As you know, everything has been inflationary in the past two years. Prices are getting higher and higher, ordinary people's wallets are getting more and more deflated, and the pressure of high inflation has forced some of the small and middle classes in the past to become low-income families!
According to a recent data released by the City of Calgary, the number of citizens who signed up for the Fair Entry program in 2023 has skyrocketed by 34%!
And this Fair Entry program is only open to low-income people in Calg. This means that in the past year, the number of low-income people in Calgah has increased by at least 34%!
According to municipal statistics, in December 2022, nearly 80,000 people registered for the Fair Entry program, and in December 2023, more than 113,000 people registered for this benefit, a 34% increase in the number of applicants!
Of course, this data may not be a very accurate reflection of how many low-income people there are in Cal City, because there may be some people who already qualify for low income but have not applied for this benefit.
The number of people claiming low-income benefits has risen sharply, which says Meaghon Reid, executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, a nonprofit in Calgary, is not surprised.
This year, Reid said, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people going to food banks to get relief food, and according to their agency, nearly 115,000 Casa residents are now on the verge of losing their homes. People are living under a lot of pressure right now, with high mortgage rates, rising rents, rising food prices, and utility bills. Middle-class families who used to live comfortably in Calgiva may now have just enough income to make ends meet.
The "middle class" is getting poorer, not only in Car, but across Canada as well.
Pollara Strategic Insights, a research firm, released a report in November this year, saying that Canada's middle class has become increasingly difficult under inflationary pressures, with 77% of Canadians believing that middle-class families are "slimming" and shrinking.
More than 43 per cent of those who identify as middle-class say they earn just enough to live on and have no savings at all, while 15 per cent of middle-class people say they have begun to owe some bills.
This dilemma has also made many people worry about the future of the next generation. Only 52% of Canadian parents believe their children will be in the middle class in the future, compared to 79% in 2020.
There are currently 7 major low-income benefits in Calcheng
Since life is getting harder and harder, let's take a look at what is this Fair Entry program in Card City, and what are the conditions to apply?
The Fair Entry program is a card-style benefit specially launched by the City of Calgary for low-income people, after registering for this program, citizens can enjoy more preferential land tax prices, bus fares, municipal swimming pool leisure venue discount cards, parking discounts, housing maintenance discounts, pet birth control discounts, home network and TV package discounts.
For example, on the bus monthly pass, the price of the monthly pass for an ordinary adult is $112 Canadian dollars, but after applying for this benefit, according to different income levels, it can be as cheap as only $5.8~$57.5 per month.
Above: Discounts on monthly bus tickets for families with different income levels in Carena, sourced from the city government of Carcity
A total of 7 preferential benefits add up, you can save thousands of dollars a year, a lot of money!
What kind of income level can be eligible to apply? The definition of income is still a little complicated, depending on the income and the number of family members on the annual tax return. As you can roughly refer to the data in the chart above, households with income brackets can get the most discounts, with a household of four with an income requirement of less than $27,297, families with B-income levels can get a medium discount with a household of four with an income requirement of less than $46,404, and households with a Band C income can get the least discount, with a household of four with an income requirement of less than $54,594