Income Security Programs (Canada) : Created in July 1975, the Income Security Programs Branch (ISPB) is the main federal agency responsible for promoting and preserving the social security and social welfare of Canadians. ISPB administers(ed) income support or benefit programmes in two main areas: retirement income to elderly Canadians, and assistance to families with children, sometimes referred to as "family benefits."
The provision of retirement benefits began in 1927, when Parliament passed the Old Age Pensions Act, creating the first federal-provincial, cost-shared programme designed to provide an allowance to British citizens over the age of 70 who had resided in Canada for 20 years and passed a means test. The Act was amended in 1937 to include pensions to blind persons over the age of forty, then repealed in 1951 and replaced by the Old Age Security (OAS) and Old Age Assistance (OAA) Acts. OAS is a universal pension, payable to all persons in Canada aged 70 and over and subject only to a residence qualification of 20 years. OAA provided a partial pension to persons aged 65 to 69, subject to both the residency qualification and a means test.
In 1965, Parliament passed the Canada Pension Plan Act and created the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), designed to provide Canadians with a basic level of protection in the event of retirement, disability, or death. Benefits under CPP include a retirement pension, survivors' benefits (surviving spouse's pension, orphan's benefits, and a lump sum death benefit), and disability pensions (including disabled contributor's children's benefits). The CPP does not operate in the province of Quebec, which maintains the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), a parallel retirement programme which coordinates its activities with those of the CPP to ensure similarity of coverage.
Following the introduction of the CPP in 1966, the government began a five year programme of lowering the required age for OAS from 70 to 65 and introduced the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) to ensure that no elderly person's monthly income fell below a prescribed level. As a result of the changes to the age requirements for OAS, the OAA programme was phased out in 1970, when all age benefits became payable to Canadians aged 65 or over. The OAS/GIS programmes were further changed in 1975 with the introduction of the Spouse's Allowance (SA), which granted payments to the spouses of OAS pensioners between the ages of 60 and 65 who met residence requirements. In July 1977, persons not eligible for full pension became able to receive a partial pension at the rate of 1/40 for each year lived in Canada past the age of 18, based on a minimum of 10 years residence.
Federal benefits to families began in 1944, when Parliament enacted the Family Allowance (FA) Act. This provided for payments made by the newly-created Department of National Health and Welfare (NHW) to the parents or guardians of all children under the age of 16 born in Canada (or living there for 3 years) being maintained by their parents or guardians. On 1 July 1962, NHW became responsible for the administration of the Family Assistance programme, formerly under the jurisdiction of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. This programme provided grant payments equal to Family Allowance to those children ineligible for the latter during their first year in Canada; it was phased out in 1973.
In 1973, the FA programme was also changed dramatically when merged with the Youth Allowances (YA) programme. YA was created in 1964 to encourage children to complete high school by making payments of 10$ per month to the parents or guardians of youths aged 16 or 17, either in full-time attendance at an educational institution, or prevented from attending by a physical or mental disability. Payments were suspended in July and August and paid retroactively in September, once confirmation of re-enrolment in school had been received. Through the revised FA Act in 1973, the provisions of FA were extended to cover all children under the age of 18, being maintained in whole or in part by a parent resident in Canada.
Over the years, these programmes have been administered by a number of organizational entities. Between 1945 and 1951, OAS/OAA and FA were administered by separate divisions within the Welfare Branch, which were later amalgamated to form the Family Allowance and Old Age Security Division. OAA remained in a separate division, later named the Social Aid Division and then the Old Age, Blindness and Disabled Persons' Assistance Division. In 1966, with the introduction of the Canada Pension Plan, the Family Allowance and Old Age Security Division was re-named the Income Security Branch. The Old Age, Blindness and Disabled Persons' Assistance Division disappeared in the same year, as the Act establishing the Canada Assistance Plan came into force. The Income Security Branch was re-organized and renamed the Income Security Programs Branch in July 1975.
In 1992, the Family Allowance Act was repealed and replaced with the Child Tax Benefit (CTB) programme. Following the government reorganization of June 1993, the ISPB was transferred from the Department of National Health and Welfare to the newly created Department of Human Resources Development (HRD). Responsibility for the CTB programme was later transferred from HRD to National Revenue - Taxation in August 1995.
