Cost of problem-plagued computer that administers welfare soars to $294 million
NDP, Conservatives blame Liberals for 'ongoing failure' of Social Assistance Management System

Social Assistance Minister Helena Jacek said another $23 million was added after the government implemented recommendations from a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which called for more training for frontline staff who work with recipients.
The additional costs include $15.7 million to hire more IT staff at the ministry and to train social assistance case workers who complained the SAMS program was too complicated and too time consuming for them to use.
-
Social assistance system fix will cost Ontario, but no one knows how much
-
Social assistance software a headache for city staff, clients
"They have really done a wonderful job and we've been listening to them, and they're finding the situation stable, they can rely on it," said Jacek.
"They're being relieved of some of the manual tasks they had to do in terms of calculation of benefits and so on."
The original tab for the problem-plagued computer system developed by IBM was $242 million, but it kept growing as problems arose with cheques sent to clients.
The province also had to give municipalities an additional $10 million to cover overtime pay for staff who were dealing with upset recipients $20 million in overpayments last December
Case workers more comfortable with system
More than seven million cheques have now been issued properly,and the case workers in municipalities are much more comfortable with the system, added Jacek.