Child Benefits

The National Child Benefit announced in the 1997 federal Budget promised 850 million dollars to move children out of the welfare rolls and the trap of poverty. This book attempts to outline the key concepts of this new program and set the stage for discussion of its potential impact. The writers do not agree. This book does not present a unified argument either supporting or critiquing the program but raises a series of important issues and concerns regarding the programs effectiveness in addressing child poverty. The question remains: Is this new federal social program a phoenix rising from the ashes of past social welfare programs or just a federal fizzle?

Child tax benefit, family benefits, reinvestment.

This budget document presents the federal proposal for an innovative approach to reduce child poverty and help make work pay. It first briefly reviews the situation of children in Canada and the difficulties that many families on welfare have when attempting to move from welfare to work. It then describes what federal, provincial, & territorial governments provide in the way of income support & child services. Finally, it presents the proposal for a National Child Benefit System, a joint approach that builds a stronger federal foundation for low-income families with children, accompanied by provincial/territorial investments in complementary programs targeted at improving work incentives & services for those families.

Child benefits in Canada have undergone significant changes over the last two years, with decidedly mixed results.

In 2005, 1.2 million children in Canada were living below the poverty level. This represents a 20 percent increase since 1989, the year that the federal government unanimously passed a resolution to eliminate child poverty by 2000. To understand the state of children's welfare, Child Poverty and the Canadian Welfare State reviews Canadian social policy reform, and discovers that the welfare of poor children is a casualty of the war on the welfare state launched by opposing political ideologies. This study surveys the shift from entitlement to charity from the perspective of social policy reform.