Legal Challenge to the NCBS Clawback
from families on social assistance

 

 

Read the NCBS Backgrounder

Chokomolin, Lance, & Prine v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, et al.

This case involves a Charter challenge to the deduction of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) from the social assistance benefits received by families with children. The challenge is directed at both the governments of Canada and Ontario.

In 1997, the federal government introduced a new program to assist Canadian families with children: the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB). This program includes a basic benefit and a supplement (the NCBS). The basic benefit is received by 80% of Canadian families with children. The NCBS program was specifically designed to reduce poverty among low-income families with children, and the NCBS is received by 40% of Canadian families with children. The negotiations between the federal and provincial governments around implementation of the NCBS resulted in most provinces, Ontario included, deducting the NCBS amount from the benefits received by families on social assistance. This is what is commonly known as the “NCBS Clawback”. The money from the clawback is reinvested into programs that are supposed to benefit low-income children.

Ontario families who receive social assistance have an average of $115 taken away each month per child as a result of the clawback. Most do not benefit from the reinvestment programs, which are generally not designed with them in mind. In Ontario, 80% of the money clawed back goes towards child-care supplements for working families, which social assistance recipients generally do not qualify for.

The applicants in this case are sole support parents who are subject to the NCBS Clawback. They will argue that the clawback discriminates against them because of their status as social assistance recipients. If a family receives any income support from social assistance, the amount of the NCBS is deducted from the assistance received. The clawback violates the dignity of families on social assistance, as it is based on and perpetuates negative stereotypes of those who must rely on social assistance.

The applicants will also argue that the Clawback unfairly affects women, sole support mothers, people with a disability, Aboriginal people, and people belonging to a racial minority, as members of these groups are more likely than others to have low-income and to need to rely on income support through social assistance.

The NCBS clawback from families on social assistance does not achieve the goals of the program, which are to reduce child poverty and assist parents on social assistance to return and remain in the workforce. This will be used to demonstrate that the clawback cannot be justified in a free and democratic society. Reducing the poverty of some children cannot be achieved by deepening the poverty of others.