Latest news with #socialassistance
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
98% of Canadian households tracked receiving social assistance live below poverty line: report
A report published Thursday found that poverty in Canada remains widespread among those receiving social assistance. The report, titled 'Welfare in Canada, 2024″ and published through Maytree, analyzed social assistance support across Canada. Looking at each of the 10 provinces and three territories, the report looked at welfare incomes of four types of households, with an additional one in Alberta and Manitoba and two in Quebec. The four primary example households are: Unattached single who is considered employable Unattached single with a disability Single parent with one child aged two Couple with two children aged 10 and 15 The report found that 98 per cent of households tracked remained below Canada's poverty line in 2024. In addition, 73 per cent of households tracked were living in 'deep poverty,' which is defined as having incomes below 75 per cent of the poverty threshold. 'It's not just that people are poor, it's that they are deeply poor,' Jennefer Laidley, lead author of the report told 'In a country as rich as Canada, we should all have a social safety net for our income security that provides us with enough income to live above the poverty line at the very least, no matter where we live in the country.' Notably, the report found that unattached single individuals, including those with disabilities, lived in greater poverty than attached households. Laidley the reason is that attached households receive additional federal and provincial benefits for children. 'That makes a huge difference in inadequacy of incomes,' Laidley said. 'The social assistance systems in provinces, territories and federally really need to step up, particularly for single adults who need a lot more support and who make up the majority of people on social assistance.' Geographic disparities Along with disparities in household type, Laidley said geographic disparities were also apparent in the findings, particularly, varied social assistance adequacy across Canada. The poverty lines across Canada, which is calculated via the 2018-base Market Basket Measure (MBM) methodology, also vary. According to Statistics Canada, the approximate poverty lines for a single person monthly across Canada in 2024 are: Newfoundland and Labrador $2,194 Prince Edward Island $2,211 Nova Scotia $2,213 New Brunswick $2,180 Quebec $1,964 Ontario $2,221 Manitoba $2,083 Saskatchewan $2,163 Alberta $2,381 British Columbia $2,272 Yukon $2,682 Northwest Territories $3,265 Nunavut $4,319 According to the report, social assistance income varied from household type and location. For example, social assistance income for single parents with one child was the least inadequate in Nova Scotia, at 57 per cent of the poverty line and 76 per cent of the deep poverty threshold. Meanwhile, Ontario was at 58 per cent of the poverty line and 78 per cent. The household with the most adequate social assistance income for single parents with one child was in Prince Edward Island at 84 per cent of the poverty line. For an unattached single person with a disability, the household with the least adequate social assistance income was the Alberta household receiving Benefits for Every Albertan (BFA), followed by households in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The household with the highest incomes relative to the poverty line were in Newfoundland and Labrador, while households in Alberta receiving Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH). 'The issue around geography is that you're going to be better or worse cared for, better or worse supported, depending on where you live,' Laidley said. 'But really, the primary issue is that no matter where you live in Canada, you're not going to be supported to the level of even the poverty line '..." so geography matters, but it matters less than the depth of the poverty that people on social assistance experience." More support needed While social assistance income varies across Canada and by household type, poverty remains persistent, the report highlights. In Canada, 10.2 per cent of the population — approximately four million Canadians — lived below the poverty line in 2023, according to Statistics Canada. According to the report, while 59 per cent of households saw social assistance incomes rise above inflation, most increases ranged from 2.5 per cent to 11.4 per cent, leaving households still below the poverty line. While some provinces and territories have made progress in social assistance support, with the introduction of some new benefits and investments in current ones, Laidley says more needs to be done. She says higher benefit amounts, more sources of income and better tax credits are some changes Laidley noted needed to help improve financial security in those living on social assistance income. 'I don't think people really understand the depth of poverty that people who are on social assistance have to live with,' Laidley said. 'There's a lot of work to be done and it's not just investing in the economy, it's about investing in people.'
The Herald
04-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald
Sassa investigating clients thought to have other sources of income
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is continuing to review the grants of beneficiaries who may be receiving other sources of income that have not been disclosed to the agency. These individuals appear to be active in the job market and have an income that exceeds the means threshold. Beneficiaries are urged to visit the local Sassa office to check their status. 'Beneficiaries who fail to comply with this process risk having their grants suspended. Continued noncompliance may lead to the permanent lapsing of their grants,' Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said. 'Failure to comply constitutes a violation of the social assistance legislation and may result in corrective action.' Letsatsi said the agency is reviewing its database to root out fraud and ensure they help those in need. No grant has been suspended yet, Letsatsi said. 'Sassa has amended the payment schedule for those beneficiaries who have been requested to come in for a review. From previous reviews, Sassa has become aware that most clients do not maintain their contact details with Sassa, and as a result often don't get notifications that the agency issues. 'While it is a legislative obligation for all beneficiaries to ensure that their contact details are always up to date, and they would have little recourse should their grant be suspended due to failure to respond to a notification issued by Sassa.' An additional payment date has been issued for those placed on review as a way to communicate the need for them to contact Sassa. Failure to contact the agency after two months would lead to the grant being suspended. 'During the time of suspension, the beneficiary has one month to approach Sassa should they believe they still qualify. After this period, the grant will be permanently cancelled and, depending on their circumstances, a fraud investigation will be opened.' TimesLIVE
CBC
17-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Despite housing crisis, Ontario's social assistance rates favour people living alone
While moving in with a romantic partner seems like a go-to next step for some long-term couples, the decision is not so straightforward when one or both people are on social assistance, a recent study shows. Government programs meant to financially support people, such as Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), tend to benefit single people more than couples, according to research from a former government benefit designer. "Usually if two people move in together, they save money because they save their shelter costs, whereas for people who are on assistance, the opposite happens and they're actually worse off when they lived together," said John Stapleton, who worked for the Ontario government for more than 20 years and is now a consultant at Open Policy. "What recipients often find is that it's economically better for them to stay apart," he said. "The programs are designed to produce a sort of legislative loneliness." Stapleton's study, which is based on real-life conversations he had with Ontario couples considering moving together, found that in some situations, partners would make about 20 per cent less than they did living alone. In one example, two residents receiving OW each got $733 a month, which totalled $1,466. However, if they lived together as a couple, Stapleton said, their earnings would go down to a total of $1,136. Even with a reduced rent split among the two of them, the couple would have less money available than when they lived separately, the study showed. In London, there are 10,800 people receiving Ontario Works, according to City of London data collected at the end of 2024. More than 7,000 of them are single and another nearly 2,500 are single with dependents. About 1,200 of them are couples or couples with dependents. "Obviously a lot of them are single people who are single, but then there's going to be people who are in couple relationships who have made the decision not to live together," Stapleton said. CBC News reached out to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services for comment and will update the story with the response. Balancing the budget Londoner Diane Devine has been living alone for three years now, using money from ODSP and the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) to pay her rent. She said she knows of others who could not make ends meet living together. She lived with a partner for six years, and while the decision to live alone was not based on cost, she did say in her case, the amount of savings that one might expect from living with a partner is not much different from what she pays now as a single person. "Just because you're living with somebody doesn't mean your cost of living goes down," she said. "Each individual still has the same amount of living expenses." Changes to cost of living Nicole Davis, a community advocate at LifeSpin in London, said the topic comes up in her line of work. "The system is essentially penalizing people for being in relationships," she said. "It kind of forces individuals to choose between financial stability and pursuing a supportive relationship, so it almost [discourages] cohabitation with each other." Stapleton said he understands why welfare programs were originally designed so that people living together would not receive as much financial assistance, but times have changed. "Now we're in a housing crisis and we've got a bunch of fairly poor people who are staying in their own apartments because they're better off to do that than actually move in together," he said. "People are occupying deeply affordable housing on their own when they'd really rather be together, and of course the landlord or the rooming house operator would love to have that unit freed up so they could run it to another person." Davis agreed, adding that it is already a challenge for many Londoners to find available units. "Right now, I feel like programs operate on outdated assumptions that don't really reflect the realities of poverty, disabilities and the high cost of living especially in a city like London," Davis said. Stapleton said with new realities comes a need for new policies. These include raising social assistance rates for couples, allowing them to pool any earning exemptions and letting new couples continue with the rules relating to singles during their first year living together. Until then, Stapleton said, couples are not incentivised to become a unit.
Globe and Mail
13-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds
The structure of social assistance benefits in Ontario often encourages recipients to live alone, a perverse outcome that may be exacerbating shortages of affordable housing, new research finds. Both Ontario Works (OW), which assists low-income workers, and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which aids those living with disabilities, are designed so that income support shrinks when a beneficiary moves in with a romantic partner. The benefit drop is meant to reflect the savings that typically ensue when two people share rent and other household costs. But the reductions are so severe that they typically exceed the financial advantages of living under one roof, according to a recent study by John Stapleton, a consultant and retired social assistance benefits designer for the Ontario government. The result is a powerful incentive for welfare recipients to live on their own, a form of forced loneliness that can take a toll on mental health and may also be unnecessarily inflating the demand for affordable rentals, Mr. Stapleton argues. 'We have a housing crisis, and we have these people who are incentivized to live separately,' he said. In some cases, forming a two-person household can result in an income drop of more than 22 per cent compared with a scenario in which two partners live alone, the analysis shows. Carrick: To make housing more affordable, drop the tax hammer on real estate investors For example, two people who each receive the maximum OW aid of $733 a month, which adds up to $1,466 for both partners, would see their combined income shrink to $1,136, a decrease of 22.5 per cent, if they started living together. Similarly, OW recipients moving in with a partner who works full-time making minimum wage would see their support clawed back at such a rate that the couple's combined income would fall by nearly 23 per cent compared with a scenario in which they keep separate homes. For two ODSP beneficiaries, moving in together would come with an income reduction of nearly 16 per cent. When Mr. Stapleton applied the math to the real-life cases of three couples living on welfare in Scarborough, Ont., he found the income reductions outstripped the savings of forming a single household in every instance. Rebekah Smylie, manager of financial empowerment at West Neighbourhood House, a social services agency in Toronto, said it's common for welfare recipients to decide not to move in with a romantic partner because they wouldn't be able to make ends meet if they did so. And for those who live in affordable housing, moving in with a partner comes with an added financial risk, she said. 'If you've given up a housing spot, and you've moved in with a partner, and then you find out you're going to be penalized for it, there's no guarantee you can undo that. Right? That spot is very quickly filled,' she said, referring to the affordable rental unit left vacant. Opinion: When exactly did Canadian housing become so unaffordable – and who's to blame? Waitlists for affordable housing are often years-long in Toronto. At Maytree, an anti-poverty think tank, Alexi White, director of systems change, said welfare recipients in other jurisdictions likely face the same issues, since social assistance programs across the country are relatively similar. 'Generally speaking, everybody does what Ontario does,' he said. Making it easier for Canadians on welfare to move in with a partner would likely free up some subsidized housing and low-rent housing, according to Ricardo Tranjan, an economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The majority of OW and ODSP recipients in Ontario rent on the private market, where landlords often crank up rent when a new occupant moves in because rent control guidelines don't apply upon turnover of a tenancy, Dr. Tranjan said. But even with hefty rent increases, rental units left vacant by Canadians on welfare would likely still be some of the cheapest on the market and a good housing option for low-income workers. As for non-market housing, such as government-assisted rental housing and affordable units provided by non-profit organizations, 'freeing up one of those units can be – it's not an exaggeration to say that – a life-changing opportunity for the next person in line,' he said.
The Herald
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald
Sassa to provide food, cash vouchers, blankets and essential supplies to EC families affected by floods
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) CEO Themba Matlou has pledged to help families affected by the floods in the Eastern Cape with essential needs. The province was hit by floods this week, affecting several towns and villages, with the OR Tambo and Amathole district municipalities the hardest hit. The floods destroyed homes and claimed 78 lives. Matlou said the agency will help families whose homes were destroyed through its social relief of distress programme. 'To this end, Sassa is active on three established sites where about 229 people are served with three nutritious meals a day, reinforcing the agency's commitment to immediate food security. In addition, 229 vanity packs and five baby packs have been procured and distributed to meet essential personal and infant care needs,' he said. Sassa has developed a disengagement plan where they provide beneficiaries with a basic needs package to help restore stability. The package includes: two-ply blankets; one mattress per person; cash vouchers to address short-term financial needs; and school uniforms for affected pupils. Matlou said this is in line with the agency's mandate derived from the Social Assistance Act. 'Social relief of distress is temporary provision of assistance intended for people in such dire material need that they are unable to meet their families' most basic needs. We also offer our condolences to the families of the deceased and wish a speedy recovery to those who are injured. 'We are working closely with the relevant stakeholders in the social cluster of the province to ensure maximum support is given to the distressed families. We extend our gratitude to stakeholders, partners and community members who continue to support this vital work.' TimesLIVE
