25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction

March 3: Special Diet Program in Peril: Take Action Now!

“In breaking the cycle of poverty, you have to treat people with dignity.”

Who said it? New Brunswick’s Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock, on announcing the implementation of changes to that province’s social assistance system. See the Telegraph-Journal story at http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/958063.

Government considering scrapping the program in response

Discrimination. That’s the ruling of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario on the way the province’s Special Diet Allowance Program provides benefits to three people who made human rights complaints.

On February 17, the Tribunal issued its decision that the way the program is administered in these three cases violates the Human Rights Code. These three cases are lead cases in a Tribunal proceeding that involves human rights complaints from nearly 200 other people and Social Benefit Tribunal complaints from another 800 people, so the implications are large.

The Tribunal has ordered the government to increase the benefit amounts for these three people – and any other Special Diet recipients with the same medical conditions. And it set out the legal test that will help determine the outcome of the nearly 200 human rights complaints.

But the government seems to be thinking about scrapping the program altogether. A recent internal memo from OW and ODSP highlights a rumor that the government is considering eliminating the Special Diet Allowance program – but does not deny the rumor.

The 25 in 5 Network has sent a letter to Ministers Meilleur, Duncan, and Broten, and to Premier McGuinty calling on them to ensure that the Special Diet Program is maintained and strengthened. There must be no consideration of eliminating the Program.

The Special Diet Allowance program is too important to lose. Take Action Now!

Read 25 in 5’s letter to Minister Meilleur, Minister Duncan, Minister Broten, and Premier McGuinty. info@25in5.ca

Read the Income Security Advocacy Centre’s press release on this issue here

Read ISAC’s backgrounder for more information

Read this recent Toronto Star article about the Tribunal’s decision

Contact the Ministers and your MPP: Tell them Special Diet is too important to be cut!

Send a letter or email to Minister Meilleur, Minister Broten, and the Premier.

You can use the 25 in 5 letter [please provide link] as a template for your own letter.

Call, write or email your MPP about the importance of the Special Diet Allowance.

Especially if you receive the Special Diet Allowance – your voice needs to be heard.

The ODSP Action Coalition has prepared a lobby kit with tips about points you can make in phone calls or letters. See the lobby kit here.

A list of contact information for all MPPs (including postal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses) can be found at this link.

And if you send a letter, please send us a copy at info@25in5.ca.

The Special Diet Allowance program is a long-standing part of Ontario’s social assistance system. It is intended to relieve the disadvantage faced by people who have extra dietary costs related to a confirmed medical condition.

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario’s decision is a huge victory.

But how will the government react? Will they obey the order to pay more? Will they try to get a higher court to overturn the decision? Or will they remove the Special Diet Allowance from ODSP and OW legislation entirely?

Thousands of people in Ontario have medical conditions that require specific diets, and would be seriously hurt if the Special Diet Allowance is eliminated. Now more than ever, people must speak up about the importance of this program.

What do people who are affected by decisions made by politicians and bureaucrats really think?

About the Special Diet program and other benefits provided through OW and ODSP.

About opportunity.

And about hope for the future.

The People’s review of Social Assistance has begun. And Peacock Poverty is there.

Peacock Poverty will be bringing you the story of the People’s Blueprint for Social Assistance Review in Ontario from a Grassroots and “on the ground” perspective. Because that is what the Panel is and intends to be: outside of agency agenda or scripting. Our voices. Our Blueprint.

Keep up with the People’s Review at www.peacockpoverty.org.

The Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition (ISARC) is mobilizing again to provide opportunities for the most vulnerable of our society to tell their stories of living in poverty.

In 2010, Hearings will take place across Ontario as part of ISARC’s Social Audit. This Social Audit seeks to communicate the social effects of the current Ontario government’s policies and actions towards people living in poverty and our society as a whole.

Click here to find out how you can get involved and where ISARC hopes to hold the province-wide hearings.

Contact ISARC at info@isarc.ca if you would like to help out.

The Social Assistance Advisory Review Council (SARAC) will be reporting to the Ontario government by April on the way forward for a comprehensive review of Social Assistance.

SARAC was established in December 2009 to give advice to the Minister of Community and Social Services on the government’s promised Social Assistance Review, and includes many members of 25 in 5 and partners in anti-poverty work.

Click here to find out more, including ways to provide your feedback.

Reform is needed on social program rules that prevent people on OW and ODSP from saving in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), according to a new study by John Stapleton, for the C.D. Howe Institute.

In “Down but Not Out: Reforming Social Assistance Rules that Punish the Poor for Saving,”    Stapleton says that encouraging asset accumulation, even in small amounts, is crucial in helping to lift people out of poverty.

But most Canadian welfare, disability and social service programs deny or cancel benefits if applicants or recipients put a modest level of savings in an RRSP or TFSA.

Barring a province-led effort at reform, says Stapleton, the federal government should take the lead by calling on provinces and territories to exempt meaningful RRSP and TFSA amounts from their welfare asset rules, leaving individual jurisdictions to decide the appropriate levels

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