The federal government will announce plans to boost payments made to families under the Canada child benefit program on Tuesday, CBC News has learned.<\/p>\n
Multiple sources, speaking to CBC News and Radio-Canada on the condition of anonymity, said the government will foreshadow the increase in the fall economic update, which will be tabled tomorrow, and provide more details\u00a0later this week.<\/p>\n
The benefit was introduced in 2016 and gives most families with children under the age of 18 a monthly cheque.<\/p>\n
The benefit offers a maximum $533.33 a month for each child\u00a0under six \u2014 and $450 for each child aged six\u00a0to 17 \u2014 in a family earning less than $30,000 annually, and is adjusted downward as a family’s net income increases.<\/p>\n
The payment is not currently indexed to inflation, something the Liberal government said it would do starting in 2020, if re-elected. Indexation could be one of the levers the government\u00a0uses to boost payouts.<\/p>\n
During the last election, the Liberals touted the means-tested\u00a0benefit\u00a0\u2014 which replaced the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) introduced by the former Conservative government\u00a0\u2014 as a powerful poverty fighting tool, estimating some 300,000 children would be lifted out of poverty after the money from the $23-billion program\u00a0started to flow.<\/p>\n