To support children with special needs and their families while access to the community-based services and supports may be limited or unavailable, and while families remain at home practising physical distancing, eligible expenditures in the programs have been temporarily expanded to support greater flexibility for families. This includes support for those accessing Special Services at Home (SSAH) and Enhanced Respite for Medically Fragile and/or Technology-Dependent Children.
These changes come into effect immediately and will remain in place while communities are under COVID-19 restrictions. Program recipients will be given as much advance notice as possible to prepare for the return of standard protocols, at a future date to be determined by the ministry.
The following categorized list of expenditures are temporarily admissible until further notice:
For SSAH, all other inadmissible expenditures as outlined in the Special Services at Home Guidelines remain in effect.
To reduce the administrative burden on families, the following temporary administrative changes have been implemented, effective immediately, for SSAH and Enhanced Respite.
These changes support the on-going administration of the program for families and agencies while physical distancing requirements remain in place.
As physical distancing is currently mandated by all levels of government, and as many individuals/families may not have access to technology to support an e-signature process, the signature requirements for SSAH and Enhanced Respite invoice and claim forms are now waived until further notice. This includes support worker signatures to confirm that a service was provided.
As accurate record keeping will be essential to help ensure program integrity, Regional Offices and agencies are required to maintain accurate records of verbal and email acceptances.
In order to help families and recipients who are facing challenges to submit their 2019/20 SSAH and Enhanced Respite claims, ministry is waiving the 2019/20 submission deadline to families.
The following changes will allow individuals and families to utilize their direct funding more quickly, while also accommodating the operational challenges being faced by ministry regional offices and transfer payment agencies, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ministry is temporarily waiving the requirement for in-person eligibility assessment to be conducted by Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to ensure that families who were in approved for 2019/20 funding continue to receive their 2020/21 funding without having to be reassessed.
To help ease the financial challenges faced by families who have not been able to submit claims or receive reimbursements for admissible expenditures associated with their 2019/20 SSAH funding, active SSAH recipients will receive a payment of up to $1,000 from their remaining 2019/20 authorized amount. For families with less than $1,000 remaining in their 2019/20 authorized amount, they will be provided with that amount in full.
SSAH recipients are required to continue to submit their claims to be reconciled against the advance payment (up to the maximum of $1,000) of their 2019/20 authorization. Recipients will not be reimbursed for more than their total 2019/20 allocation.
SSAH program recipients who submitted claims for the 2019/20 fiscal year and continue to be eligible for funding in 2020/21 will receive a 3-month pro-rated amount of their annual authorized allocation in advance, a payment equal to one quarter of their annual funding amount for the period of April to June 2020.
SSAH program recipients who have not submitted a claim or have not had their claims processed by the regional offices are required to contact their local ministry regional office to request a pro-rated advance payment.
For Enhanced Respite, the ministry will automatically pre-flow funding to families who were approved for funding in 2019/20, equal to one quarter of the full annual allocation of up to $3,500 per child.
This will provide families with immediate financial help to purchase services and supports, including the new temporary eligible expenses, without waiting to be reimbursed for their claim, enabling families to purchase the supports they need while supporting their child/youth with special needs at home.
Program recipients can continue to submit claims for reimbursement in addition to their advance payment amount, as long as the total value of claims submitted plus their advance payment does not exceed the person’s annual authorized funding amount for the 2020/21 fiscal year.
All recipients of advance payments are required to retain receipts/invoices to reconcile their actual expenditures against their advance payment. Recipients are encouraged to continue to submit claims to the Regional Offices so their remaining budget amount is up to date.
For families accessing both SSAH and Enhanced Respite, recipients should track their claims to ensure claims are only submitted once, to avoid duplicate claims.
Self-admin families:
Families who self-administer their SSAH funding and who receive their payment through Direct Bank Deposit (DBD) will have their payment deposited into their account as per the usual payment process.
Agency-admin families:
For families that have their funding administered by an agency, you may contact your local agency and provide them with the appropriate information that will support an electronic transfer of funds so that this funding can be deposited directly to your account.