http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net
Below, you'll find links to the statistical reports for both of Ontario's social assistance programs, along with an analysis of the caseload trends by John Stapleton, who is a former official with the Ontario ministry responsible for social assistance programs now working with the social advocacy community in Toronto.
The reports:
Commentary by John Stapleton:
Social assistance dependency is already starting to moderate in Ontario, but entirely thanks to the newest and most profound long term trend we have seen in social assistance in many a decade. Although the count of social assistance households is only down by about 300 overall, the drop is almost entirely due to a reduction in lone parents and their children.
The combination of child support guidelines, better enforcement of child support, the advent of DNA evidence for use in paternity cases, large child benefits outside of welfare that stack with child support and better opportunities at the low end of the labour market for women, has made a real difference.
Once again, lone parents on social assistance - despite the recession - are closing in on multi-decade lows in both absolute numbers and even longer as a proportion of population.
From a communications perspective, it is always difficult to point out that the number of social assistance households is rising but the number of beneficiaries (men, women, and children) is going down. The number of households overall went up by about 700, but the total number of beneficiaries went down by 300. This occurs because families with 2+ beneficiaries are decreasing while singles with 1 beneficiary (by definition) are increasing.
Source:
John Stapleton
Open Policy - John's personal website
NOTE: The above analysis is not yet on John's website, but you can peruse dozens of his articles, commentaries and reports there.
The combination of child support guidelines, better enforcement of child support, the advent of DNA evidence for use in paternity cases, large child benefits outside of welfare that stack with child support and better opportunities at the low end of the labour market for women, has made a real difference.
Once again, lone parents on social assistance - despite the recession - are closing in on multi-decade lows in both absolute numbers and even longer as a proportion of population.
From a communications perspective, it is always difficult to point out that the number of social assistance households is rising but the number of beneficiaries (men, women, and children) is going down. The number of households overall went up by about 700, but the total number of beneficiaries went down by 300. This occurs because families with 2+ beneficiaries are decreasing while singles with 1 beneficiary (by definition) are increasing.
Source:
John Stapleton
Open Policy - John's personal website
NOTE: The above analysis is not yet on John's website, but you can peruse dozens of his articles, commentaries and reports there.
