A periodic report on poverty in Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan income security programs for those with low income are much too low to enable recipients to escape poverty.
In 2019, a single employable Saskatchewan Assistance Plan (SAP) recipient received $8,829 in SAP and tax credits. The poverty line for a single person living in Saskatoon was $23,190 meaning a SAP recipient received only 38 per cent of this.
A single person receiving the higher Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) rate received only 68 per cent of the income necessary to meet the poverty line.
All income security recipients in the three groups in the diagram, (see PDF) as well as a couple with two children, received well under 75 per cent of the income required to lift them out of poverty, meaning all were in what Statistics Canada defines as deep poverty.
Saskatchewan income security rates compared with Canada’s Official Poverty Line, 2019
See the PDF here Sask Poverty Dashboard – 2
References
These data come from Jennefer Laidley and Hannah Aldridge, Welfare in Canada, 2019, pp. 74-79, November 2020. This Maytree publication is available for download at https://maytree.com/welfare-in-canada/. For more information on the Official Poverty Line see https://povertyfreesask.ca/sask-poverty-dashboard-1/. The 2019 poverty threshold for a single parent with one child and living in Saskatoon is $32,795.
Poverty Free Saskatchewan, January 2021