The National Child Benefit What It Means For Canadian Families

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.

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?

One of the most important public policy issues in the United States is how to improve the life prospects of disadvantaged youth who, in their formative years, face low-quality school systems, poor access to health care, and high-crime environments. The Problems of Disadvantaged Youth includes a broad range of research examining various aspects of disadvantage, and ways of increasing the ability of low-income youths to improve their circumstances later in life. Taking an empirical economics perspective, the nine essays in this volume assess the causal impacts of disadvantage on youth outcomes, and how policy interventions can alleviate those impacts. Each chapter develops a framework to describe the relationship between youths and later life outcomes, addressing such factors as educational opportunity, health, neighborhood crime rates, and employment. This vital book documents the serious short- and long-term negative consequences of childhood disadvantage and provides nuanced evidence of the impact of public policy designed to help needy children.

Based on available research, Canadian families are increasingly relying on child care services, with most Canadian families making use of some form of child-care services on a regular basis. While the federal government did not historically have direct involvement in the provision of child care, it has a long history of providing indirect and direct support to assist Canadians with the costs of raising children. This includes, but is not limited to, the delivery of the Family Allowance (discontinued in 1993), the Canada Child Tax Benefit (which includes the National Child Benefit Supplement), as well as the Child Care Expense Deduction.