TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government is condemning the developmentally disabled who receive benefits to a life of poverty by clawing back what they earn, critics charged Thursday.

The government takes back half the earnings of disabled people who find a job while collecting up to $999 a month under Ontario's disability support program, said NDP critic Michael Prue.

The disabled have a hard enough time finding work that pays a decent wage without being punished for trying to better their lives, he said.

"We find this heinous," Prue said.

"What in effect it does, is it said that if you are born with a developmental disability, you for all times are destined to poverty -- there's no way out."

Those who receive the benefit actually receive an additional $100 a month if they find work, said Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews.

But the province deducts 50 cents from the monthly benefit for every dollar the recipient earns, she said.

"It's not a pension, like if you have a disability, you'll get it," Matthews said.

"It's a needs-based program, so there are asset tests and so on."

Similar complaints about the program have come up in consultations about what the province can do to fight poverty, she acknowledged.

"This is something that I think we have some work to do on, but we've made enormous progress," Matthews said.

For example, the rules have been changed to maintain drug benefits for those who work themselves off the benefit program, she said.

But that doesn't help if the system ultimately discourages the disabled from seeking work, said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.

"Disabled people should have every opportunity to be properly treated and to be encouraged to do work if they can," he said.

"It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of saying, `Look, you're actually stopping people from doing things they want to do -- they could do -- that would be good for us and good for them, through some artifice of public policy."'

Prue said he wants to see the province eliminate the clawback, but he's not holding his breath.

"We have pointed out to them that we consider this to be one of the worst aspects of the province's present poverty strategy -- that they have not addressed this, that they have not done anything about it," he said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has insisted that his government will find a way to keep its promise to help people living in poverty despite Ontario's economic woes.

But he's warned that the poverty reduction plan will have to be delayed due to the impact of the faltering economy on the province's revenues.