Income Support in Relation to Housing in Canada and Selected Other Countries: International Jurisdictions

Authors:Paul LalondeKelsey BrennanHeather Smith Fowler

The project on Income Support in Relation to Housing in Canada and Selected Other Countries is part of a broader exercise conducted by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to inform its ongoing work in the development of a National Housing Strategy (NHS) for Canada. Specifically, this project seeks to better understand the characteristics of income support programs such as social assistance and housing/shelter benefits and how they are delivered in Canada and selected countries.

This report reviews social assistance programs and housing benefits in the six international jurisdictions: Australia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States (New York State). Specific benefit amounts are provided for four household types: a single adult with no dependent children, a couple with no dependent children, a single adult with two dependent children, and a couple with two dependent children. Social assistance benefits were compared with three benchmark measures – the income received by a full-time employee working at a minimum-wage salary, a Low Income Measure (LIM), and the average cost of rent in both the most expensive and least expensive area of each country – in order to assess benefit fairness and adequacy.

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Project Details

Capability: Policy Research
Policy Area: Income Security - Social Assistance, Housing Policy and Homelessness 
Population: Low-income Populations - Social Assistance Recipients - Communities and Families
Type: Report
Completion Date: September 2016
Sponsors: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)

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