In his study, David Ross describes the philosophical and political factors that have played a part in creating a social assistance system which, in effect, penalizes the hard-working. Developments in income security legislation have consistently favoured the "deserving": widowed mothers, the elderly, the blind, the disabled, the unemployed. Despidte the 1966 Canada Assistance Plan's official recognition of need alone as grounds for assistance, little help for low-wage earners has materialized. A further hurdle has been the complex web of social legislation that has developed over the years as a result of federal-provincial jurisdictional disputes ... The result is inadequate and enormously varying aid across the country. Ross proposes a stigma-free solution which would offer immediate relief to the wage-earning poor and leave the way open for continous expansion. Based on ... the child tax credit, the author's proposal would allow the government to increase benefits signigicantly, simply by eliminating the inequitable dependent-child exemption and reducing the tax credit recovery threshold.