Top Highlights

• Nova Scotia’s 2023 budget includes an increase to the Nova Scotia Child Benefit and increases to funding for disability programs, but little in terms of other supports for low-income families
• Following some support for social assistance recipients in early 2022 in the form of one-time payment of $150, Budget 2023 provides no changes for Income Assistance recipients.
• Besides increasing the Nova Scotia Child Benefit, there are other policies that the province could have leveraged to better support to low-income Nova Scotians — the Poverty Reduction Credit, a tax-free credit for Income Assistance recipients without children, and the Nova Scotia Affordable Living Tax Credit (ALTC), a tax-free credit for low-income...
• Indexation to inflation would be an important enhancement for the social assistance program, but the rates would also need to be set to a more adequate level as well.
• As Food First NL has pointed out, the 5% increase to social assistance rates is not enough to make up for last year’s inflation, let alone previous years.

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