Sounding the Alarm: The Need to Invest in Working-Age Single Adults

Community Food Centres Canada has released a new report that puts a human face on the staggering levels of poverty and food insecurity experienced by working-age single adults.

Poverty rates among this demographic are nearly three times higher than the national average. More than 1 in 5 people in this demographic live below the poverty line and 24 per cent of them experience food insecurity. Yet they receive the lowest amount of government support.

In focus groups with single working-age adults across Canada, we heard firsthand the challenges people face trying to support themselves with precarious work or social assistance programs. 

Two things are very clear: a job is not a pathway out of poverty, and income support for this demographic lags far behind other groups. 

We urgently need our government to pay attention and step up. 

That’s why CFCC is calling on the federal government to create a Canada Working-Age Supplement (CWAS). This refundable tax benefit would establish an income floor for all working-age single adults and provide up to 39 per cent more income for people living in deep poverty.

Read the report to learn more about the realities of many working-age single adults, and how a targeted income supplement — like the ones in place now for seniors and families with kids — will help.