More than half a million Ontarians receive some form of government disability support and an advocate for claimants suggests many of these are caused by motor vehicle accident injuries.
“At the end of the day, unpaid claimants don’t just go away. They end up on public support,” said Rhona DesRoches, chair of the board of FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform, in a recent interview with Canadian Underwriter.
DesRoches was commenting on the annual cost to taxpayers of running the Ontario Disability Support Program. That cost rose 75%, from $3.1 billion in 2008/09 to $5.4 billion last year, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk wrote in her annual report, released Dec. 4. The province’s population hit 14.56 million this past July.