Falling further behind: How policy choices are deepening poverty for people receiving social assistance

Policy implications of Welfare in Canada, 2025

The annual Welfare in Canada report compiles and analyzes data on the total welfare incomes of example households receiving social assistance in all 13 provinces and territories. The report’s analyses of adequacy and trends over time are the primary source for evaluating Canada’s progress on fulfilling the human right to an adequate standard of living for households receiving social assistance.

In 2025, welfare incomes remained inadequate across Canada. Compared to the prior year, most households relying on social assistance fell further behind and were forced into even deeper poverty. This is despite some positive changes in a few jurisdictions, including the introduction of inflation indexing to help protect benefits from rising costs of living and the creation of new programs and benefits.

In this policy brief, we expand on the analysis presented in the 2025 report. In addition to reviewing the inadequacy of total welfare incomes delivered in all 13 provinces and territories, this year’s brief focuses on the role that the federal government plays in income security and opportunities to expand that role to improve the lives of people receiving social assistance in Canada.

Our main findings are:

1. Total welfare incomes were deeply inadequate across Canada in 2025.
2. The loss of carbon tax rebates was a heavy blow for people receiving social assistance.
3. The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit disadvantages the lowest-income single adults.
4. Extremely low shelter benefits don’t cover housing costs.
5. The Canada Disability Benefit is out of reach for too many people with disabilities.

We also make several policy recommendations to improve the incomes of households receiving social assistance in Canada:

1. The provinces and territories must invest in the adequacy of welfare incomes, by:

• Investing in higher social assistance benefits and tax-delivered income supports.
• Indexing all social assistance benefits and tax-delivered benefits and credits to inflation.

2. The federal government must do more to support people receiving social assistance, including by:

• Changing the structure of the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit so that the full Supplement amount goes to all low-income single adults.
• Providing a new federal direct housing transfer, like the proposed Canada Renters Credit, to help with housing affordability now.
• Fixing the Canada Disability Benefit so that eligibility can be granted automatically to anyone who qualifies for social assistance as a person with a disability in their province or territory.
• Using other policy levers at their disposal, such as increasing the Canada Social Transfer, increasing the value of existing refundable tax credits (the Canada Workers Benefit, Canada Disability Benefit, and Canada Child Benefit), and leading efforts to create a joint federal, provincial, and territorial plan to achieve adequate welfare incomes and an end to poverty.