Category Archives: Poverty Reduction

A focus on recent developments in poverty reduction

How well are your CVITP clinics targeted to clients who need this service the most?

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For many CVITP host organizations, the demand for free clinic services exceeds the supply of volunteer time available to prepare returns.  The income ceilings suggested by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are an established way of limiting access to this free service.  This article compares the income ceilings suggested by CVITP with the incomes that make up poverty lines and finds that, with a few exceptions, the former are generally greater than the latter.  Host organizations which want to target their services to those who need it the most may wish to use income ceilings that are more closely aligned with the poverty lines for their region.

To learn more, you can read the full article here.

A Primer on Canada’s Official Poverty Line and Why It Matters to the CVITP

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Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy gives time-bound targets for making progress in reducing poverty linked to one indicator.  This suggests that the federal government can be held accountable for its efforts in achieving these time-bound targets.  The indicator it uses is an official poverty line.  The official poverty line is a uniquely income-based concept.  The targets are as follows:

– By 2020, the poverty rate will be reduced by 20% from its 2015 level, and

– By 2030, the poverty rate will be reduced by 50% from its 2015 level (aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals)

In other words, the official poverty line can be used to calculate the poverty rate: the percentage of the population with an annual income lying below this line at a particular point in time forms the poverty rate.

In an article entitled A Primer on Canada’s Official Poverty Line and Why It Matters to the CVITP, we explore what the official poverty line is and how it is used to determine poverty rates.  In the conclusion, we draw the CVITP’s connection with this official poverty line.  As you will see, the income tax and benefit returns processed by the CVITP play a crucial role in helping to raise clients’ incomes relative to the official poverty line.