Why some London couples on social assistance live separately

A woman smiles at the camera wearing sunglasses — Diane Devine lives alone in London and pays her rent using money from the Ontario Disability Support Program and Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit. (Kendra Seguin/CBC News)

While moving in with a romantic partner seems like a go-to next step for some long-term couples, the decision is not so straightforward when one or both people are on social assistance, a recent study shows.

Government programs meant to financially support people, such as Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), tend to benefit single people more than couples, according to research from a former government benefit designer.

"Usually if two people move in together, they save money because they save their shelter costs, whereas for people who are on assistance, the opposite happens and they're actually worse off than when they lived together," said John Stapleton, who worked for the Ontario government for more than 20 years and is now a consultant at Open Policy.

"What recipients often find is that it's economically better for them to stay apart," he said. "The programs are designed to produce a sort of legislative loneliness."

Stapleton's study, which is based on real-life conversations he had with Ontario couples considering moving together, found that in some situations, partners would make about 20 per cent less than they did living alone.

In one example, two residents receiving OW each got $733 a month, which totalled $1,466. However, if they lived together as a couple, Stapleton said, their earnings would go down to a total of $1,136.

John Stapleton is a consultant with Open Policy and a former benefit designer with the Ontario government. His new study finds that it is more financially beneficial for some people who receive disability benefits to live alone than move in with a partner. (Submitted by John Stapleton)

Even with a reduced rent split among the two of them, the couple would have less money available than when they lived separately, the study showed.

In London, there are 10,800 people receiving Ontario Works, according to City of London data collected at the end of 2024. More than 7,000 of them are single and another nearly 2,500 are single with dependents. About 1,200 of them are couples or couples with dependents.

"Obviously a lot of them are single people who are single, but then there's going to be people who are in couple relationships who have made the decision not to live together," Stapleton said.

CBC News reached out to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services for comment and will update the story with the response.

Balancing the budget

Londoner Diane Devine has been living alone for three years now, using money from ODSP and the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) to pay her rent. She said she knows of others who could not make ends meet living together.

She lived with a partner for six years, and while the decision to live alone was not based on cost, she did say in her case, the amount of savings that one might expect from living with a partner is not much different from what she pays now as a single person.

"Just because you're living with somebody doesn't mean your cost of living goes down," she said. "Each individual still has the same amount of living expenses."

Changes to cost of living

Nicole Davis, a community advocate at LifeSpin in London, said the topic comes up in her line of work.

"The system is essentially penalizing people for being in relationships," she said. "It kind of forces individuals to choose between financial stability and pursuing a supportive relationship, so it almost [discourages] cohabitation with each other."

A woman smiles at the camera while sitting at a table — Nicole Davis is a community advocate at LifeSpin in London. She says the welfare system is "essentially penalizing people" who pursue romantic relationships and decide to live together. (Submitted by Nicole Davis)

Stapleton said he understands why welfare programs were originally designed so that people living together would not receive as much financial assistance, but times have changed.

"Now we're in a housing crisis and we've got a bunch of fairly poor people who are staying in their own apartments because they're better off to do that than actually move in together," he said.

"People are occupying deeply affordable housing on their own when they'd really rather be together, and of course the landlord or the rooming house operator would love to have that unit freed up so they could run it to another person."

Davis agreed, adding that it is already a challenge for many Londoners to find available units.

"Right now, I feel like programs operate on outdated assumptions that don't really reflect the realities of poverty, disabilities and the high cost of living especially in a city like London," Davis said.

Stapleton said with new realities comes a need for new policies. These include raising social assistance rates for couples, allowing them to pool any earning exemptions and letting new couples continue with the rules relating to singles during their first year living together.

Until then, Stapleton said, couples are not incentivised to become a unit.

"It's heartbreaking because they want to move in together and economically, they can't," he said.