Joyce Nieuwesteeg receives $925 each month to live on.

The 63-year-old Waterloo region resident has spina bifida and depends on the monthly payments from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) to live.

“It’s never enough.” said Nieuwesteeg. “It’s never been enough.”

While her home in Waterloo is subsidized, she says she still needs to stretch every dollar so she can afford the bare necessities, like food.

“Once that’s paid for, [there is] nothing really left. If I can’t do it, I do without, period,” said Nieuwesteeg.

Earlier this week, the Ontario government announced it is following through with an earlier promise to bolster the support people receive through ODSP.

For those living on ODSP, it means they will receive an extra $58.45 per month.

“In a way, it does feel like a bit of a punishment,” said Nieuwesteeg. “I can’t help the fact that I was born with a disability.”

A single person can receive up to $1,169 a month on the program, or $14,028 a year.

That figure is well below the provincial poverty line of $20,000.

The five per cent raise is the first increase ODSP recipients have seen since 2018.

Advocates say the government needs to do more to address the living wage gap those living on ODSP face.

“It’s better than zero but still leaves folks in deep, deep poverty,” said Greg Degroot-Maggette, advocacy associate with the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario (MCCO).

Degroot-Maggetti is in charge of poverty advocacy at MCCO and says the current rate is simply not enough.

“We joined many, many other organizations across the province calling on the provincial government to double those rates to get people at least close to the poverty line,” said Degroot-Maggetti.

When Ontario’s finance minister was recently asked if he could survive on $1,200 a month, he said the rates were being adjusted to inflation.

“This is a step in the right direction, and this is a direction of adjusting it to inflation, in addition to the multiple programs and services that we have to support the most vulnerable,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Finance Minister of Ontario.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services said the rate increase is “the largest increase in over a decade.” Adding that “we’re tying ODSP rates to inflation, helping people pay for life’s essentials.”

Rebekah Haynes also receives ODSP and says it’s a struggle every month.

“It doesn’t go very far,” said Haynes. The cost of everything is so expensive. It doesn’t really do much.”

“I didn’t choose to get into this situation I’m at,” said Haynes.