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Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

Objective The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) is a 2006 Canadian federal policy of income supplementation that provides parents with $100 monthly in Canadian dollars for each child aged < 6 years. The study main objective was to estimate the causal effect of UCCB on self-reported food insecurity overall and in vulnerable subgroups. Method The Canadian Community Health Survey (2001-2009) was used to conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) regression analysis for the effect of the UCCB on self-reported food insecurity. Respondents were ages => 12 in families with at least one child aged < 6 years (UCCB-eligible, n = 22,737) or a child aged 6-11 but no child < 6 years (control group, n = 17,664). Results Over the study period 16.3% of respondents experienced some level of food insecurity. Overall, UCCB reduced the proportion of respondents reporting food insecurity by 2.4% (95% CI: - 4.0%, - 0.9%). There was a significantly stronger impact on food insecurity for respondents from households with yearly income below the population median (- 4.3%, 95% CI: - 7.2%, - 1.4%) and respondents from single parent families (- 5.4%, 95% CI: - 10.3%, - 0.6%). Conclusion We found that a relatively small monthly income supplementation results in a significant reduction in food insecurity at the population level, with larger effects in vulnerable groups.