In Quebec, income support programs such as social assistance compare favorably to those in OECD countries in the case of families. However, for couples without children and single people, the reality is quite different.
These are the findings of an analysis produced at the beginning of October by the Quebec Observatory of Inequalities.
If we look at the help offered to single people, we observe that “Quebec occupies the 19e rank out of 34 when positioned in the ranking of OECD member countries,” concludes economist Geoffroy Boucher.
For couples without children, Quebec ranks 21e rank. In both cases, Quebec programs rank below the OECD average.
On the other hand, Quebec is above this average in terms of support given to single-parent families with two children and to couples with two children. In this case, it ranks respectively at 14e and at 16e rang.
“Is this positioning good or not? It’s subjective […]but what we see is that for single people […]there is financial aid that is less generous, while often, what we hear is that financial aid programs in Quebec are particularly generous and that we compare well internationally, analyzes the researcher. It goes against the usual narrative. »
Welfare reform
Mr. Boucher wanted to explore this question in the context of social assistance reform and Bill 71 tabled this fall. However, his research group was not invited to comment during the parliamentary consultations.
The OECD ranking compares income support for people on social assistance without employment constraints. In Quebec, this corresponds on average to a monthly check of $849.47.
The OECD takes the median income in each country and then measures what percentage of that income is government-provided income support (the percentage of median adjusted disposable income).
Thus, in OECD countries, social assistance programs or their equivalent provide on average single people benefits representing 22% of median income. In Quebec, it is equivalent to 20%; in France, 27% and in the United Kingdom, 17%. The country that supports the most is Belgium, with 42%, and the least, the United States, with 7%.
In the case of couples with two children, Quebec reaches 32%, three percentage points above the OECD average. Denmark dominates with 52% and Hungary occupies the bottom at 9%.
More generous child benefits
“This phenomenon is mainly explained by the importance of child-related allowances, namely the Canada Child Benefit (Canada) and the Family Allowance (Quebec),” says the researcher in his analysis. “These benefits alone represent more than half (59%) of the disposable income of single-parent families with two children who are unemployed. »
The Family Allowance is what is commonly called “family allowances”, a program whose origins date back to the 1940s in Canada, but which has been administered in Quebec since 1967. The Canada Child Benefit is much more recent and s was added to the aid measures only in 2016.
Furthermore, Quebec is in a better position than Canada in the four OECD rankings. The Canadian average is 17% for single people and 19% for couples without children (compared to 20% in both cases in Quebec), 31% for single-parent families (compared to 35% in Quebec) and 29%. in the case of couples with two children (compared to 32% in Quebec).
The Observatory’s analysis does not compile data for families with one child or more than two. Mr. Boucher thinks that this could vary the results, but that the “relative position” of Quebec in the ranking would not be “particularly different”.
The calculation of assistance amounts includes all last-resort government transfers linked to low income, excluding pensions and employment insurance programs, for example, which target particular groups.
Tax credits (solidarity, GST-TVQ) are taken into account, but not the housing allowance, because the housing assistance offered by the countries has not been measured by the OECD.
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