Auditor Report about OW: Overpayments. Underpayments. Gas.

•  The auditor General of Ontario says that “The province has yet to collect $730 million in overpayments made to recipients over several years — roughly $100 million occurred in the last four — but it does not track the cause of those overpayments, making it difficult to prevent them in the future, Lysyk said. “  Auditor General Report (page 8).  //bit.ly/2QZ4Lxm
• For example in 2017— overpayments were $2619.05 on average, which is the cost of a one bedroom apartment for one month. Interestingly, the auditor doesn’t give this number for context. [Math: $2619.05 = $11 million / 4200 cases]
• Auditor did not report on the outcomes or adequacy of OW. In other words, the auditor analyzed the costs of the program to the government / taxpayer but not the effect of programs.

An example: The Auditor talks about costs but not the effects of the Special Diet:

…[in general] the self-reported allergy to milk and wheat is just 0.7% and 0.4% across Canada. In contrast, we found that 4% of all Ontario Works recipients were receiving a special diet allowance for an allergy to milk, and 5% were receiving a special diet allowance for an allergy to wheat.

…Ministry should…identify, investigate, and address improbably high trends in the proportion of recipients who receive the special diet allowance;

Does the Auditor care about the outcomes of lactose consumption by poor folks with lactose intolerance? Or the costs to the taxpayer of digestive problems?

…Let them with lactose intolerance be gassy!