The Canada Learning Bond was introduced in 2004 and provides up to $2,000 to help lower-income families save for their child’s post-secondary education. Research shows that youth who have access to education savings are 50% more likely to participate in post-secondary education and are connected to improved child development, higher career expectations and higher future earnings.

Families must open an RESP for their children in order to receive the CLB and this is difficult to do for many. Since 2008 Momentum has been offering programs that support youth and adults to open an RESP (registered education savings plan) and access the CLB. Through Momentum’s efforts, along with others such as the Aspire Collaborative, rates of CLB uptake have risen from 20% to 50%. A huge success! However, with millions in unclaimed CLB money and 50% of eligible recipients still not accessing the CLB, we knew there was still more to do.

We advocated for universal uptake though auto-enrolment and this was achieved in the Federal Budget 2024. This will ensure that all children who don’t have an RESP opened for them by the time they turn four will have one automatically opened and CLB payments will be auto-deposited into their account.

Approximately 130,000 additional children will receive the CLB each year because of this change – that is an additional $260 million in annual education savings for lower-income families! The age to retroactively claim the CLB will also be extended from 20 to 30 years old to allow young adults to access their post-secondary education funding.

These changes are a massive win for lower-income families in Canada, but there is still work to be done: 

• The Government of Canada must select a financial partner to provide RESPs. We hope to see public involvement in this process so that the funds are stewarded with care.
• We have heard that adult beneficiaries are having a hard time at banking branches opening an RESP retroactively for themselves – we hope to see financial institutions provide improved trainings and awareness to better support young adults wanting to access the CLB.
• Children who do not have social insurance numbers will be excluded from automatic enrollment – we hope to see the government work towards improved SIN enrollment to ensure ALL children in Canada are accessing the CLB.
• Families must tax file in order to determine CLB eligibility. We hope to see the continuation and further investments be made into free tax filing programs like the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program. 

We look forward to continuing to be involved in the implementation of automatic enrolment and applaud the Government for this policy change.