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:
Newfoundland and Labrador’s social assistance program (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 Newfoundland and Labrador, social assistance is referred to as Income Support (IS).
IS provides financial benefits and other services to eligible low-income people to assist in meeting daily living expenses. Basic benefits include a family and individual benefit (to assist with expenses such as food, clothing, personal care, household maintenance, and utilities) and a shelter benefit (to assist with rent, mortgage costs, utilities, and municipal taxes).
Depending on individual circumstances, recipients may also qualify for non-basic benefits such as municipal tax payments, prescription glasses, and special diets. Recipients can also receive further benefits outside of IS by other departments and agencies, such as a prescription drug card, medical transportation, and medical equipment.
Data on disability-specific benefits to IS recipients, such as the Personal Care Allowance, was not available because the benefits are provided by NL Health Services. The Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development, which collects data on Income Support cases and beneficiaries, does not have reliable data on the cases and beneficiaries of Income Support who have disabilities.
How many people claim social assistance?
In 2023-24, there were on average about 20,700 cases (family units and unattached single adults) and just over 29,100 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children) in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Income Support (IS) program.
The number of cases and beneficiaries fell consistently from the mid-1990s through to the mid-2010s, followed by a period of stability up until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After two years of decreases in 2020-2021 and 2021-22, cases and beneficiaries of IS began to increase in 2022-23. This continued in 2023-24, when cases and beneficiaries increased by just under 1 and 0.6 per cent, respectively.
To access data on cases and beneficiaries of social assistance in Newfoundland and Labrador, including disaggregated data, download the spreadsheet here.
Figure 1NL: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of IS in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1996-97 to 2023-24
What proportion of the population receives social assistance?
In 2023-24, on average, 7.1 per cent of people in Newfoundland and Labrador under 65 received Income Support (IS), which is approximately one in 14. On average, the proportion has consistently fallen. From a high of 14.7 per cent in 1996-97, the proportion has decreased by more than half since.
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 is a fiscal year average (April 1 to March 31).
Figure 2NL: Yearly beneficiaries of IS as a proportion of the under-65 population in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1996-97 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, unattached singles were the majority household of both cases and beneficiaries of IS representing, on average, 15,820 cases (approximately 77 per cent of cases) and about 15,550 beneficiaries (54 per cent of beneficiaries). Single parents were second with more than 3,500 cases (17 per cent) and 9,600 beneficiaries (just over 33 per cent).
Figure 3NL: Cases and beneficiaries of IS by household in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Cases
Beneficiaries
Employment income
In Newfoundland and Labrador, employment income is defined as salary and wages, including income obtained from self-employment.
In 2023-24, on average, 1.5 per cent of IS cases had employment income, with small increases in the previous two years.
Figure 4NL: Percentage of IS cases with employment income in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Access to data
The data on social assistance recipients in Newfoundland and Labrador 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 by gender;
- Single households by gender;
- Adult beneficiaries by age category; and
- Percentage of cases receiving employment income.
Data notes
- The data reflects the average number of cases and beneficiaries over the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31).
- Beneficiaries whose gender option is neither male nor female are labeled as “X.”
- Data on disability-specific benefits to IS recipients, such as the Personal Care Allowance, was not available because the benefits are provided by NL Health Services. The Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development, which collects data on Income Support cases and beneficiaries, does not have reliable data on the cases and beneficiaries of Income Support who have disabilities.
- There are three First Nations reserves in Newfoundland and Labrador. Conne River is self-governed and operates its own social services programs. Its case and beneficiary numbers are not included in the data. The two other reserves are in Labrador: Natuashish and Sheshatshiu. From April 1, 2016, the delivery of Income Support was devolved to the Innu and statistics for these communities are no longer included in the data.
- Click here for more information about how the data is gathered.
Resources
- Download the all-Canada report as a PDF
- Download the data for Newfoundland and Labrador
- Download the data for all of Canada
- Further breakdowns on social assistance data in Newfoundland and Labrador can be found on the province’s website