How much will families receive under the revised Ontario Autism Program? It’s still not clear but it’s likely less than you think.
One of the underreported aspects of the OAP changes is just how few details we have on the program. Almost nothing has been released, so families are scrambling for any information they can get.
There are a few details here. Here’s the key graf on the new “Childhood Budgets”:
The amount of the budget will depend on the length of time a child will be in the program and household income. For example, a child entering the program at age two would be eligible to receive up to $140,000, while a child entering at age seven would receive up to $55,000, during their time in the program. Families with an annual household income under $250,000 will be eligible to receive funding. Eligibility and the amount of funding a family receives will be reviewed annually.
Let’s break this down:
The dollar figures are lifetime. Our understanding is that there would be yearly maximums. Eyeballing the figures, it looks like $5,000 a year maximum for 7-year-olds and up, and $17,000 maximum for 2–6 year olds. But that’s just a guess. *(See the bottom of the piece for an update)
Those are maximums. A family that earns $250,000 a year or more would be ineligible for funding. What we don’t know is at what income level the phaseout starts and how steep the clawbacks will be (since it’s unlikely they’d make it that a family earning $249,999 would get full funding, but a family earning $250,000 gets nothing.)
There is a rumour going around the community that the phaseouts start at $55,000, which would make dual-minimum wage earner couples getting clawed back if they worked enough hours. Some clarity here would be super helpful. Would an 8-year-old from a family earning $90,000 be eligible for $5,500? $5,000? $4,000? $2,500? (Keeping in mind that ABA can run closer to $80,000)
Edited to add: A number of readers from Twitter have confirmed that the $55,000 phase-out figure comes direct from PC MPP Amy Fee. (Thanks for reaching out!) Assuming the MPP didn’t misspeak, this confirms that a dual-minimum wage earner couples could see their funding clawed back. For context, the Ontario government’s new LIFT tax credit, aimed at minimum-wage workers, isn’t clawed back for dual-income families until $60,000.
We also don’t know how the phaseouts work for single parents. Presumably they’d work differently, or else you’d be introducing all kinds of odd “marriage penalties”.
We also have no idea what families could spend the money on, or how the mechanics work (do we have to pay up front and get reimbursed from receipts?)
In closing, there’s not much we know about the funding formula, and the numbers we have seen are inflated, as they are show lifetime, rather than yearly figures, and represent maximum funding levels, not what each family is likely to receive.
Edited to add: I wrote “Eyeballing the figures, it looks like $5,000 a year maximum for 7-year-olds and up, and $17,000 maximum for 2–6 year olds. But that’s just a guess.”
A few readers have pointed out that the government numbers are also consistent with a plan that has a $5,000 a year maximum for 6-year-olds and up, and $20,000 maximum for 2–5 year olds.
So it could be $17,000 (maximum) for kids up to 6, or $20,000 (maximum) for kids up to 5. Who knows?
The government’s release is beyond amateur hour. There’s no details whatsoever, so families are scrambling to figure out what this means for their kids. It’s a complete and utter joke, and I hope the media and others continue to press them for details.
Anyhow, I suspect the 20K figure is more likely, given that governments love round numbers. If that’s the case, then 2–5 year olds receive more than I had anticipated, but 6 year olds much less. This would further reduce the cost for government (since a lot of kids don’t get diagnosed until they’re 4 or older), and weight the funding even more towards boys than girls, since girls tend to get diagnosed later.
