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Income Security Advocacy Centre

Income Security Advocacy Centre

ISAC works to address issues of income security and poverty in Ontario

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New Legal Challenge to ODSP’s Special Diet Allowance: Neuromyelitis Optica

July 13, 2018

Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recognize that some people with disabilities will have higher food costs because their medical conditions require them to eat a special diet. Both programs provide a “special diet allowance” to people who have one or more specific medical conditions that would allow them to qualify.

The special diet allowance has been the target of numerous legal challenges for over a decade, because the allowance does not provide enough money to afford some of the diets and doesn’t provide any coverage for the special diets required for some medical conditions. This lack of adequate funding can pose a serious threat to the health of social assistance recipients.

In the past, ISAC, the Clinic Resource Office (CRO), and many community legal clinics worked together to bring hundreds of human rights cases to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and the Social Benefits Tribunal. As a result of those cases, the program was improved. For a more detailed summary of that litigation, click here.

ISAC has now joined with the CRO and Mississauga Community Legal Services to bring a new legal challenge on behalf of an ODSP recipient who has neuromyelitis optica (“NMO”). NMO is a condition similar to multiple sclerosis that can cause very serious malnutrition and weight loss. There is a special diet allowance for recipients with unintended weight loss caused by multiple sclerosis. But there is no similar coverage for NMO.

The human rights application was started in June 2018.

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1500 – 55 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
Tel: (416) 597-5820 • Toll Free: 1-866-245-4072 • Fax: (416) 597-5821

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This site contains general legal information for people in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem. ISAC is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization. ISAC is funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). The funding for this website is also provided by LAO. The views expressed in any of ISAC’s publications (including written, oral, or visual) are the views of the clinic and do not necessarily reflect those of LAO.