Background Information for 2025 Poverty is a Political Choice Campaign 

Income Assistance and Housing

What the Rates Are

During the first mandate of the Houston government (August 2021-November 2024), these rates were increased once.  After the 2024-25 budget, they increased rates 2.5%, retroactive to April 1, 2024 and starting in 2025, indicated all income streams would be increased annually by inflation (growth in the Consumer Price Index- CPI).  From August 2021-March 2024, inflation grew 13.3%.  On January 1, 2025, rates were increased 3.1%.  The two increases result in the standard household rate being 8.5% lower than the impact of inflation (August 2021-November 2024).

Income Assistance and Poverty Levels

The chart above is derived from data in The Maytree Foundation’s Welfare in Canada Study, 2003, which was published in July 2024. Households receiving basic needs assistance have incomes supplemented by other federal and provincial government programming such as the GST credit, the Canada and Nova Scotia Child Benefit.  In the chart above, the total income is known as welfare income. For single individuals, basic needs assistance forms most of their income. The federal child benefits have a substantial impact on the income of a family. The Maytree Study used the official poverty line which is Statistics Canada’s calculated market basket measures (MBM), which have a geographic component and are adjusted by household size. The study used the poverty line measures for Halifax.

However, the combination of these programs does not lift people out of poverty.  Indeed, a study by the Mayfair Foundation indicated that the four representative households live in deep poverty (income is less than 75% of the official poverty line.  Maytree’s methodology methodology did not include the Nova Scotia Reduction Tax Credit ($500 annually) as it was assumed that the households did not receive income assistance in the previous year.  This tax credit benefit eligibility includes receiving income assistance from January-December of the previous year and having no children in the previous year and only one individual in a single or two-person household can receive it.  In this example, even if both individuals received this tax credit they would have remained in deep poverty.

Increases in the basic rates that occurred in 2024 and January 2025 would have resulted in $480 additional income for an unattached single individual considered employable, $600 for an unattached individual considered unemployable, $672 for single parent, one child and $960 for couple with two children leaving all households still in deep poverty using the 2023 official poverty line.  For more information on Maytree’s Welfare in Canada 2023 can be found here.

Other Points to consider:

• In 2023/24 the provincial government revamped the foster care system, changing it to a single block funding to cover expenses for the foster caregiver and child to be “more reflective of the costs of living and raising a child in Nova Scotia”.  For a child in care without specialized needs, the bi-weekly payment was $1,493 in 2023/24 (translates into $106,64/day) and it was to increase annually by CPI.  In 2025, the monthly payment for a single parent with one child was $1,018, (for a 30-day month it would be $33.93/daily).  The foster parent would receive 3 times the amount the parent would receive to meet the needs of the parent and the child.  (see slides 20 and 21, https://fosterfamilies.ns.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Redesign-Information-Session-Presentation-2023-May-FCGs-002.pdf)

•  In 2022-23, unattached singles (75%) and single parent families (18%) made up the majority of the caseload receiving EISA.  If caseload is translated into number of individuals supported (beneficiaries), unattached singles were 50% of the beneficiaries and single parents with children were 34% of the beneficiaries.( https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/Social-Assistance-Summaries-2023.pdf Nova Scotia section pages 79-90 using downloaded table from page 80)

• Under the standard household rates, the enhanced rate for disability is only available to unattached singles.  It is possible that if the spouse is also in the Disability Support Program they would continue to have their own case and any dependents in the household will be included in only one participant’s Standard Household Rate. If you were a single parent with a disability, you would still receive the same basic needs assistance as a single parent without a disability. (For information on the disability support program - https://novascotia.ca/coms/disabilities/DSP-standard-household-rate.html; For information on 2022-23 caseloads with disabilities see https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/Social-Assistance-Summaries-2023.pdf Nova Scotia section pages 79-90 using downloaded table from page 80)

• In March 2024, 30.4% of the clients of Nova Scotia Food Banks have social assistance as their primary form of income. (https://foodbankscanada.ca/hungercount/data-insights/ns/)

•  According to CMHC, the median rent for a bachelor apartment in Halifax was $1,141 monthly, while the rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,402; and rent was $1,664 for a two-bedroom apartment. (https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.23.2&GeographyId=12&GeographyTypeId=2&DisplayAs=Table&GeograghyName=Nova%20Scotia#1%20Bedroom ensure bedroom type for row/apartment is checked)