< Back to Social Assistance Summaries

Northwest Territories

Location

Total welfare incomes by location

Edition

Last updated: May 2024

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:

Northwest Territories’ 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 the Northwest Territories, social assistance is delivered under the Income Assistance Program, which 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).

To determine eligibility for the “disabled allowance” under the Income Assistance Program, a person is considered to have a disability if they have either physical or mental impairments that significantly restrict their ability to perform daily living activities, either permanently or periodically for extended periods, and medical treatment would not remove or heal their disability, and because of these restrictions require assistance with daily living activities.

How many people claim social assistance?

In the 2022-23 fiscal year, on average, there were almost 1,900 cases (families and single adults) and about 2,700 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children) in the Northwest Territories’ Income Assistance Program. Both numbers saw significant increases from the previous year, with 15 per cent more cases (247) and almost 16 per cent more beneficiaries (369)

From 2001-02 to 2005-06, the number of cases and beneficiaries declined. This was followed by 15 years of gradual increases until a sharp decrease in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Cases and beneficiaries then saw a marked increase in 2022-23.

On average, just over 620 cases, or 33 per cent, accessed the disabled allowance under the Income Assistance Program in 2022-23. The number of cases increased by over 6 per cent (38) from the previous year.

Note that the disabled allowance is delivered to individuals not households, which means that the cases and beneficiaries are the same. As such, this report focuses on cases of disabled allowance.

To access data on cases and beneficiaries of social assistance in the Northwest Territories, including disaggregated data, download the spreadsheet here.

Figure 1NT: Yearly cases and beneficiaries of the Income Assistance in the Northwest Territories, 2001-02 to 2022-23
Figure 2NT: Yearly cases of the disabled allowance under Income Assistance in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23
Download the data in a spreadsheet

What proportion of the population receives social assistance?

In 2022-23, on average, 6.7 per cent of people in the Northwest Territories under 65 received Income Assistance, which is about one in 15.

After a decline to a low of 4.6 per cent in 2005-06, the proportion of recipients rose gradually to a peak of 8 per cent in 2019-20. There were decreases in 2020-21 and 2021-22 to 5.8 per cent, followed by a rise to 6.7 per cent in 2022-23.

Note: The total population under 65 is estimated on July 1 of the fiscal year (e.g., July 1, 2022, for 2022-23), whereas social assistance beneficiary data is a fiscal year average (April 1 to March 31).

Figure 3NT: Yearly beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program as a proportion of the under-65 Northwest Territories population, 2001-02 to 2022-23

Who is receiving social assistance (disaggregated data)?

This section examines the following disaggregated data:

Note that some disaggregated data was not made available. This is indicated where applicable in the text below.

Also note that the figures below represent percentages but total numbers are available.

Download the data in a spreadsheet

Household type

Data on cases and beneficiaries by household type was not available for the year 2022-23. Further, no household type data was available for cases of the disabled allowance under Income Assistance.

In 2021-22, on average, unattached single households were the majority among both cases and beneficiaries of Income Assistance in the Northwest Territories, representing 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.

Figure 4NT: Percentage of cases and beneficiaries of Income Assistance by household in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 and 2021-22
Cases
Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries (Income Assistance) and cases (disabled allowance) by gender

In 2022-23, on average, females made up the majority of beneficiaries, representing just under 55 per cent. For cases of the disabled allowance under Income Assistance, males were the majority, representing almost 57 per cent.

Figure 5NT: Percentage of beneficiaries of Income Assistance by gender in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23
Figure 6NT: Percentage of cases of the disabled allowance under Income Assistance by gender in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23

Gender of heads of household

In 2022-23, on average, the majority of unattached singles receiving Income Assistance were male, representing just over 65 per cent. In contrast, the majority of heads of single parent households were female, representing over 85 per cent.

Data on gender of heads of unattached single and single parent households was not available for those receiving the disabled allowance under Income Assistance.

Figure 7NT: Percentage of heads of unattached single and single parent households receiving Income Assistance by gender in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23

Age of adult beneficiaries

In 2022-23, on average, the most common age group of adult beneficiaries receiving Income Assistance was 18-29, representing just under 24 per cent. The least common was people over 60, representing under 14 per cent.

For adults receiving the disabled allowance under Income Assistance, on average, the most common age group in 2022-23 was 50-59, representing close to 34 per cent. The least common age group was over 60 with under 1 per cent. This is in part because a separate “aged allowance” is available to those 60 and over.

Figure 8NT: Percentage of adult beneficiaries of Income Assistance by age category in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23
Figure 9NT: Percentage of adults receiving the disabled allowance under Income Assistance by age category in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23

Employment income

In the Northwest Territories, employment income is referred to as “earned income,” and includes any income coming from:

  • Salary and wages including voluntary deductions but excluding mandatory deductions;
  • Net income, determined in accordance with the direction of the Director, from hunting, trapping, and fishing;
  • Net income, determined in accordance with the direction of the Director, from business operations;
  • Fellowships, bursaries, and scholarships; and
  • Honoraria received from benevolent or other organizations or agencies.

In 2022-23, on average, 29 per cent of Income Assistance cases had employment income. This number has steadily increased since 2020-21.

Data on cases with employment income was not available for those receiving the disabled allowance under Income Assistance.

Figure 10NT: Percentage of Income Assistance cases with employment income in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2022-23
Download the data in a spreadsheet

Access to data

The data on social assistance recipients in the Northwest Territories is available for download, including:

  1. Total cases and beneficiaries;
  2. Percentage of beneficiaries relative to the total under-65 population;
  3. Cases and beneficiaries by household type;
  4. Beneficiaries (Income Assistance) and cases (disabled allowance) by gender;
  5. Heads of household by gender for unattached single and single parent households;
  6. Adult beneficiaries by age category; and
  7. Percentage of cases receiving employment income.
Download the data in a spreadsheet

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.
  • Data on cases and beneficiaries by household type was not available for the year 2022-23.
  • No data on cases by household type, gender of heads of household, and cases with employment income was available for those receiving the disabled allowance under Income Assistance.
  • “Non-binary” is a third option for gender. None chose it in 2020-21, and one beneficiary chose it in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
  • 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.
Download the data in a spreadsheet

Resources