Welfare in Canada, 2025: Nominal increases mask real losses as 72 per cent of households face deep poverty

The 2025 edition of the Welfare in Canada report, released today by Maytree, reveals a concerning trend: Despite nominal policy adjustments in several provinces, most households on social assistance are falling further behind. A staggering 98 per cent of example households were living in poverty in 2025, with fully 72 per cent of those in “deep poverty,” trying to survive on incomes below 75 per cent of Canada’s Official Poverty Line.

The report, which tracks total welfare incomes across all 13 provinces and territories, highlights that while many jurisdictions implemented modest benefit increases, nearly half (41 per cent) of example households saw their real incomes decline because these increases failed to keep pace with the 2.1 per cent national inflation rate.

Key findings include:

• The “Carbon Rebate gap”: A primary driver of income stagnation in 2025 was the removal of the federal carbon tax, which also ended the federal Canada Carbon Rebate and related provincial/territorial programs after April 2025. This led to substantial losses of an important source of income for low-income households, who received much more on average from rebates than they paid in carbon taxes.
• Stagnation vs. indexation: In Ontario, benefits for Ontario Works remained unchanged for the seventh consecutive year, leading to a significant decline in real purchasing power. Conversely, Nova Scotia began indexing basic social assistance benefits as of January 2025, providing a critical shield against inflation.
• New jurisdictional supports: Notable policy shifts included Prince Edward Island’s introduction of a new provincial child benefit in January 2025 and Newfoundland and Labrador’s restructuring of basic and shelter benefits.
• The “hidden penalty” for the unhoused: The report exposes a severe support gap for unhoused individuals, who are often ineligible for shelter benefits.
• Extreme vulnerability of singles: Across all thirteen provinces and territories, only one unattached single considered employable household type (receiving MAN benefits in Quebec) had an income that reached above the Official Poverty Line. Eighty-six per cent lived in deep poverty. And unattached singles with a disability fared only slightly better, with 73 per cent trying to survive on incomes below 75 per cent of Canada’s Official Poverty Line.

“As the only national assessment of total welfare incomes, this data is a primary tool for evaluating Canada’s progress on the human right to an adequate standard of living,” the report notes.

Access the full report and downloadable data sets for all 13 jurisdictions.