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AGAINST SINGLE-PARENT MOTHERS, SAYS WELFARE COUNCIL
"Single-parent mothers and their children are the family type most in need of help from governments," said the report, ChildBenefits: Kids Are Still Hungry. "Yet they are the family type that gets little or no additional support from the Canada Child Tax Benefit."
Under federal, provincial and territorial arrangements that went into effect on July 1, 1998, the increase in federal child benefits is "clawed back" from families on welfare in most parts of Canada. Newfoundland and New Brunswick have decided not to claw back benefits - at least for the time being.
Families which have earnings as their main source of income get to keep the increase.
"Single-parent families are particularly disadvantaged because of the high percentage of these families on welfare. And because 90 percent of poor single-parent families are headed by mothers rather than fathers, the Canada Child Tax Benefit winds up discriminating against women."
The initial announcement of the Canada Child Tax Benefit was made in the 1997 federal budget speech, but the government has still not published any data on the impact of the benefit on different types of families in different parts of Canada.
The welfare council estimates that perhaps only 36 percent of all poor families with children will get to keep the increase in federal benefits. The other 64 percent will have the increase clawed back.
Perhaps only 17 percent of poor single parents will wind up as net beneficiaries of the Canada Child Tax Benefit, and perhaps only 59 percent of the poor couples with children.
The figures are summarized in Table 2 of the report.
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All Poor Families |
Net CCTB Beneficiaries |
% of Poor Families |
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Single-Parent Families |
412,000 |
70,000 |
17% |
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Two-Parent Families |
372,000 |
219,000 |
59% |
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Other Families |
14,000 |
1,000 |
9% |
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Total |
798,000 |
290,000 |
36% |
"The extreme targeting that was built into the Canada Child Tax Benefit is completely unacceptable to the National Council of Welfare," the report said.
"Here is a program where substantial sums of new federal money are being spent, but the additional money benefits barely one-third of the poor families with children and bypasses the other two-thirds. Many of the families being bypassed are single-parent families in desperate circumstances."
The money clawed back by provincial and territorial governments is supposed to be "reinvested" in other programs for children. The welfare council said there are no national standards to speak of in the way the money is being spent, and there is no consistency in programs from one jurisdiction to another.
"Overall, the net effect is to convert an estimated $228 million of federal money into $228 million of provincial or territorial money in the first nine months of the Canada Child
Tax Benefit," the report said. "The appeal to provinces and territories is obvious: more money from Ottawa with almost no strings attached. It is difficult to see any appeal at all from the point of view of the federal government."
Members of the House of Commons voted unanimously in 1989 to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. Unfortunately, Canada went into another recession in 1990, and child poverty rates started inching their way to record highs in the years that followed.
"It has always been clear to us that child poverty will not disappear on its own," the welfare council said. "Now more than ever, it is clear that eliminating child poverty requires a major and continuing commitment by governments to put children first. That means putting children and their families ahead of paying down the national debt, ahead of tax breaks for well-to-do individuals and corporations and ahead of other major new spending programs."
Child Benefits: Kids Are Still Hungry calls for an end to the clawback and reinvestment strategy no later than July 1, 1999, the date chosen by governments for the next increase in the Canada Child Tax Benefit. The welfare council said all families, both welfare families and low-wage families, should get to keep all the increases in federal government benefits.
The council also urged Ottawa to provide full indexation of the Canada Child Tax Benefit as of July 1, 1999, in order to maintain the purchasing power of the benefit for all families which receive it.
The federal government has committed a total of $1.7 billion a year in additional spending on the Canada Child Tax Benefit by the year 2000. The National Council of Welfare is pleased to see a continuing and growing financial commitment from the federal government to families with children and is pleased by the spirit of co-operation that has characterized federal, provincial and territorial meetings on children's issues in recent months.
The report said the co-operation should continue, but current arrangements for clawing back and reinvesting recycled federal money must be abandoned.
The National Council of Welfare is a citizens' advisory group to the Minister of Human Resources Development.
National Council of Welfare
9th Floor, 112 Kent Street
Ottawa K1A 0J9
Telephone: (613) 957-2961
Website:www.ncwcnbes.net