• Components of welfare incomes
• Changes to welfare incomes
• Adequacy of welfare incomes

Last updated: November 2022

This resource is not intended to help individuals identify what government transfers they could receive. Individuals seeking advice on their eligibility for welfare or financial assistance should contact their local social assistance provider (their province, territory or municipality).

Total welfare incomes in 2021

Individuals and families who qualify for basic social assistance benefits are also eligible for financial support through refundable tax credits, child benefits for households with children, and, where applicable, additional social assistance payments that are automatic and recurring (for example, an annual back-to-school allowance). Together, these form the total welfare income of a household. The value varies in every province and territory because each jurisdiction has distinct social assistance programs, and each has its own refundable tax credit and benefit programs.

Total welfare incomes: Provinces

The table below shows the maximum total welfare incomes that four example households would have received in 2021 in each of Canada’s ten provinces. The child in the single parent family is two years old, and the children in the couple household are ten and 15.

Total welfare incomes in each province in 2021

*The higher total welfare income amount is for the unattached single with a disability who is eligible for Alberta’s Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program; the lower amount is for the unattached single with a disability who is eligible for Alberta’s Barriers to Full Employment (BFE) program.

Unattached single considered employable: The highest total welfare income of an unattached single considered employable was in Prince Edward Island, at $13,838, followed by Quebec, at $12,968, and British Columbia, at $12,073. They are followed by a cluster of five provinces with welfare incomes between $11,471 and $9,728. Nova Scotia, at $8,385, and New Brunswick, at $7,499, had the lowest welfare incomes.

Unattached single with a disability: Alberta had the highest welfare income for an unattached single with a disability, at $21,164, through its Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program. Newfoundland and Labrador had the second highest at $18,226; British Columbia had the third highest, at $17,880. Five provinces followed with welfare incomes between $16,313 and $13,685. The three lowest welfare incomes for this household were for those receiving benefits through Nova Scotia, at $11,559, Alberta’s Barriers to Full Employment program, at $11,195, and New Brunswick, at $10,298.

Single parent with one child: British Columbia had the highest welfare income for a single parent with one child, at $26,878. A close second was Prince Edward Island, at $26,639. Six provinces followed, with welfare incomes between $25,315 and $23,777. New Brunswick, at $21,595, and Nova Scotia, at $21,134, had the lowest welfare incomes for this household.

Couple with two children: Prince Edward Island provided the highest welfare income to the couple with two children, at $39,686, followed closely by Quebec at $39,659. Five provinces followed, with welfare incomes between $36,614 and $32,621. Nova Scotia provided a welfare income of $30,571, and Newfoundland and Labrador provided $29,971. New Brunswick had the lowest welfare income for the couple with two children household, at $27,177.

Total welfare incomes: Territories

The following table shows the same information for Canada’s three territories. It is based on the same methodology as that for the provincial figures, but the provinces and territories are not directly comparable due to significant differences in the cost of living and the nature of income security programs there.

Total welfare incomes in each territory in 2021

Welfare incomes in the Northwest Territories and Yukon were generally higher than in the provinces, reflecting the higher cost of living in the territories. However, welfare incomes in Nunavut were considerably lower than in the other two territories, reflecting in part the high proportion of households receiving social assistance living in subsidized housing whose living costs were reduced through housing subsidies.¹

COVID-19 pandemic-related payments

A limited number of additional financial supports were made available to households in 2021 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government provided one benefit that was only available to households with young children. Only two jurisdictions provided pandemic-related payments – British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

The “About Welfare in Canada” section outlines the methodology we used to determine which benefits are included in these calculations and how we have accounted for benefit changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify the total welfare income of a typical household in receipt of social assistance. Note that the COVID-19 pandemic-related payment amounts are included in the “Total welfare incomes in 2021” section above.

COVID-19 pandemic-related payments in each province and territory in 2021

*Both the unattached single with a disability who is eligible for Alberta’s Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program and the unattached single with a disability who is eligible for that province’s Barriers to Full Employment (BFE) program received the same amount of $0.

Unlike in 2020, when every household in all 13 provinces and territories received COVID-19 pandemic-related payments from the federal government, in 2021 only one household received such payments. The single parent with one child household in all 13 jurisdictions received the federal Canada Child Benefit Young Child Supplement, which was only available to CCB-eligible households with children under six and provided $300 per child in January, April, July, and October.

Only one province, British Columbia, provided additional COVID-19 pandemic-related payments that were consistent with Welfare in Canada methodology and thus included in the analysis. They provided payments through two programs. The BC Recovery Benefit was a one-time payment in March 2021, through which both unattached single households received $500 and both households with children received $1,000. All four households also received the BC Recovery Supplement of $150 per adult per month for the first three months of the year.

Similarly, only one territory, the Northwest Territories, provided COVID-19 pandemic-related payments in 2021. All households received the Furnishing Allowance, which they gained access to in 2020 as a response to the pandemic. The unattached single considered employable and the unattached single with a disability households received $175, the single parent with one child received $323, and the couple with two children received $567.

Changes to welfare incomes in 2021

The two tables below compare total welfare incomes in the provinces and territories in 2021 with those in 2020 without adjusting for inflation. For context, the cost of living increased by about 3.4 per cent in 2021 (based on the national rate of inflation).² As such, households whose welfare incomes increased by less than 3.4 per cent would have been worse off in 2021 than in the previous year.

Families with low incomes may have experienced a noticeable increase in their cost of living in 2021 due to disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation reflects changes in consumption patterns and remains the most robust indicator of changes to living costs, it is important to recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the living costs of different households in very different ways depending on their circumstances and income.

Changes in total welfare incomes: Provinces

Change in total welfare income between 2019 and 2020 in each province

* The lower amount represents the change in the total welfare income of an unattached single with a disability who is eligible for Alberta’s Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program; the higher amount represents the change for an unattached single with a disability who is eligible for Alberta’s Barriers to Full Employment (BFE) program.

Trends in changes between 2020 and 2021

• A majority of households — 24 of 41, or 59 per cent — saw their total incomes decrease between 2020 and 2021. These households are:
  • The unattached single considered employable households in every province except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island;
  • The unattached single with a disability households in every province except Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec; and
  • The couple with two children households in every province except Nova Scotia.

The main reason for the decline in incomes for so many households is the reduction or elimination of pandemic-related supports, paired with the stagnating value of income supports from provincial governments.

The steepest decline is for the unattached single considered employable in British Columbia at minus 6.1 per cent. British Columbia had the highest pandemic-related supports in 2020 and, while there were some new supports in 2021, they were not sufficient to compensate entirely for the loss of 2020 supports.

• Eleven households, or 27 per cent, saw their total incomes either remain the same or increase between 2020 and 2021, but those increases were below inflation, which means that they did not keep up with the rising cost of living. These households are:
  • The unattached single with a disability households in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec;
  • The single parent with one child households in every province except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; and
  • The couple with two children household in Nova Scotia.

Similar to the situation for households whose total incomes decreased, these households also had their pandemic-related supports eliminated or reduced, but these losses were compensated for by increases in other income supports that kept them even, at least nominally. However, these increases could not compensate for the higher cost of living in 2021. Single parents with one child households are eight of the 11 households in this group in part because they were the only ones to receive a new pandemic-related support from the federal government — the Canada Child Benefit Young Child Supplement.

• Welfare incomes rose by more than the cost of living between 2020 and 2021 in only six households in only two provinces. These increases occurred for both unattached single households and the single parent with one child household in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The highest percentage increase was for the unattached single considered employable in Prince Edward Island, at 6.7 per cent. The other five increases were in a tight range between 4.2 and 6 per cent.

  The higher income totals in Nova Scotia were due to a rise in social assistance rates starting in May 2021, by $100 per month per adult. The increases in Prince Edward Island came primarily from higher shelter benefit amounts through the province’s social assistance program. The couple with two children also received these increases in both provinces, but the loss of pandemic-related supports and the effects of inflation negated their impact.

Breakdown of changes

• Four provinces increased basic or additional social assistance benefit amounts:
  • In British Columbia, the basic support allowance for all of the example households increased by $175 per month per adult in May 2021. In October, the basic support allowance increased slightly for three of the example households, and the couple with two children received an increase to the shelter allowance. In addition, all households received the COVID-19 pandemic-related BC Recovery Supplement of $150 per month per adult from January to March.
  • In Nova Scotia, basic social assistance amounts increased in May 2021 by $100 per month per adult for each of the example households.
  • In Prince Edward Island, monthly shelter benefit amounts increased effective July 2021, while basic allowance amounts remained unchanged. Shelter amounts increased from $588 to $794 for the unattached single households, from $743 to $961 for the single parent with one child, and from $933 to $1,118 for the couple with two children. In addition, the couple with two children received the School Aged Allowance, which increased from $75 in 2000 to $100 for children 10 years and under, and from $100 to $125 for children 11 years and older. In Quebec, both households with children saw increases to the Shelter Allowance in October from $80 to $100 per month.
• New Brunswick and Quebec saw social assistance amounts increase in line with inflation for every household. These are the only two provinces where social assistance benefits are indexed to inflation.
• One province provided a top-up specifically intended to assist with the rising cost of living due to inflation. In Prince Edward Island, the couple with two children received double the School Aged Allowance in December, which amounted to an additional $225.
• Amounts from two federal programs — the GST/HST credit and the Canada Child Benefit — were slightly higher in 2021 due to from automatic annual inflationary increases. Climate action incentive (CAI) payments also increased in 2021, but these increases were not tied to inflation.

• Automatic annual inflationary increases to provincial benefits and tax credits occurred in some, but not all, jurisdictions. Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec index their provincial child benefits to inflation. Three provincial tax credits are indexed to inflation: the Ontario Trillium Benefit, the Solidarity Tax Credit in Quebec, and the Low Income Tax Credit in Saskatchewan. For more information, see Appendix 3.

• In 2021, only the single parent with one child households received COVID-19 pandemic-related payments from the federal government. They received the Canada Child Benefit Young Child Supplement (CCBYCS), which was only available to CCB-eligible households with children under six years of age. The couple with two children did not receive the CCBYCS because their children are assumed to be ten and 15. The CCBYCS provided $300 per child in January, April, July, and October, for a total of $1,200 in 2021.

• Every household in all provinces no longer received the federal COVID-19 pandemic-related payments that they received in 2020. The federal GST/HST credit top-up and the Canada Child Benefit top-up were time-limited to 2020 and were not available in 2021.

• Provincial pandemic-related payments that were available in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan in 2020 were also no longer available in 2021.

• Only British Columbia provided new provincial COVID-19 pandemic-related payments in 2021 that were consistent with Welfare in Canada methodology and thus included in the analysis, doing so under two programs. The BC Recovery Benefit was a one-time payment in March 2021, through which both unattached single households received $500, and both households with children received $1,000. All four households also received the BC Recovery Supplement of $150 per adult per month for the first three months of the year.

Changes in Total Welfare Incomes: Territories

Change in total welfare income between 2020 and 2021 in each territory

Trends in changes between 2020 and 2021

• Half the households in the territories — six of 12 — saw their total incomes fall between 2020 and 2021. These are:

  • Unattached single considered employable households in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut;
  • Unattached single with a disability households in the Northwest Territories and Yukon; and
  • Couple with two children households in the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

The steepest decline was for the couple with two children household in the Northwest Territories, while the others fell between 2.9 and 0.04 per cent. Similar to the situation in the provinces, the main reason for the decline of the incomes of so many households is the reduction or elimination of pandemic-related supports paired with the stagnating value of income supports from territorial governments.

• The other half of households in the territories saw their total incomes either remain the same or increase between 2020 and 2021. However, those increases were below inflation, which means that they did not keep up with the rising cost of living. These households include single parent with one child households in every territory, as well as the unattached single considered employable household in Yukon, and the unattached single with a disability and the couple with two children households in Nunavut. These households also saw their pandemic-related supports eliminated or reduced, but these losses were compensated for with increases in other income supports that kept them even nominally. However, these increases could not make up for the higher cost of living in 2021.

• None of the households in the territories saw their total incomes increase above the rate of inflation.

Breakdown of changes

• Social assistance benefits only increased in Yukon, where social assistance is indexed to inflation. Social assistance benefit rates remained unchanged in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
• Amounts from the two federal programs — the GST/HST credit and the Canada Child Benefit — were slightly higher in 2021 due to automatic annual inflationary increases. None of the territorial tax credits and benefits included in the calculations are indexed to inflation. For more information, see Appendix 3.
• Only the single parent with one child households received federal COVID-19 pandemic-related payments. Like households in the provinces, they were eligible for the Canada Child Benefit Young Child Supplement, which was only available for CCB-eligible households with children under six years of age.
• As in the provinces, all households in all three territories lost access to the federal COVID-19 pandemic-related tax credit and benefit payments that were available in 2020. This includes the GST/HST tax credit top-up and the Canada Child Benefit top-up, which were no longer available in 2021.
• Only the Northwest Territories provided territorial payments related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. All households in the territory continued to receive the Furnishing Allowance, which they gained access to in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, households in the Northwest Territories did lose access to the one-time emergency allowance, which was delivered through basic social assistance in 2020.

Adequacy of welfare incomes in 2021

Adequacy of welfare incomes: Provinces

The table below looks at how the 2021 welfare incomes of each example household type in the provinces compared to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, the Market Basket Measure (MBM), and the deep income poverty threshold (MBM-DIP).

The deep income poverty threshold is equivalent to 75 per cent of the Official Poverty Line. It was introduced in last year’s Welfare in Canada report to measure how each household’s welfare income related to this more modest threshold. As noted in a recent report from the Institute of Research on Public Policy, “Living in deep poverty means that individuals and families must use all of their income to meet basic necessities such as shelter and food, making it virtually impossible to address other needs or plan for their future.”3

To demonstrate the range across Canada’s provinces, the table below shows the provinces with the highest and lowest welfare incomes relative to the two poverty thresholds. The total welfare income and both poverty thresholds in the table are for the most populated city in each province.

Please note that both the MBM and the MBM-DIP do not account for the higher cost of living faced by persons with disabilities, and thus these additional costs are not reflected in the analysis.

Overview

Highest and lowest adequacy of welfare incomes among provinces in 2021

The welfare incomes of all 41 households in all ten provinces were below Canada’s Official Poverty Line — that is, all 41 households were living in poverty in 2021. The closest income to the poverty line was in Quebec, where the welfare income of the couple with two children household reached 92 per cent of the poverty threshold.

In addition, 33 of the 41 example households receiving social assistance in the provinces — or 80 percent of households — were living in deep poverty in 2021. Only two of these 33 households had incomes that were close to the deep income poverty threshold, at between 95 and 100 per cent. The incomes of the remaining 31 households were further below the deep income poverty threshold, at between 45 and 94 per cent.

Between 2020 and 2021, the welfare income of one household fell below the deep income poverty threshold. Furthermore, seven households in 2020 had welfare incomes between 95 and 100 per cent of the deep income poverty threshold, but there were only two, or five fewer, in 2021.

Adequacy by household: Provinces

Unattached single considered employable

Adequacy of welfare incomes for unattached single considered employable households in the provinces, 2021

All unattached single considered employable households in all ten provinces were living in deep poverty, with incomes that were below the deep income poverty threshold; none were even close to that threshold. Even the highest income, in Quebec, amounted to just 60 per cent of the Official Poverty Line. Total welfare incomes in all other jurisdictions were even lower, and as low as 33 per cent of the poverty line in New Brunswick.

Unattached single with a disability

Adequacy of welfare incomes for unattached single with a disability households in the provinces, 2021

Alberta had both the highest and lowest income for unattached single with a disability households relative to the Official Poverty Line, depending on which social assistance benefit program they were eligible for. The household receiving benefits through Alberta’s Barriers to Full Employment program had the least adequate welfare income, which amounted to just 43 per cent of the poverty line. Conversely, the unattached single with a disability who was eligible for Alberta’s Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program had the most adequate welfare income, which amounted to 82 per cent of the poverty. Unattached single with a disability households had welfare incomes above their respective deep income poverty thresholds in only two provinces: Alberta for those receiving AISH and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Single parent with one child

Adequacy of welfare incomes for single parent with one child households in the provinces, 2021

The single parent with one child household living in Nova Scotia received the least adequate welfare income, at 62 per cent of the poverty line. The single parent with one child households living in Quebec and in Prince Edward Island received the most adequate welfare income, at 81 per cent of the poverty line. In only four of the ten provinces — Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec — the welfare incomes of the single parent with one child households were above the deep income poverty thresholds. Note that in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, welfare incomes for the single parent with one child households were between 95 and 100 per cent of their respective deep income poverty thresholds.

Couple with two children

Adequacy of welfare incomes for couple with two children households in the provinces, 2021

While the couple with two children household living in Quebec continued to live in poverty, they had the most adequate welfare income among all the household types in the ten provinces, at 123 per cent of the deep income poverty threshold and 92 per cent of the poverty line. The couple with two children household living in New Brunswick received the least adequate welfare income, at 81 per cent of the deep income poverty threshold and 61 per cent of the poverty line. The couple with two children households had welfare incomes above their respective deep income poverty thresholds in two provinces, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

Adequacy of welfare incomes: Territories

In November 2022, Statistics Canada released the finalized figures of the Northern Market Basket Measure (MBM-N) for the Northwest Territories and Yukon. For the first time, it has become possible to assess the adequacy of welfare incomes in these two territories using the MBM-N, the Official Poverty Line, and the derived northern deep income poverty threshold (MBM-N-DIP), which is 75 per cent of the MBM-N.

A similar poverty measure is still being developed for Nunavut and will be included in future reports when it becomes available.

Please note that both the MBM-N and the MBM-N-DIP do not account for the higher cost of living faced by persons with disabilities, and thus these additional costs are not reflected in the analysis.

Overview

Of the eight households in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, only one lived above the Official Poverty Line, the MBM-N. Six of the eight households lived below the Official Poverty Line, but above the MBM-N-DIP. One household lived below the MBM-N-DIP.

Adequacy by household: Territories

Unattached single households

Adequacy of welfare incomes for unattached single considered employable and unattached single with a disability households in the territories, 2021

Among the unattached single households, only one had a welfare income above the poverty line – the unattached single with a disability living in the Northwest Territories. However, as noted above, the MBM-N does not take into consideration the additional costs associated with a disability.

On the other hand, the unattached single considered employable in Yukon had the least adequate welfare income at 70 per cent of the poverty line. This was the only household in the two territories living below the deep income poverty threshold.

The other two unattached single households had welfare incomes below the MBM-N but above the MBM-N-DIP.

Households with children

Adequacy of welfare incomes for single parent with one child and couple with two children households in the territories, 2021

None of the households with children had welfare incomes above the poverty line. However, all of them had welfare incomes above the deep income poverty threshold.

The single parent with one child in Yukon and the couple with two children household in Yukon had the most adequate welfare incomes at 96 per cent of the poverty line. The couple with two children in the Northwest Territories had the least adequate welfare income at 80 per cent of the poverty line.