Welfare Needs

Welfare in Canada: Changing Welfare Needs

Introduction to Welfare Needs

Since the 1980s Canada has experienced fundamental changes in its social and economic structure. The labor market has changed substantially, and the unemployment rate has climbed considerably since the end of World War II in 1945. The rate averaged more than 10 percent in the 1990s, up from about 4 percent in the 1950s.

As is the case in the United States, fewer full-time, permanent jobs are available than in the past, and the education and skill levels required to obtain these jobs has increased. In addition, the employable population is growing with women joining the workforce and increasing numbers of immigrants to Canada. The proportion of two-income families has increased by half in the past quarter-century to over 60 percent of all families.

The proportion of single-parent families also increased from about 11 percent of all families at the beginning of the 1980s to about 15 percent in early 1996. Available data suggest that almost 60 percent of Canadian children in single-parent families are poor and probably need welfare support, compared with 12 percent living with both parents.

In the 1990s rising welfare use and costs fueled calls for reform. Across the country, welfare recipients increased by 63 percent between 1989 and 1995. Also, government social expenditures and the cost of social insurance rose dramatically between the 1960s and the 1990s. Increasingly, Canada's federal and regional governments have sought to scale back benefits and move unemployed recipients into the labor force. Mirroring developments in the United States, in the late 1990s the Canadian federal government embarked upon radical and often controversial reforms of Canada's welfare programs.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

Information about Welfare Needs in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Welfare Needs

Law is our Passion

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This entry was last updated: August 24, 2014