98% of Canadian households tracked receiving social assistance live below poverty line: report

Canadian flags line a street in High River, Alta., Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

A report published Thursday found that poverty in Canada remains widespread among those receiving social assistance.

The report, titled “Welfare in Canada, 2024″ and published through Maytree, analyzed social assistance support across Canada.

Looking at each of the 10 provinces and three territories, the report looked at welfare incomes of four types of households, with an additional one in Alberta and Manitoba and two in Quebec.

The four primary example households are:

• Unattached single who is considered employable
• Unattached single with a disability
• Single parent with one child aged two
• Couple with two children aged 10 and 15

The report found that 98 per cent of households tracked remained below Canada’s poverty line in 2024. In addition, 73 per cent of households tracked were living in “deep poverty,” which is defined as having incomes below 75 per cent of the poverty threshold.

“It’s not just that people are poor, it’s that they are deeply poor,” Jennefer Laidley, lead author of the report told CTVNews.ca.

“In a country as rich as Canada, we should all have a social safety net for our income security that provides us with enough income to live above the poverty line at the very least, no matter where we live in the country.”

Notably, the report found that unattached single individuals, including those with disabilities, lived in greater poverty than attached households.

According to Laidley, the reason is that attached households receive additional federal and provincial benefits for children.

“That makes a huge difference in inadequacy of incomes,” Laidley said.

“The social assistance systems in provinces, territories and federally really need to step up, particularly for single adults who need a lot more support and who make up the majority of people on social assistance.”

Geographic disparities

Along with disparities in household type, Laidley said geographic disparities were also apparent in the findings, particularly, varied social assistance adequacy across Canada.

The poverty lines across Canada, which is calculated via the 2018-base Market Basket Measure (MBM) methodology, also vary.

According to Statistics Canada, the approximate poverty lines for a single person monthly across Canada in 2024 are:

• Newfoundland and Labrador $2,194
• Prince Edward Island $2,211
• Nova Scotia $2,213
• New Brunswick $2,180
• Quebec $1,964
• Ontario $2,221
• Manitoba $2,083
• Saskatchewan $2,163
• Alberta $2,381
• British Columbia $2,272
• Yukon $2,682
• Northwest Territories $3,265
• Nunavut $4,319

According to the report, social assistance income varied from household type and location.

For example, social assistance income for single parents with one child in the provinces was the least adequate in Nova Scotia, at 57 per cent of the poverty line and 76 per cent of the deep poverty threshold. Meanwhile, Ontario was at 58 per cent of the poverty line and 78 per cent of the deep poverty threshold.

The household with the most adequate social assistance income for single parents with one child in the provinces was in Prince Edward Island at 84 per cent of the poverty line.

For an unattached single person with a disability in the provinces, the household with the least adequate social assistance income was the Alberta household receiving Barriers to Full Employment (BFE), followed by households in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The household with the highest incomes relative to the poverty line for an unattached single person with a disability in the provinces were in Newfoundland and Labrador and households in Alberta receiving Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH).

“The issue around geography is that you’re going to be better or worse cared for, better or worse supported, depending on where you live,” Laidley said.

“But really, the primary issue is that no matter where you live in Canada, you’re not going to be supported to the level of even the poverty line (...) so geography matters, but it matters less than the depth of the poverty that people on social assistance experience.”

More support needed

While social assistance income varies across Canada and by household type, poverty remains persistent, the report highlights.

In Canada, 10.2 per cent of the population — approximately four million Canadians — lived below the poverty line in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.

According to the report, while 59 per cent of households saw social assistance incomes rise above inflation, most increases ranged from 2.5 per cent to 11.4 per cent, leaving households still below the poverty line.

While some provinces and territories have made progress in social assistance support, with the introduction of some new benefits and investments in current ones, Laidley says more needs to be done.

She says higher benefit amounts, more sources of income and better tax credits are some changes needed to help improve financial security in those living on social assistance income.

• ‘They don’t make it easy’: Canada Disability Benefit poses many barriers

“I don’t think people really understand the depth of poverty that people who are on social assistance have to live with,” Laidley said. “There’s a lot of work to be done and it’s not just investing in the economy, it’s about investing in people.”