Program directory · Department of Indigenous Services
Income Assistance
- Department
- Department of Indigenous Services
- Program code
- BYP09 (INDSC)
- Core responsibility
- Indigenous Well-Being and Self-Determination
- In Departmental Plans
- 2023-24 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
The Income Assistance Program is a component of Canada’s social safety net. The objective of the program is to ensure that eligible individuals and families residing on reserve receive funds to cover the basic expenses of daily living, as well as pre-employment services designed to help them transition to the workforce in alignment with Provincial and Yukon income assistance programs.
The Department provides funding to First Nation communities and organizations, and reimburses the Province of Ontario (as per the Canada-Ontario 1965 Memorandum of Agreement Respecting Welfare Programs for Indians) through funding agreements. The Income Assistance program is delivered in all provinces, and the Yukon (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories deliver their own income assistance programs to all eligible residents).
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2023-24. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income Assistance | Earlier program (name match, high confidence) | 2018-19 – 2020-21 | $1.03B |
| Income Assistance | Earlier program (name match, high confidence) | 2019-20 – 2024-25 | $4.82B |
| Income Assistance | This program | 2023-24 – 2028-29 | $2.96B |
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Appears to replace Income Assistance | Canada Spends name match across plans (an inference) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | — | — | Not available Due to reporting delays, the results for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 are currently unavailable. Results for these fiscal years will be shared once reports are received. The 2019-20 and 2020-21 results were previously not available and have since been determined as 24% and 31% respectively. | No result reported |
| 2024-25 | Maintain or increase results year over year | 2025 | Not Available Formula updated for 2020-21 to improve accuracy. Due to ongoing reporting delays, the results for 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 are currently unavailable. Due to data collection timelines for external partners, results for 2024-2025 are expected to be available in the Fall of 2025. | No result reported |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 24% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | $1.54B | $1.57B |
| 2024-25 | $1.28B | $1.39B |
| 2025-26 | $1.54B | — |
| 2026-27 | $1.59B | — |
| 2027-28 | $1.56B* | — |
| 2028-29 | $1.6B* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 66 | 70 |
| 2024-25 | 64 | 80 |
| 2025-26 | 81 | — |
| 2026-27 | 81 | — |
| 2027-28 | 81* | — |
| 2028-29 | 81* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 plan | $1,544,006,010 | $1,273,589,326 | $1,302,375,823 | |||
| 2024-25 plan | $1,280,885,034 | $1,301,474,514 | $1,347,644,131 | |||
| 2025-26 plan | $1,538,619,342 | $1,554,903,734 | $1,562,989,207 | |||
| 2026-27 plan | $1,592,264,154 | $1,556,163,827 | $1,604,372,631 | |||
| Actual | $1,572,066,840 | $1,391,651,934 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
