive Canada Pension Plan disability benefits or a Quebec Pension Plan disability pension (you are treated as still receiving it for 3 months after the last month it is paid).
• Prescribed class: you are 65 or older and not eligible for an Old Age Security pension.
• Prescribed class: you have been found eligible for services, supports and funding under the Services and Supports to Promote the Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act, 2008.
• Prescribed class: you live in a home for special care established, licensed or approved under the Homes for Special Care Act.
• Prescribed class: you are a former resident of a home for special care who lived there at any time on or after January 1, 2018.
• Prescribed class: you are a resident or former resident of a home in the Community Homes for Opportunity program.
• Prescribed class: you are a former resident of a facility designated under Schedule 1 to Regulation 272 under the Developmental Services Act who left it on or after June 1, 1998.
• Prescribed class: you are a resident of a psychiatric facility under the Mental Health Act that was formerly designated as an institution under the Mental Hospitals Act and became part of another facility when hospital services were restructured.
• Prescribed class: you are a resident of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
• Prescribed class: you are a resident of the Homewood Health Centre in Guelph.
• Prescribed class: on May 31, 1998 you were receiving benefits under specified provisions of the Family Benefits Act (the regulation sets the exact provisions).
• Prescribed class: on May 31, 1998 you were the spouse of a recipient of certain Family Benefits Act benefits and you are no longer that person's spouse (with conditions in the regulation).
• Prescribed class: you receive an award under the English and Wabigoon River Systems Mercury Contamination Settlement Agreement Act, 1986.

The package. Once you qualify financially, you receive a paper Disability Determination Package. It has five parts:

• instructions on how to complete the forms and who can
• a Health Status Report on your medical condition
• an Activities of Daily Living Index on how the condition affects work, caring for yourself and taking part in your community
• a Self Report, where you describe the effect on your daily life yourself (someone can help you)
• a consent to release medical information, which you sign

Who completes it. An approved health care professional, such as a family doctor, registered nurse, nurse practitioner or psychologist, fills in the medical forms. One professional can do both the health report and the daily-living index, or two can split them, each signing their part. The daily-living part can also be completed by a wider group, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers. Ontario’s page for health care professionals says physicians bill OHIP and other professionals invoice the ministry. Clinical notes, hospital reports and assessments can go in with the forms.

Sending it back. A paper package goes by mail in the addressed envelope that comes with it, and the ministry accepts original forms only. Your professional can instead send it digitally, with your signed consent and Self Report. To ask for more time, contact the Disability Adjudication Unit at 1-888-256-6758 (TTY 1-866-780-6050; 416-326-5079 in the Toronto area), Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Ontario’s eligibility page says the request has to be in writing and approved, or the application is treated as withdrawn.

Who decides. Specialized ministry staff, including doctors, nurses and occupational therapists, review the package, working from the paperwork rather than seeing you in person.

How long does an ODSP application take?

A few months, by Ontario’s estimate. The official timelines:

• a caseworker calls within 15 business days to book the verification appointment
• the financial answer comes within 15 business days, if nothing more is needed
• you have 90 days to return the package
• the Disability Adjudication Unit’s letter comes within 90 business days

To check an online application, use Ontario’s status checker with the application number from your confirmation email or page. If you applied by phone or in person, call the Social Assistance Support Line.

What happens while you wait?

If you don’t have enough to live on while ODSP reviews your application, you can apply for Ontario Works and ODSP at the same time online. Ontario Works decides first, and if you qualify, it pays you while ODSP assesses your application (applying for Ontario Works).

ODSP asks applicants to keep it up to date on changes. MyBenefits lets you continue an application and report changes (sign in).

What happens after a decision?

If the Disability Adjudication Unit finds that you meet the definition, your local office confirms you still qualify financially, and you then get income support. Your caseworker books an appointment to make a plan and tells you when the first payment comes. If you’re on Ontario Works, ODSP’s policy is to start income support within 15 business days of the office hearing from the Unit that you qualify. If your condition may improve, you also get a medical review date. Amounts, dates and extras: how much ODSP pays, payment dates, extra benefits.

If the answer is no, the next section covers what you can do.

How do you ask for a review or appeal an ODSP decision?

Ontario lets you ask for an internal review of any decision about your social assistance that you disagree with, and then you may be able to appeal to the Social Benefits Tribunal. The rule, from Ontario’s internal reviews and appeals page:

• You can ask for an internal review of any decision about your Ontario Works or ODSP assistance that you disagree with, such as a refused application, a finding that you aren't a person with a disability, or a change to or end of your payments.
• Ask for the internal review within 30 days of receiving the decision; the decision letter gives the exact deadline.
• If you miss the deadline or need more time because of special circumstances, explain why in your request.
• The request must be in writing, by letter or on the program's Request for Internal Review form; you can call first, but you still have to follow up in writing.
• You should receive the result within 30 days of your request being received.
• If you cancel your internal review request, you can't later appeal the same decision to the Social Benefits Tribunal.
• If you disagree with the internal review decision, you can appeal to the Social Benefits Tribunal within 30 days of receiving it.
• You can also appeal if you haven't received an internal review decision within 30 days of your request.
• Some decisions can't be appealed to the Tribunal; the internal review decision letter says whether yours can.
• While you wait for the hearing, you can apply on the Appeal Form for interim assistance if you have been receiving Ontario Works or ODSP income support and the decision you are appealing causes you financial hardship.
• Interim assistance isn't available if you are appealing a decision on your application for Ontario Works or ODSP.

Where to send the request. Send it to the office or unit named at the top of your decision letter: the Disability Adjudication Unit for a disability decision, the Social Assistance Intake Unit if your application’s letter came from that unit, or MyBenefits or your local office for other decisions. Use the Request for Internal Review form or a letter that says you are asking for an internal review and gives your name, date of birth, member ID and reasons, plus anything else that could help. For a disability decision, add new medical information, such as specialist or psychological reports.

The Tribunal. The Social Benefits Tribunal is separate from the ministry and the local offices. Filing is free, by email, mail or fax, and the Appeal Form is online, at ODSP and Ontario Works offices and at legal clinics. Past the deadline but within a year of the internal review decision, you have to ask the Tribunal for more time. In a disability appeal, new medical documents go to both the Disability Adjudication Unit and the Tribunal. The hearing is usually several months away, by phone, video or in writing; you explain why you disagree, the office may send someone, and a Tribunal member decides. Legal Aid Ontario can connect you with a community legal clinic.

Appeals for other programs, such as EI and CPP: how to appeal a benefit decision.

Where to go next

• ODSP: what it pays, payment dates and working while on ODSP
• Ontario Works
• Disability benefits in Canada
• Disability Tax Credit