B.C. posts worst child-poverty rate for sixth straight year in 2007, but it's not as bad as previous year

The good news is that B.C.'s child-poverty rate dropped significantly in 2007, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

The bad news is that B.C. has registered the worst child-poverty rate in Canada for the sixth consecutive year.

Accoring to an analysis First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, B.C.'s child-poverty rate fell from 16.5 percent in 2006 to 13 percent in 2007. This means that the number of poor kids fell from 137,000 to 108,000.

The 2007 rate  was the lowest since 1991.

The B.C. rate is still significantly higher than the national child-poverty rate of 9.5 percent in 2007, according to First Call.

Statistics Canada has reported that unemployment is up nearly 70 percent in B.C. this year, and the welfare caseload has risen almost 50 percent for adults expected to work.

First Call noted that poverty-rate statistics are based on  a "low income cut-off" based on family income after government benefits are received and after payment of  federal and provincial income taxes.  The poverty line for a family of four living in a large city in 2007 was $33,946, according to First Call.

Comments

1 Comments

A Mother

Jun 4, 2009 at 2:29am

Here is an example of how Campbell's government supports families. In their first few months in power they moved the amount of years parents can be supported by income assistance. Before Campbell, a parent on assistance had until a child was 6yrs old, old enough to be in full days of school. Now you have until your child is 2yrs old before you are forced into all sorts of programs and your child is forced into daycare. Hmm, how is that saving money? Now the government is paying for daycare plus re-training plus the monthly living expenses and their is no guarantee that these people come out employed. Even more importantly, after Campbell came in to power 2 parent families in need of assistance receive less money than a single parent does! It is about a hundred dollars less per month with one more stomach to fill. The thinking behind that is that one parent can go get a job, yet at the same time a 2 parent family does not get the same re-training options as a single parent or even a single individual gets. In short, Campbell's government does not support families to be families no wonder we have the lowest child poverty rates.

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