Living alone? Here’s how the ‘single tax’ hits your wallet

We know affordability is top of mind, especially in Toronto. What makes these times even more challenging is living alone. Economists have dubbed it the single tax, and experts say it's becoming harder and harder to foot the bill. We've seen the rents decrease. We've seen other things increase. So if you're carrying debt, and actually interest rates have gone up since 2023, your cost of carrying, say for instance your student debt, has increased. But the other thing that's happened is utilities and especially food have increased significantly. In 2024, the Wellesley Institute published a study on this and they weren't just looking into how to survive, but what someone living alone would need to survive and live a healthy life. At the time, they found that if you're single, working and between the ages of 25 and 40, it would cost around $61,654 a year after taxes. That's a salary of around $82,000 a year. To give you a sense of how that compares to actual salaries, according to the last census, the median single household income in Toronto was around $45,000. It probably won't surprise you to learn that things have only gotten harder and more expensive. Let's take a look at some current figures. The average one-bedroom rent in Toronto right now is around $2,273 per month. Groceries cost about $360 per month for single-person households. Experts say solo shoppers also pay more because pack sizes are designed for larger households. Real estate agents say to budget for around $150 per month in utilities. That's almost $3,000 per month just to cover basic costs, which is almost the entire take-home of Toronto's last reported median income. That's not even taking into account internet, transit, clothing or other expenses. The reality is now, many people living alone are struggling financially. The latest report from Food Banks Canada shows single-person households make up around 44% of food bank use. Single-income households are across the country and as well as provincially, in most provinces, if not all, are the single largest household group accessing food banks. Richard Mattern with Food Banks Canada says this is because of the rising costs of housing and food not keeping up with wages. But he also notes a particular challenge one-person households face. Single-person households in particular are one of the clearest examples of the gaps in our safety net. So when job loss occurs or when working income is too low, they have fewer supports to help them, such as families with children have child tax benefits, seniors have their income benefits, working-age single adults do not have those income benefits. And that gap in the system was also noted by the Wellesley Institute. A lot of the savings and a lot of the government strategies have been around families. So I think people haven't been thinking as hard on the needs of single people and they've dropped through the net. So when we're thinking about tax reform, we might want to think about the group who are most likely to be in poverty. I mean, the actual people who are most likely to be in poverty are single people between the ages of 18 and 40. When asked whether tax relief is currently being considered specifically for people living alone, the province pointed to broader affordability measures. In a statement, the Ministry of Finance said since 2018, we have not raised a single tax and have provided nearly $12 billion in support this year to help keep costs down for families and individuals. The province also noted it permanently cut the gas tax, raised minimum wage and reduced or eliminated income tax for 1.7 million low-income residents. Talia Ricci, CBC News, Toronto.