Discover financial empowerment resources
Discover financial empowerment resources
This 40-minute webinar is designed to provide frontline practitioners with foundational knowledge and skills to support Canadians who are living on a low income to access benefits. Participants learn the importance of access to benefits for individuals and families, review key skills and...
Almost all participants (Canadians and community-based organisations (CBOs)) voiced support for the idea of automatic enrolment because it would improve access to the benefit by streamlining the enrolment process for all eligible recipients. As eligible youth are from families experiencing low...
This 90-minute webinar is provided on a quarterly basis and is designed to provide frontline practitioners with foundational knowledge and skills to support Canadians who are living on a low income to access benefits. Participants learn the importance of access to benefits for individuals and...
This 90-minute webinar is provided on a quarterly basis and is designed to provide frontline practitioners with foundational knowledge and skills to support Canadians who are living on a low income to access benefits. Participants learn the importance of access to benefits for individuals and...
Maytree has compiled an advocacy toolkit to help you advocate for the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). This toolkit consists of an introduction, additional resources and frequently asked questions and the toolkit. You may download the toolkit by jurisdiction on their website: Advocacy...
In November 2023, Prosper Canada hosted two national, virtual roundtable sessions on closing the gap in tax filing and improving benefits access for under-served populations. The roundtables brought together more than 50 participants from government, industry, and community organizations to start a...
Filing a tax return is one of the most important ways for Canadians to access income benefits. However, numerous barriers can make tax filing challenging, particularly for people living on low incomes. After engaging with 31 individuals, we discovered that there are disruptors and compounders that...
The external evaluation firm, Taylor Newberry Consulting, evaluated the Benefits Wayfinder between June 2022 and January 2024. This infographic showcases the feedback received based on feedback collected from 500 users and over 35 organizations across Canada. Impact: L'orienteur en mesures...
This article by Credit Canada answers many questions around tax filing. For instance, what happens if you don't file your taxes, or you don't pay any tax owing. It also addresses the benefits of filing your taxes. Click on "Access this resource" to learn...
Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) are accounts registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that help you save for retirement or other goals. To make it easier, the British Columbia Securities Commission has created a simple guide to understanding RRSPs. In this post you’ll learn...
After you file your tax return, Canada Revenue Agency processes it. It will issue you a refund or charge you for taxes owing, depending on the result of your return. While many returns are processed without a review, sometimes your tax return may be reviewed or audited. The Ontario Securities...
This CRA site has information on what Indigenous Peoples should know about the tax return they send to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and how that return can result in various benefit payments. There's also information on available tax filing...
This 90-minute webinar is designed to provide frontline practitioners with foundational knowledge and skills to support Canadians who are living on a low income to access benefits. Participants learn the importance of access to benefits for individuals and families, review key skills and...
The SimpleFile by Phone service, formerly called File my Return, allows eligible individuals to auto-file their income tax and benefit return over the phone. It is free, secure, and easy to use. There are no forms to fill out or calculations to do. You do not need to speak to an agent to use this...
The Canada Disability Benefit is an opportunity to guarantee that people with disabilities can live a life with dignity and have an adequate standard of living. For the new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) to meet its goal of financially supporting and reducing poverty of people with disabilities,...
This publication is an outreach product to help promote the program "How to open a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) for yourself or a loved one with a disability". This infographic was created in response to feedback from stakeholders and was designed in collaboration with experts in...
The report presents a summary of CDSP annual statistics up to the end of 2022. These include the RDSP take-up rates, the number of RDSP beneficiaries, and the values of CDSB, CDSG, contributions, and total assets. Starting in 2024, the program will release comprehensive CDSP statistics on an annual...
Practically everyone today seems to have some form of debt. Whether that’s from student loans or credit cards, debt is a huge issue for Canadians—one that we could all use a little help to get out of. To gain some relief, people all over the world have turned to side hustles and the “gig...
This report provides insights from the project, including highlighting the challenges people with disabilities in British Columbia face in their journey to get income benefits, the opportunities to remove those barriers and implications for future benefits design. The demand for access to benefits...
The overall purpose of the collaborative project between Seneca College and Prosper Canada was to build a supportive booking system for tax clinics serving low-income...
If you work with people in Canada living on low incomes, you can play a meaningful role in supporting access to benefits regardless of your expertise or sector. Prosper Canada identified 36 barriers that individuals living on low incomes face when trying to access benefits. More than half of the...
The Expanding Economic Opportunity Through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (EEOVITA) cohort has been working to identify and engage targeted, underserved populations most at risk for missing out on the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) benefit. This project, which began in January 2022 and concludes...
The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) is a partnership between the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and local community organizations. The program is intended to ensure that all taxpayers have equal access to the tax system. In Grey and Bruce Counties, 14 community organizations provide...
This toolkit was created to support the Virtual Self Filing tax filing model piloted in 2020-2022 by Canadian community agencies. In this model, individuals file their own tax returns, but receive support from community agency staff or volunteers to do so. In 2023, this toolkit was updated to...
There are rules about how much money a person living on Ontario Works can receive in gifts or “voluntary payments”. Generally, a person living on Ontario Works can receive gifts up to a maximum of $10,000 in a 12-month period. There are rules around reporting gifts, and decisions on how to...
