How CAS Plunders Family Money

September 5, 2008 permalink

An article posted by the administrator of a discussion board, an ex-social worker, describes how families are financially plundered by CAS after taking their children. For families dependent on government assistance, the results can leave them homeless, and ineligible for reunification with their children.

The new board, talkCAS, can be read only by members, but anyone can join. It is a lively group full of insight, though in one respect, the owner is acting like a current social worker: all identifying information in posts is deleted by the administrator.

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Welfare, ODSP, and CAS

Did you know that when a child is apprehended, the CAS will write the government to advise of the apprehension, and to apply to have certain benefits (or portions thereof) re-directed to the CAS?

For instance, if you were receiving the Ontario Child Tax Benefit, CAS would automatically apply to have the cheques sent to their offices instead of the child's parent.

When CAS is involved many parents end up in greater crisis because other such benefits may also be affected (such as: welfare, Ontario disability support, child support payments paid by an ex spouse to custodial parent etc etc). Parents are often not aware of this, and end up being paid out by the government for a period of time until the government is contacted by CAS, and funds are re-directed to their offices. As a result, some parents may find they have been overpaid, and then end up having to pay that money back to the government!

Affected parents might end up loosing their government housing or being moved into a smaller unit because the children are not in their care! In turn, the parents could potentially have a harder time getting their children back because if they've been moved to a smaller unit, the home may not have enough bedrooms to suit the number of children!

Worse, affected parents who were relying on those monies might now be unable to pay their bills and as a result, may face eviction all together -- which also makes it harder to show that one has appropriate housing for the children, and harder to get them back!

And last but not least -- when and if the children are returned to the parent(s) -- the CAS leaves it up to the parents to notify the appropriate bodies of government that their children have returned -- and to advise that payments need to be redirected back to them, and NOT to the CAS! How very thoughtful and kind of them!

Last edited by Admin on Fri 05 Sep 2008, 3:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

Source: talkCAS, accessible only to members