It is delivered as a tax-free monthly payment available to eligible Canadian families to help with the cost of raising children.
The CCTB was enacted in response to a commitment made by the Canadian parliament, in November 1989, to eradicate child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.
[L 1] The law implementing the new benefit is adopted by the House of Commons in September 1992 and received royal assent on 15 October 1992.
[4] However, it has been found that, due to cutbacks to social assistance, the impact of this program in reducing child poverty is negligible.
[10] The Universal Child Care Benefit Act received royal assent on 22 June 2006 and the UCCB was paid for the first time in July 2006.
[L 5][11] A significant expansion of the UCCB was announced in November 2014 in the Fall Fiscal Update:[12] The changes were incorporated in the Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No.