The Social Assistance Summaries series tracks the number of recipients of social assistance (welfare payments) in each province and territory.
In this section you will find:
Alberta’s social assistance programs (description)
Social assistance is the income program of last resort. It is intended for households who have exhausted all other means of financial support. Every province and territory has its own social assistance program(s), and no two are the same. For modelling of total incomes available to social assistance recipients, visit the Welfare in Canada report.
In Alberta, there are two social assistance programs:
- Income Support; and
- Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped.
Income Support
The Income Support program provides financial benefits to individuals and families in Alberta who do not have the resources to meet their basic needs, including food, clothing, and shelter.
The caseload and beneficiary data below refers to those receiving Income Support. There are three channels through which Albertans can qualify for Income Support:
- Barriers to Full Employment – for those who cannot work due to chronic health problems or other barriers to employment;
- Expected to Work – for those looking for work, working but not earning enough, or temporarily unable to work;
- Emergency Allowance – for those with an unexpected, one-time emergency through no fault of their own (e.g., sudden eviction due to fire).
For a person with a disability to be eligible to Barriers to Full Employment under Income Support, they must have a long-term inability to participate in full employment due to multiple barriers beyond their control, or a persistent mental or physical health problem of more than six months’ duration.
Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH)
The AISH program provides financial and health-related assistance to eligible adult Albertans with a disability.
For a person with a disability to be eligible for AISH, they must have a mental or physical impairment that causes substantial limitation in their ability to earn a livelihood, and is likely to affect them permanently. They must also meet criteria for income, assets, age, and residency.
How many people claim social assistance?
On average, there were just over 125,120 cases (family units and unattached single adults) receiving social assistance in Alberta during the 2023-24 fiscal year. Forty per cent (49,752) received Income Support and 60 per cent (75,371) received Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH).
Income Support had 87,125 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children).
The total number of social assistance cases increased, on average, by about 6,200 in 2023-24. This increase came from both programs.
To access data on cases and beneficiaries of social assistance in Alberta, including disaggregated data, download the spreadsheet.
Income Support
On average, there were 49,752 cases of Income Support in 2023-24, an increase of 3,055, or about 7 per cent. The number of beneficiaries increased by about 4,835, or 6 per cent, to 87,125.
These increases to both cases and beneficiaries are the second in a row, after two years of significant decreases. Both numbers peaked in 2019-20.
Within the Income Support program, on average, 17,303 cases, or 35 per cent, and 25,512 beneficiaries, or 29 per cent, received benefits through the Barriers to Full Employment (BFE) stream in 2023-24.
While Income Support cases and beneficiaries increased overall in 2023-24, the BFE numbers decreased from the previous year. On average, BFE cases decreased by 750, or about 4 per cent, and BFE beneficiaries decreased by 936, or 3.5 per cent.
Figure 1AB: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of Income Support in Alberta, 1997 to 2023-24
Figure 2AB: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of BFE under Income Support in Alberta, 2021 to 2023-24
Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH)
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, there were, on average, 75,371 cases in Alberta’s AISH program. The number of cases has been rising steadily over the last two decades, with an increase of 3,141 cases on average, or 4.3 per cent, between 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Figure 3AB: Yearly cases of AISH in Alberta, 1997 to 2023-24
What proportion of the population receives social assistance?
In 2023-24, 4.1 per cent of people in Alberta under 65 received Income Support or AISH, which is about one in 24.
The proportion of Income Support beneficiaries decreased gradually until 2007-08, followed by a period of fluctuation between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent from 2008-09 to 2013-14. The period starting 2014-15 saw a gradual increase, reaching a peak of 2.7 per cent in 2019-20. In 2020-21 and 2021-22, the proportion of Income Support recipients declined, followed by an increase in 2022-23 to reach 2.2 per cent of people in 2023-24 in Alberta under 65.
The proportion of individuals under 65 receiving AISH has steadily increased since 1997, reaching 1.9% in 2021-22 and remaining at that level through the present.
Note: The total population under 65 is estimated on July 1 of the fiscal year (e.g., July 1, 2023, for 2023-24), whereas social assistance beneficiary data reflects the number of cases and beneficiaries on March 31 of each year from 1997 to 2000 for Income Support and 1997 to 2010 for AISH; and the average number of cases and beneficiaries over the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) from 2000-01 onward for Income Support and from 2010-11 onward for AISH.
Figure 4AB: Yearly beneficiaries of Income Support and cases of AISH as a proportion of the under-65 Alberta population, 1997 to 2023-24
Who is receiving social assistance (disaggregated data)?
This section examines disaggregated data on cases and beneficiaries by household type, and cases receiving employment income.
Household type
In 2023-24, on average, the majority of cases among households were unattached singles for both Income Support and AISH, representing 33,282 (67 per cent) and 64,809 (86 per cent), respectively. For Income Support, single parent households comprised the highest proportion of beneficiaries, representing 36,571 (42 per cent), followed by unattached singles, representing 33,282 (38 per cent).
Among those who received BFE under Social Assistance, on average, 13,387 (77 per cent of cases and 52 per cent of beneficiaries) were unattached singles in 2023-24. Single parents were second, representing 2,746 (16 per cent of cases) and 7,985 (about 31 per cent of beneficiaries).
Figure 5AB: Cases and beneficiaries of Income Support by household in Alberta, 2021 to 2023-2024
Cases
Beneficiaries
Figure 6AB: Cases and beneficiaries of BFE under Income Support by household in Alberta, 2021 to 2023-24
Cases
Beneficiaries
Figure 7AB: Cases of AISH by household in Alberta, 2021 to 2023-24
Employment income
In Alberta, employment income includes money earned for an applicant or recipient from a range of sources, such as salary, wages, certain commissions, bonuses, tips, gratuities and honoraria. Income from other sources may also be considered as employment income.
In 2023-24, on average, about 5 per cent of Income Support cases had employment income. Among those that received BFE under Income Support, under 0.5 per cent had employment income. Cases receiving AISH were more likely to have employment income at over 16.4 per cent. These numbers have steadily increased since 2021.
Figure 8AB: Percentage of Income Support cases, BFE cases under Income Support, and AISH cases with employment income in Alberta, 2021 to 2023-24
Additional disaggregated data on gender and age is available for download below.
It’s important to note that while the gender distribution of Income Support, BFE, and AISH is typically balanced between males and females, the gender of single households reveals a more pronounced gender pattern. Typically, unattached singles are predominantly male, while single parents are primarily female.
Access to data
The data on social assistance recipients in Alberta is available for download, including:
- Total number of cases and beneficiaries;
- Percentage of beneficiaries relative to the total under-65 population;
- Cases and beneficiaries by household type;
- Beneficiaries (Income Support) and cases (AISH) by gender;
- Single households by gender;
- Head of household by age category; and
- Percentage of cases receiving employment income.
Data notes
- The Income Support program (formerly Alberta Works) was implemented in 2004. The data for 2003 and earlier is for its predecessor, the Supports for Independence program.
- The data reflects the number of cases and beneficiaries on March 31 of each year from 1997 to 2000 for Income Support and 1997 to 2010 for AISH.
- The data reflects the average number of cases and beneficiaries over the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) from 2000-01 onward for Income Support and from 2010-11 onward for AISH.
- For all five disaggregated variables, 2021 numbers are for March 31 of that year; 2021-22 onward are fiscal year averages.
- Income Support figures do not include First Nations living on reserves. AISH figures include First Nations living on reserves.
- Figures for 1997 to 2000 for Income Support and 1997 to 2007 for AISH are drawn from the 2008 and 2009-13 Social Assistance Statistical Reports with figures rounded to 100s.
- Figures for 2008 onwards are the actual numbers supplied by Alberta Seniors, Community and Social Services.
- Income Support cases receiving employment income were identified by the following client types, all of which are required to provide proof of earnings: Self-employed, employed full-time, employed part-time. A complete list of client types and their descriptions can be found in the policy manual.
- Click here for more information about how the data is gathered.
Resources
- Download the all-Canada report as a PDF
- Download the data for Alberta
- Download the data for all of Canada
- Further breakdowns on social assistance data in Alberta can be found on the province’s website. Data on the Income Support caseload is available here and data on the AISH caseload is available here.