Definitions
Measures
Historical Context
Social issues
True or False
100
A ________________ is “any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as (something) that needs to be addressed….A _______ emerges when a social change group successfully calls attention to a condition or behavior that it considers serious.”(Pearce, E. B., & Ochoa Leyva, M., 2020)
What is social issue?
100
This is a measure of how much money a government or society believes a person has to have to be able to live a minimum standard aka standard living. (Barker, 2014)
What is poverty line
Fun fact: “The original poverty in the United States, issued in 1962, was determined by figuring three times the cost of a subsistence food budget. Since 1989 the poverty line, or threshold, has meant the previous year’s poverty line adjusted for the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).”(Barker, 2014)
100
The industrial period, marked by the great depression and world war 2, featured poverty affecting more people. The rise in socialism and shift from individual blame, resulted in a greater push for government resource allocation for people in poverty, including this kind of relief for employees, which we still see featured in society today. (Greason et al, 2024)
What is Worker's Compensation?
100
Social issues are relevant to social work. One reason is because a value of theirs is to promote the value of of social justice according to the social work __________( answer: CODE OF ETHICS)(CASW, 2023) ,address systemic problems on micro, macro and mezzo levels (Pearce & Ochoa Levya, 2020) and social issues impact large numbers of people and have to do with social justice, social issues are relevant to social work.
What is the Code of Ethics?
For more information: on the code of ethics- go toCASW Code of Ethics, Values and Guiding Principles 2024 | Canadian Association of Social Workers to read about principle 2.
100
True or false: The Canadian Assistance Program established income and social assistance to meet needs and depends on the cause of the poverty.
False: The Canadian Assistance Program established income and social assistance to meet needs regardless of cause (Greason et al. 2024)
200
“_________ is the state of being deficient in money or means of subsistence.” There are different types including: “absolute _____(below a subsistence level of income) and relative ______ (below the living standard of the person’s mainstream community)... Transitional ______ (is) brief, temporary ____ (and) related to specific events in one’s life or environment…Marginal _______ (involves) moving in and out of ______ because of job insecurity, inadequate skills, or limited education), and residual ____ ( is) long-term and intergenerational.” (Barker, 2014)
What is poverty?
200
The Market Basket measure was created in the early 2000s but was made the official poverty line of Canada in the Government of Canada’s 2018 Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to Stats Can, a family is considered to be in poverty if their disposable income is less than the MBM threshold for their region, or they cannot afford the basket for their family in the location in which they live. The basket is made up of these 5 necessities: (Statistics Canada, 2024; Statistics Canada, 2025)
What are: food, housing, clothing, shelter and transportation
For more information about market basket measure, visit…. https://sdgcif-data-canada-oddcic-donnee.github.io/1-1-1/ or watch this video: (36) Decoding Canada’s Poverty: Understanding the Market Basket Measure - YouTube or to see the current thresholds in Canada go here: Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year
200
These laws, enacted in the 1600s in England, are the foundation of social welfare.They are one of the first times in which government classified people by worthiness to determine how to allocate resources, based on the concept of the undeserving and deserving poor They were the the origin of concepts we can still see today like less eligibility and means testing, and including the undeserving and deserving poor. (Greason et al., 2024)
What are the Elizabethan Poor Laws?
200
Poverty is a social issue because it creates ____ circumstances for people, intersects with other types of inequality, and impacts a large portion of the population . (Pearce & Ochoa Levya, 2020) According to Statistics Canada, nearly half of Canadians have difficulty meeting everyday expenses and 19.1% people face food insecurity (Statistics Canada, 2025)
What is negative
200
It would take almost 400 years to end child poverty in Canada.
What is true?
Note: According to Campaign 2000,802,000 children (10.7%) live in poverty according to the MBM, and using broader measure it is nearly 1.4 nillion children. In 2023, more than 50% of children on reserve were in poverty. (Campaign 2000, 2026)
300
Sometimes known as “starving the beast”, this is a a way to address a budget deficit by cutting on social spending (Greason et al., 2024)
What is retrenchment
300
According to Statistics Canada, this measure “defines an individual as having low income if their household's adjusted after-tax income falls below 50% of the median adjusted after-tax income.” (2025)
What is low income measure?
300
During the welfare state period, the government started provided more for people in need, shifting away from the concept of individual blame and shifting towards collective responsibility. The exponential rise of welfare spending included a shift to programs that provided despite income, like the Family Allowance Act, these programs are known as _________ (Greason et al. ,2024)
What are universal programs
300
This political and economic theory emphasizes individual economic freedom, property rights, free markets and free trade. This framing significantly affects how poverty is seen as a social issue. (Harvey, 2005; Gill, 2021; Greason et al., 2024)
What is neoliberalism?
300
The rate of poverty in the territories is equal to that of the provinces?
What is false?
The rate of poverty in the territories is more than double that of the provinces (Statistics Canada, 2025)
Note: According to Statistic Canada, Indigenous people are more likely to live in poverty and in 2020,“Among Indigenous people aged 16 and older, about 89,000 (11.8%) were below the poverty line” (Statistics Canada, 2023) According to the 2025 Report of the National Advisory Council om Poverty,174,000 (17.4%) Indigenous people living off-reserve (aged 15+)ᶧᶧᶧ fell below the MBM.
(Statistics Canada, 2023)
400
“A pattern of living in which the children of poor families grow up to become poor and raise their own children to become poor. An implicit and unproven premise, often used by critics of the U.S. welfare system, states that poverty occurs by choice and that some welfare programs foster dependency and teach children to live the way their parents live.” (Barker, 2014)
What is poverty?
400
Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy introduced not only the MBM, but also these 12 ___________ of poverty such as deep income poverty, food insecurity, unmet housing needs and chronic homelessness (Statistics Canada, 2025)
What is an indicator?
400
The neoliberal era featured deregulation and privatization, shifting away institutional welfare to residual welfare. This restructuring fof the welfare state focused on work as a way out of poverty, and shifted back to the categories of the Elizabethan Poor Laws, this resulted in these 3 things: __________
What are stigma, surveillance, and growing wealth inequality (Feldman; Gill, 2021; Greason et al., 2024)?
400
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which viewed poverty as an individual social issue, systematically underfunded this population during the retrenchment period, which continues to impact them today (Greason et al., 2024).
What is indigenous communities?
400
True or False: 45.2% of children in single parent households are in poverty, compared to 10.1% intwo parent households
What is true?
(Campaign 2000, 2026)
To learn more about poverty trends go here: Poverty Trends 2025
500
________ welfare is a temporary last resort to be used when all other resources have been tried. Means-Testing and less eligibility are key features of this welfare system. The alternative type of welfare system is the institutional welfare which is more collective and considers welfare a right.
What is residual welfare
500
This measure of poverty is linked to inequality. According to Statistics Canada “ it examines the distribution of income across the spectrum… According to the ________, 6.7 million people live in poverty, 17 per cent of the population.” (2025)
What is the Census Family Low Income Measure, After Tax (CFLIM-AT)
500
Retrenchment and recovery was cut short by COVID, which featured this type of temporary support through measures like CERB and was meant to keep the existing system in place (Greason et al. , 2024)
What is emergency neoliberalism?
500
The goal of this type of social work is is to “dismantle colonialist, patriarchal, and capitalist domination” (Chan, 2018, p. 22). This type of social work views social issues as poverty from a holistic, destigmatizing lens and aims to focus on consciousness raising and service use empowerment (Greason & Plourde, 2025).
What is structural social work
500
True or False: Some of the most common demographics to experience poverty are: newcomers, indigenous and racialized populations, families with single mothers, youth, and people with disabilities
What is true?
(Citizens for Public Justice, 2025)
To see more: please visit Statistics Canada's
2025 Report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty