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 2023-24 fiscal year, on average, there were 1,922 cases (families and single adults) and 2,670 beneficiaries (individual claimants, their partners, and dependent children) in the Northwest Territories’ Income Assistance Program. While the number of cases increased modestly by 1.7 per cent, the number of beneficiaries decreased by 0.7 per cent.
From 2001-02 to 2005-06, both the number of cases and beneficiaries declined. This was followed by 15 years of gradual increases, until a sharp decline in 2020-21 and 2021-22. In 2022-23, both cases and beneficiaries saw a significant increase. However, in 2023-24, cases rose while the number of beneficiaries decreased.
On average, 626 cases, or 33 per cent, accessed the disabled allowance under the Income Assistance Program in 2023-24. The number of cases increased modestly by 0.3 per cent 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 2023-24
Figure 2NT: Yearly cases of the disabled allowance under Income Assistance in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 to 2023-24
What proportion of the population receives social assistance?
In 2023-24, on average, 6.6 per cent of people in Northwest Territories under 65 received Income Assistance, which is about one in 15.
After reaching a low of 4.6 per cent in 2005-06, the proportion of recipients gradually increased to a peak of 8 per cent in 2019-20. It then declined to to 5.8 per cent in 2020-21 and 2021-22, before rising again to 6.7 per cent in 2022-23. In 2023-24, the proportion experienced a slight decline.
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 3NT: Yearly beneficiaries of the Income Assistance Program as a proportion of the under-65 Northwest Territories population, 2001-02 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, unattached single households were the majority among both cases and beneficiaries of Income Assistance in the Northwest Territories, representing 1,545 (80 per cent of cases and 58 per cent of beneficiaries). Single parents had the second highest percentages, with 267 cases (almost 14 per cent) and 767 beneficiaries (almost 30 per cent).
Data on cases by household type was not available for the disabled allowance under Income Assistance for the year 2023-24.
Figure 4NT: Cases and beneficiaries of Income Assistance by household in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 and 2023-24
Cases
Beneficiaries
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 2023-24, on average, 39 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 5NT: Percentage of Income Assistance cases with employment income in the Northwest Territories, 2020-21 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 Assistance 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 the Northwest Territories 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 Assistance) and cases (disabled allowance) 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).
- 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 of Income Assistance 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.
Resources
- Download the all-Canada report as a PDF
- Download the data for the Northwest Territories
- 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