Low-income Families Shouldn’t Miss Out on Education Grants

Many low-income families don’t even look into applying for scholarships.

Children of low-income families can afford to go to college; despite what they may think.

The Omega Foundation and Maytree held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss why low-income families don’t seek out grants, scholarships or bursaries to pay for their children to attend postsecondary school. The issue is also explored in a report called More than Money: Mining the human and financial potential of Canada’s education savings programs for low-income families.

The report explores the problem and states that many low-income families don’t even look into applying for scholarships or bursaries because they assume education is unattainable.

To ensure that low-income families can take full advantage of the resources available, the report makes recommendations such as:

• Better access to grants that already exist and have been designated to them
• More support from charities and others to help them save; and
• Better financial information to make decisions about education saving.

The report also explores the barriers that families may face, such as a lack of information for Registered Educations Savings Plans (RESP), community service providers not encouraging RESP participation, a lack of information in languages other than English or French, and the overall complexity of starting an RESP.