This is the first-ever report dedicated to Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), a hidden part of Ontario’s social assistance system. At only $149/month and frozen since 2019, the PNA is the only personal income for tenants in residential care facilities (RCFs). The report shows that the PNA has lost half its value since 1992, and there seems to be no specific policy or financial reason for this neglect.
This report also highlights how the low PNA increases homelessness and pushes residents to encampments, among many other impacts.
The impacts of Ontario’s low PNA are felt disproportionately in Hamilton. While Hamilton represents only 4% of Ontario’s population, we have roughly 20% of Ontario’s RCF beds.
The report concludes with a call to replace the Personal Needs Allowance with a new Human Dignity Allowance.
This report builds on the work of many others who have advocated for increases to the Personal Needs Allowance in Ontario over the decades. The picture above, for example, is of members of Hamilton’s Coalition of Residential Care Facilities tenants in 2001 bringing a petition about the PNA to Queen’s Park in Toronto.
This report is made possible by financial support from the United Way of Halton Hamilton, and the City of Hamilton’s Enrichment Fund.