Ontario’s Ministry of Education has accepted all 14 recommendations following a new Ombudsman investigation that found five direct‑payment programs launched between 2020 and 2023 unfairly denied funds to eligible parents and guardians.The report — Catching Up on Fairness — outlines how families seeking financial support during school disruptions were repeatedly turned away because someone else had already claimed payments for their child. The Ombudsman’s Office received more than 200 complaints across the five programs, from the early Support for Parents and Support for Families initiatives in 2020 to the Catch Up Payments issued in 2023.According to the report, the Ministry launched the first program during a 2020 labour disruption and rolled out subsequent ones during COVID‑19 school closures. While the programs distributed over $2 billion to families, investigators found they were rushed, inconsistently managed, and repeated the same flaws each time.Among the most significant issues laid out by acting Ombudsman Barbara Finlay was that first‑come, first‑served applications allowed anyone to claim funds for a child, with no verification of custody. Parents in high‑conflict or abusive situations were told to “work it out themselves,” even when an ex‑partner with no contact with the child claimed the money, and bureaucrats under pressure “rolled over” eligibility from one program to the next, meaning families unfairly denied once were denied again.By the final program, the Ministry had received tens of thousands of complaints and could not keep up, and Finlay determined that the Ministry did not track improperly distributed funds, leaving the total amount unknown.“Hundreds of families were denied benefits to which they were entitled,” Finlay wrote, noting that the Ministry failed to implement fixes even as problems repeated.Among Finlay’s recommendations is the call for any future direct‑payment programs to be properly planned and staffed, with enough resources to process applications and complaints built on clear eligibility rules and a consistent method for verifying applicants.