The interim autism plan could save the Ontario government over $100 million this fiscal

All things being equal, the Ontario Government’s interim autism program plan to hand out Childhood Budgets to those waiting for services, will surely result in significant savings against the now $600 million budget.

In my article 8 things the government can do to course correct the interim Ontario Autism Program plan, the second thing I called on the government to address was the the poor uptake on Childhood Budgets. We don’t have official ministry numbers, but the Minister had noted during a listening event that roughly 450 out of the 2,000 Childhood Budgets letters had uptake, or a 22.5% success rate. With an uptake this poor, something is amiss. Therefore, if nothing changes, why would we expect the results to change for this interim plan of more Childhood Budgets?

In the interim, there are no details on the volume of letters the government plans to send out. Some government officials said they believe that approximately 1,000 letters per month will be sent out. There’s 8 months from August through March 2020, meaning 8,000 letters will be sent out. At a 22.5% uptake, only 1,800 out of the 8,000 children will get cheques. With a process this flawed, the algorithm is the least of our worries!

So what will this cost the government? Well, based on the Childhood Budgets figures on the Ministry website, as of July 3, 2019, the average Childhood Budget was $16,923 ($4.4 million / 260).

So all things being equal in the way the government processes Childhood Budgets applications, the interim cost will be $30,461,538. The total liability should all 8,000 get their Childhood Budgets is $135,385,615, meaning the government is potentially saving $104,923,077. Keep in mind, that’s IF the Childhood Budgets are fully utilized, something that will not happen. Under-utilization occurs all the time with the Direct Funding model. You miss a few appointments, didn’t account for vacations, change your scheduled hours, etc. This all leads to under-utilization.

Tough pill to swallow if your child is in need of intensive therapy upwards of $8,000 a month. That money is there, it just won’t flow to you. Not with this interim plan.