97 organisations, one goal: financial help that finds the Canadians who are missing out

An estimated $2 billion in benefits goes unclaimed in Canada each year, largely because about one in five people on low incomes does not file a tax return. This week in Ottawa, 97 community financial-help providers from Prosper Canada's Resilient Futures programme gathered to compare notes and press their shared goal: build the financial wellbeing of 1 million Canadians and connect them to that missing $2 billion. The four-year national initiative, backed by a $60 million investment from the Government of Canada, funds year-round tax filing, benefits assistance, financial coaching and counselling through community organisations — help that is free, local and designed for people with low and moderate incomes, who often have the most to gain and the least access to trustworthy advice.

SDG 1 · No poverty — Mechanism: institutional program