For two reasons, the conventional wisdom is that the poor are not heavy users of the insolvency system. First, creditors are reluctant to extend credit to the poor because the risks of non-payment are high. Not having been able to borrow, the poor are not over-indebted and are therefore not in...

When debt becomes unmanageable, two options for a consumer debtor in Canada are: (1) enlisting the services of a bankruptcy trustee, and (2) becoming a client of a not-for-profit credit counselling agency. Each of these options is regulated differently and has public and private dimensions. At...

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) offered a generous but time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of lone parents—who were also long-term social assistance recipients—if they found full-time work and left social assistance. Employment data was collected for this group...

A continuing theme of our work, and that of others, has been the failure of insolvency law to keep pace with the new problems faced by low-income debtors. Researchers have suggested that the cost of personal bankruptcy puts it beyond the reach of many of those in need of it, though it has proven...

In this article, Professors Stephanie Ben-Ishai and Saul Schwartz examine several ways in which the government becomes a creditor of economically disadvantaged Canadians and its role in limiting the options available for resolving the resulting overindebtedness. Specifically, the authors explore...