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WELFARE AND AVERAGE INCOMES
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The low level of financial support provided by social assistance is also evident when measured against average incomes. Welfare provides only a portion of the level of income that most Canadians would consider normal or reasonable.

Table 4 compares the welfare incomes of our four typical households with average incomes for the appropriate household type in each province.

The averages for 1999 are based on data collected by Statistics Canada in the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, inflated by the Consumer Price Index.

For the single employable person and the single disabled person, we used average incomes in each province for unattached people under the age of 65. For single parents, we used the average incomes of single parents under 65 with children under 18. The size of the sample of single parents was too small to be reliable for Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. For the two-parent family, we used the average incomes of couples under 65 with children under 18.

Welfare incomes are far, far below average. In 1999, a single employable person on welfare received from eight percent to 29 percent of the average income received by single people under 65. In 1999, the disabled person on welfare got 26 to 49 percent of the average. Single-parent families on welfare had incomes worth 38 to 61 percent of average incomes. It is worth noting that average incomes for single-parent families in general remain far below average incomes for couples with children. The two-parent family on welfare had income between 23 and 32 percent of average incomes.

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