Driving the Poor Deeper Into Poverty The Province and the City of Toronto Team up to Attack the Special Diet http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/329.php

Since 2005, a large part of OCAP's (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) work has involved organizing to obtain and defend access to a benefit known as the Special Diet Allowance (SDA). Under this, people living on the Province's sub poverty social assistance system who obtain the appropriate diagnoses from a medical provider, can receive up to an additional $250 a month for food.

Access to the Special Diet has had to be fought for tooth and nail. Medical providers interested in helping poor people access this benefit are few and far between. Moreover, from the very beginnings of this campaign, we have faced an ongoing struggle against government initiatives to restrict access to the benefit. We have also confronted persistent and pervasive attempts by welfare officialdom to deny the benefit in ways that run counter to the norms of natural justice and administrative fairness that supposedly govern the delivery of social assistance in Ontario.