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Determinants of social assistance caseloads for employable single adults without dependants in Canada
Author(s) -
Falvo Nick,
Jadidzadeh Ali
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12655
Subject(s) - treasury , social assistance , government (linguistics) , jurisdiction , social security , business , value (mathematics) , demographic economics , economic growth , economics , political science , labour economics , market economy , law , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , computer science
Government officials like the idea of just a small number of households in their respective jurisdiction receiving social assistance. A large number is seen as costly to the public treasury, and declining caseloads are generally viewed as a mark of success for both the economy and the government of the day. But what factors account for the size of a Canadian province's social assistance caseload? This article aims to shed light on this question, with a focus on single adults without dependants (and without serious disabilities) during the 1989–2017 period. One important finding is that when the value of social assistance benefit levels for this group increases by 1% in a province, the social assistance caseload for this demographic rises by 0.457%. Put differently, there is indeed an important behavior response associated with higher benefit levels. In response, we propose that provincial officials budget for higher take up levels when they increase benefit levels for this household group.