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Only 1.5 percent of Canadians stuck in low-income over time, study says

Xinhua, January 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

A new study released on Monday by the Fraser Institute shows the vast majority of Canadians who experience living in low-income do so just for short and transitory periods.

The study, conducted by the independent Canadian public policy think-tank, finds that only 1.5 percent of Canadians were stuck in low-income every year between 2005 and 2010 (the latest period of available data).

This number is down from the 3.6 percent of Canadians found to be stuck in low-income during the 1993 to 1998 period, says the study entitled An Introduction to the State of Poverty in Canada.

"The perception that there is a large and growing portion of Canadians trapped in low-income is thankfully not borne out by the data," Charles Lammam, Fraser Institute director of Fiscal Studies and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

"This more transitory experience with low-income can be the result of unexpected but nonetheless temporary, loss of employment," Lammam added.

The analysis is based on Statistics Canada's Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) measure, which is not specifically a measure of poverty.

The study also highlights Statistics Canada research detailing characteristics of people at a higher risk of being persistently stuck in low-income, such as being physically or mentally disabled, belonging to a single parent family, and having less than a high school education.

"If we truly want to help Canadians who are stuck in poverty year after year, we need to better understand the various root causes of persistent poverty," Lammam said. Endit