Six key takeaways from Welfare in Canada, 2023
Posted on September 16, 2024 in Social Security Policy Context
Source: Maytree.com — Authors: Jennefer Laidley, Mohy-Dean Tabbara
Maytree.com – WIC2023
September 10, 2024. Jennefer Laidley, Mohy-Dean Tabbara
Interpreting the data: Key takeaways from Welfare in Canada, 2023
For nearly 40 years, the annual Welfare in Canada series and its predecessors have documented the depth of poverty that persists for people receiving social assistance.
The 2023 edition builds on this work to provide a resource for evaluating Canada’s progress on fulfilling the human right to an adequate standard of living.
This policy brief highlights the report’s six main findings:
- Total welfare incomes were deeply inadequate across Canada in 2023.
- Increases to social assistance benefits between 2018 and 2023 were uneven across jurisdictions.
- Very few jurisdictions have indexed benefits and tax credits to inflation as of 2023.
- Many jurisdictions allowed only flat-rate earnings exemptions, which restricted the ability of households receiving social assistance to improve their total incomes through work.
- In all jurisdictions, federal income supports for unattached single households were very limited.
- The federal Canada Disability Benefit, which is to be delivered in summer of 2025, is unlikely to lift social assistance recipients with disabilities out of poverty.
We recommend the following policy actions:
- Provinces and territories should invest in higher social assistance benefits and tax-delivered income supports.
- Governments at all levels should index all social assistance benefits and tax-delivered benefits or credits to inflation where they don’t already do so.
- Provincial and territorial governments should improve earned income exemptions.
- The federal government must deliver a Canada Disability Benefit that is generous and accessible, and supplements existing supports.
- All provinces and territories must commit to ensuring the Canada Disability Benefit does not reduce social assistance benefits.
- The federal government should invest in targeted income supports for people living in poverty across Canada.
https://mailchi.mp/maytree/wic2023-brief?e=de33f0d3f7
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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