IRPP STUDY - Improving Access to Food and Essential Needs: Options for a

A report by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (2023) noted that, between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2022, the lowest-quintile households were not able to preserve the increased purchasing power they saw during the pandemic. [...] Using the SPSD/M, the simulations suggest that about 30 per cent of recipients of the GST/HST credit under the age of 65 are between the ages of 18 to 24. [...] One drawback of increasing the CWB is that people with no earned income are not eligible for the CWB (but would be for the GST/HST credit and the CCB).7 Another drawback is that the provinces and territories could choose to redesign any top-up to redistribute income (through the CWB). [...] The simulations are based on the 2022 tax year in- comes (benefits were received in 2023 for the CWB and GST/HST credit and in the 2023-24 benefit year for the CCB). [...] For each, I show the distribution of cost (e.g., to the government), the distribution of the average benefit (e.g., the average amount of benefit received) and the distribution of the beneficiaries, by nuclear family type and family net income.