Question Period Note: Canada Child Benefit

Canada Child Benefit and Indexation

• The Government introduced the Canada Child Benefit to provide increased support for low- to middle-income families with children. Because it is tax-free and based on income, it provides more support to those who need help the most.

• The Canada Child Benefit is simple, generous, and targeted so that about nine out of ten families are better off than under the former suite of child benefits.

• The Canada Child Benefit has been increasing the incomes of families with children since its inception in 2016. It has played a key role in reducing the number of children living in poverty, which has declined by 278,000 between 2015 and 2017.

• To ensure that the CCB continues to help Canadian families over the long term, the CCB benefits are being indexed, since July 2018, to keep pace with the cost of living. Indexing the CCB will provide an additional $5.6 billion in support to Canadian families over the 2018-19 to 2022-23 period.

• To help when the costs of raising kids are highest, we plan to increase the Canada Child Benefit by 15 per cent for kids under the age of one. This will give families up to $1,000 more each year.

• We will work to establish Guaranteed Paid Family Leave – an ambitious program that will make sure that parents who don’t qualify for paid leave through E.I. or who don’t get enough, because they’re between jobs, earn little, or haven’t worked enough hours, will receive a guaranteed income during the first year of their child’s life.

• The Canada Child Benefit replaced three different previous benefits—the Canada Child Tax Benefit including the National Child Benefit Supplement, and the Universal Child Care Benefit—with one simplified, fair and tax-free monthly child benefit.

• To ensure that the CCB continues to help Canadian families over the long term, Budget 2018 confirmed that the CCB benefits will be indexed, starting in July 2018, to keep pace with the cost of living.

• A foster parent may not be considered primarily responsible for the care and upbringing of a child if the child is legally, physically, or financially maintained by a child welfare agency. In those cases, a children’s special allowance is paid to the agency and the CCB is not available to the foster parent.

• The Children's Special Allowances program provides payments to federal and provincial agencies and institutions (such as children's aid societies) that care for children. The monthly amount payable for each child is equal to the maximum amount of the CCB. For eligible children, the CSA payment may also include the Child Disability Benefit. An agency can request that CSA payments be made directly to a foster parent of the child.

• To help when the costs of raising kids are highest, we plan to increase the Canada Child Benefit by 15 per cent for kids under the age of one. This will give families up to $1,000 more each year. We will also work to establish Guaranteed Paid Family Leave – an ambitious program that will make sure that parents who don’t qualify for paid leave through E.I. or who don’t get enough, because they’re between jobs, earn little, or haven’t worked enough hours, will receive a guaranteed income during the first year of their child’s life.

• The Department of Finance is the policy lead on the Canada Child Benefit, and the Canada Revenue Agency administers the benefit. ESDC contributes to ongoing policy development by working collaboratively with them and with provincial and territorial governments to help ensure that the Canada Child Benefit continues to result in strengthened systems of support for all low- to middle-income families with children across Canada.

• The Canada Child Benefit delivered by the Canada Revenue Agency is:
‒ Simple—families receive a single payment every month;
‒ Tax-free—families will not have to pay back part of the amount received when they file their tax returns;
‒ Targeted to those who need it most— low- and middle-income families receive more benefits, and those with the highest incomes (generally over $150,000) receive lower benefits; and,
‒ Generous— on average, families benefitting from the CCB receive about $6,800 in CCB payments annually.

• With indexation, for the 2019-20 benefit year, the maximum annual benefit increased to $6,639 per child under 6 years and to $5,602 per child aged 6 through 17. Families with less than $31,120 in adjusted family net income receive the maximum benefit. Both the maximum benefits and the income thresholds will be indexed in future years.

• A single working mother or father who has two children (one child under 6 and one child aged 6-17) and who earns less than $31,120 a year receives $3,366 more in benefits in 2019-20, compared to the previous system of child benefits.

• Indexing the CCB provides an additional $5.6 billion in support to Canadian families over the 2018-19 to 2022-23 period. That means more money, tax-free, for books, skating lessons or warm clothes for winter.

• To ensure that all eligible families are able to access the Canada Child Benefit, and other federal benefits, Budget 2018 provided $17.3 million over three years, starting in 2018–19, to expand outreach efforts to Indigenous communities, and to conduct pilot outreach activities for urban Indigenous communities.