Many Canadian adults are earning a decent income. But without savings or assets, they may be living closer to poverty than they may think.
That’s the message emerging from CSPSC Management Committee Member Jennifer Robson’s research on a measurement known as asset poverty, discussed in this month’s issue of FPA Voices.
“When you only focus on income, you are missing a huge piece of what really matters. Asset poverty lets us look at the bigger picture of a household’s resources—their assets, as well as their income” says Robson,Associate Professor in Carleton’s Master of Political Management program.
Earlier this year, Robson and her colleague David Russell at Oregon State University released the first national estimates of asset poverty in Canada.
Robson shares, “What we found is remarkable. We have a large group of people who may not be low-income, but if disaster struck and their income stopped, they wouldn’t be able to keep themselves above the poverty line on assets alone.”
Read more about Jennifer Robson’s work in the latest issue of FPA Voices.