4 Social Policy Topic Area – Income / Economic Security

RESOURCES

Welfare in Canada

About Welfare in Canada

The Welfare in Canada reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory. Established by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Welfare in Canada is a continuation of the Welfare Incomes series originally published by the National Council of Welfare, based on the same approach.

This 2023 edition was published in July 2024.

Campaign 2000

Canada Without Poverty

2022 Poverty Progress Profiles

Citizens for Public Justice

Poverty Trends 2023: Reimagining a Rights-Based Social Safety Net

Produced by Citizens for Public Justice (downloadable report at link above)

Annual State of the Inner City Reports at CCPA

Video introducing the Poor Laws by History Hub, University of London

Videos on hostile architecture and criminalization of homelessness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe4cRA3OrEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YaJ5cu20jM

 

On the surveillance of social assistance in Ontario and single mothers (but much applicable across Canada):

Ineligible: Single Mothers Under Welfare Surveillance – Krys Maki (2021)

 

Poverty as a Human Rights Violation

Frankel, S. (2022). Poverty as a human rights violation.  In John Packer (Ed.). Canadian yearbook on human rights (2019-2021). Vol. 111, pp. 118-126 [PDF pp. 128-136].

 

Breakfast of champions: CEO pay in 2021 hits new all-time high
David Macdonald, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, January 2023

 

Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality

This study is global in scope.  The Executive Summary is found on pp. 7 – 14.

Oxfam Great Britain briefing paper – January 2023 
We are living through an unprecedented moment of multiple crises. Tens of millions more people are facing hunger. Hundreds of millions more face impossible rises in the cost of basic goods or heating their homes. Poverty has increased for the first time in 25 years. At the same time, these multiple crises all have winners. The very richest have become dramatically richer and corporate profits have hit record highs, driving an explosion of inequality. This report focuses on how taxing the rich is vital to addressing this unprecedented polycrisis and skyrocketing inequality. The report explores how, in recent history, taxation of the richest was far higher; how talk of taxing the rich and making billionaires pay their fair share is hugely popular; and how taxing the rich claws back elite power and reduces not just economic inequality, but racial, gender and colonial inequalities, too. The report lays out how much tax the richest should pay, and the practical, tried and tested ways in which governments can raise such taxation. It shows us how taxing the rich can set us clearly on a path to a more equal, sustainable world free from poverty.  (from p. 2)

 

What is (Universal) Basic Income?

BASIC INCOME is a model of income security that is a fundamental departure from our current ‘last resort’ programs such as social assistance that are means-tested, stigmatizing, and pay inadequate benefits.   Basic Income is also very different from social insurance programs (such as Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan) that require advance contributions and are subject to complex rules.  An overview of basic income, and a list of resources on aspects of this model, and be found here:
Mulvale, J. (2020). Entry on Universal Basic Income. In E. Mullen (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies: Social Work. Oxford University Press.

Note: This entry is available as a digital resource through the Univ. of Manitoba Libraries. You can access it by logging in with your student ID.  Make sure to search this exact title: Oxford Bibliographies: Social Work

 

FRIBIS YouTube Playlists

The Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (Germany) offers a wide range of video presentations on academic work on Basic Income from around the world.

FRIBIS YouTube Playlists

 

The Green or Ecological Case for UBI

This video (see link below) maps out an ecological argument for UBI.  This rationale is distinct from, but related to, other arguments in favour of UBI to do with reducing poverty, increasing economic and social equality, supporting all forms of (paid and unpaid) work, and enhancing human freedom.

This green argument for UBI is discussed in the first 11 minutes of the video.

Universal Basic Income: A necessary ingredient in achieving a sustainable, post-growth economy and social and climate justice

 

AUDIO CLIP:  Child and Family Poverty Rates in Ontario went down during the Pandemic (9 minutes)

Report co-author, and director of the CCPA Ontario office Randy Robinson says the CCPA Ontario’s new report about child and family poverty shows that child and family poverty rates in Ontario went down during the pandemic thanks to federal programs like CERB. And that economic conditions have worsened for many Ontario families since those supports were removed.

 

PODCAST: How linking poverty and wealth will break the inequality cycle

[from Policy Press website:] Stewart Lansley, author of The Richer, The Poorer, discusses why we need to talk about the links between poverty and wealth, the challenges of measuring poverty and the impact of living in an unequal society.

 

PODCAST: What next for the welfare state?

[from Policy Press website:] Jess Miles speaks with Chris Pierson, author of The Next Welfare State?, about current policy, the mistakes of the past, and ways in which the welfare state should be transformed in order to ensure collective wellbeing.

 

Feature Article on Poverty in the United States:

Why Poverty Persists in America – by Matthew Desmond

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. This article is adapted form his latest book Poverty, by America published by Crown.

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Canadian Social Policy: A Teaching and Learning Lab Copyright © by James Mulvale. All Rights Reserved.

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