Holes in the Social Safety Net: Poverty, Inequality and Social Assistance in Canada

Inez Hillel ()

No 2020-06, CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Abstract: This report looks at Canada’s social safety net before the onset of the crisis caused by COVID-19 and collapsing oil prices. It sets the stage by reviewing trends in poverty and inequality between 1976 and 2018. The report examines the federal government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and its success in reducing poverty for children and seniors. Working-age adults without children have experienced the smallest relative decrease in poverty and currently have the highest poverty rates among any age group. The report analyzes general eligibility criteria and work and training requirements for social assistance, and the adequacy of welfare. National trends show that welfare dependency has fallen significantly between 1998 and 2018. Other significant trends show an increase in the percentage of social assistance recipients reporting a disability, a growing proportion of single adults on welfare and a decrease in the number of families with children receiving social assistance. To reduce poverty and improve welfare adequacy, this report recommends increasing social assistance benefits, raising the minimum wage, improving earning supplements for low-wage workers and extending in-kind benefits to all low-income.

Keywords: Poverty; Inequality; Social Assistance; Canada; Welfare; Living Standards; Earning Supplements; Low-Wage Workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 D63 D84 I31 I32 I38 J18 J30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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