The Social Assistance Summaries series tracks the number of recipients of social assistance (welfare payments) in each province and territory.
For the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance, visit the Welfare in Canada report.
Northwest Territories’ social assistance program
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.
In the Northwest Territories, the Income Assistance Program provides financial assistance to residents to help meet basic living needs, such as food, shelter, and utilities. In combination with developmental opportunities, it aims to help recipients become self-reliant as individual capacity allows, to participate fully in community life, and to share in the opportunities available to them.
Alongside financial assistance for basic living needs, recipients may also qualify for enhanced benefits depending on their circumstances (such as clothing, educational assistance, child care, furniture, incidentals, and allowances for seniors and persons with a disability).
How many people claim social assistance?
On average, there were over 1,600 cases (families and single adults) and about 2,300 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children) in the Northwest Territories’ Income Assistance Program in 2021-22. After a gradual increase in the number of cases and beneficiaries from 2002-03 to 2019-20, 2020-21 saw the first decrease in two decades, followed by further decrease in 2021-22.
Figure 1NT – Yearly cases and beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program in the Northwest Territories, 2001 to 2022
What proportion of the population receives social assistance?
In 2021-22, on average, 5.7 per cent of people in Northwest Territories under 65 received the Income Assistance Program, which is about one in 18. The proportion of recipients receiving this program has followed a similar pattern as the total number of recipients.
After a gradual rise from 5.5 per cent in 2012-13 to 7.8 in 2019-20, the proportion of recipients decreased in 2020-21 to 7.4 per cent, and again in 2021-22 to 5.7 per cent.
Note: The total population under 65 is estimated on July 1 of a given year, whereas social assistance beneficiary data is a fiscal year average (April to March).
Figure 2NT – Yearly beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program as a proportion of the under-65 Northwest Territories population, 2001 to 2022
Who is receiving social assistance?
In 2021-22, unattached singles comprised the majority of both cases and beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program in the Northwest Territories among households, with nearly 80 per cent of cases and just under 57 per cent of beneficiaries. Single parents had the second highest percentages, with under 15 per cent of cases and almost 30 per cent of beneficiaries.
Similarly to 2020-21, females made up the majority of beneficiaries in 2021-22, with 55 per cent.
Figure 3NT – Cases and beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program in the Northwest Territories by household, 2020-21 and 2021-22
A. Cases
B. Beneficiaries
Figure 4NT – Beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program in the Northwest Territories by gender, 2020-21 and 2021-22
Data
Figure 5NT – Yearly social assistance data for the Northwest Territories, 2001 to 2022
Figure 6NT – Social assistance data by household for Northwest Territories, 2020-21 and 2021-22
Figure 7NT – Social assistance data by gender for Northwest Territories, 2020-21 and 2021-22
Data notes
- The data reflects the average number of cases and beneficiaries over the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31).
- Fiscal year averages prior to 2001 are not available due to changes in the gathering and reporting of case and beneficiary data.
- “Non-binary” is a third option for gender. None chose it in 2020-21 and one beneficiary chose it in 2021-22.
- These income assistance numbers only represent clients served by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment of the Government of Northwest Territories. First Nations on reserves are included in this 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