Fiscal Policy Trends: COVID-19 & Trends in Income Assistance Caseloads

Authors

  • Gillian Petit
  • Lindsay Tedds University of Calgary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/sppp.v14i.71907

Abstract

Provincial income assistance caseloads declined from April 2020 to October 2020, with some provinces seeing larger declines in caseloads than others. One reason for this was that provinces treated income from the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) differently not only for the purposes of eligibility for income assistance but also for determining income assistance benefits. The result was many provinces were able to dramatically reduce their income assistance expenditures by temporarily shifting the cost to the federal government.

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Published

2021-02-02

Issue

Section

Communiqués