The Current - Are you feeling the pinch of the singles 'tax'?

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

There’s no getting around it - life is more expensive as a single person than it is when you’re in a couple. With singles in Canada now making up almost 40% of the population, The Current producer Cece Armstrong looked into the so-called singles 'tax' and how it’s hitting people’s wallets and life choices.

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Don't get me wrong. I love being single and I love living alone. It's great. It's fantastic. But it's expensive. At this point, I'm not even dating for love. I'm looking to date somebody so we can sleep platonically next to each other and I can have the rent I pay for a one-bedroom apartment. Singlehood is on the rise in Canada. There are more than 15 million single people across this country right. now, almost 40% of the population.

Yothaka Gürme is a psychology professor at Simon Fraser University who studies singlehood and says the trend of younger people putting off relationships and marriage is just one part of this. We also see singlehood across the lifespan. So singlehood is also on the rise because people are exiting romantic relationships that maybe aren't fulfilling for them anymore, are not serving their needs. And we also see people entering woodhood at new. younger ages now than never before. The problem is that being single is expensive.

The cost of living is hitting everyone hard right now, but for single people, shouldering the cost alone is taking its toll. The currents Sees Armstrong spoke with Matt Galloway about the singles tax in February. Here's their conversation. What is the singles tax? It's exactly as it sounds. So life is more expensive when you're single compared to when you're in a couple. Think about it.

There's no one to split the rent with or the power or the power or the. the internet, the car payment, the condo fees, you get the idea. Back in the old days, we used to call this going Dutch, you'd split it down the middle, everybody was happy because you're paying less and you get the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. Now, I'm sure the listeners can tell at this point, but I'm not from Canada. I moved to Vancouver from the UK a couple of years ago. And don't get me wrong, London was expensive, but it's expensive here too. I think looking at my paycheck at the end of each month, I know that sort of 30 to 40% of it

is going just to rent alone for my gorgeous, if tiny studio apartment. That's a lot. Yeah. And then, you know, and then you add in hydro, internet, groceries, phone bill, all of that sort of stuff. And, I mean, once that's squared away, I'm, you know, trying to put some money into savings each month. And it's kind of only then that I'm able to think about what I want to spend the rest of my money on, you know, to enjoy life in the city and up in the mountains. Because you want to enjoy life in the city, as you said. You cannot be alone in feeling the squeeze as a single person.

We heard some of the clips off the top there. I'm definitely not alone in this. It's something I talk about all the time with my friends and family. And it's not just the daily budget, right? Like, God forbid some unexpected expense pops up, like my bike gets stolen or, I mean, I love my friends who are getting married very dearly, but another wedding invitation lands on my doorstep. And I think the knock-on effects of paying for all of this alone starts to really frustrate single people more and more around my age, sort of in your early 30s. When most people have been working professional jobs for about 10 years, but single people's and couples' financial realities can start to look pretty different.

But Matt, don't just take my word for it. I visited Andy Kemp. I love the yellow walls. It came like that. She's 30, single, and also trying to make it work in Vancouver. And then I put all my posters up, so I have some fun things to look at, some pets and some birds and some, you know, nerdy posters over there. It's great.

So I got a desk setup that also pairs as a gaming setup, which is awesome. You got to kind of, you know, use spaces for multi-purposes here. And I got an art desk and then my guitars. Her lovely but tight 600 square foot basement apartment is on a quiet tree-lined street. All in with like rent and groceries and phone bill and like insurance and all that kind of stuff. It's probably like 15 to 1,600, I would say. It changes depending on, you know, grocery needs or that kind of stuff. I would say it's just sustainable kind of at this point.

With groceries, you know, in rent, not being able to split that with anybody. And then even just things that are pretty. your life, like having a card that's not in the picture at all, you know, to be able to make that happen. So that's a lot of money, $1,600 a month. That's a lot for one person to pay. How common is, is that what we heard from Andy? So in 2024, RBC dug into the numbers on this, and actually seeing it laid out was a bit of a shock. They looked at the average costs of a whole host of things, like rent, food, transport, basically an average monthly budget. And Matt, I'm going to run through some numbers here. So what they found for couples, each person in the couple, on average,

is spending $2,319 a month. But if you look at singles, that number jumps to $3,181 a month. Oh, wow. You know, with some quick math, that's a saving of $862 per month for each person, just because you're in a couple. And so while as a household, couples might be spending more, as individuals, they're getting that extra bit of wiggle room each month. Hence, why people call it the singles tax. We have been talking about rent. What about people who are looking to buy a property? That's a whole different ballgame when it comes to the singles tax. Here's how Andy puts it. Yeah, a certain doesn't seem feasible. You know, in the next five, ten years, I mean, I would love to at some point, or even going back to school, you know, long time down the road or something like

that. But a lot of it is kind of just like making ends meet each month. So it can be hard to save up towards any certain goals. You know, I try to do what I can there. But still, even then, it's not amounting to anything significant that makes me feel like I'm set up to make any giant purchases. Now, I know there are single people out there who've bought homes on their own, but obviously, if you're doing this by yourself, it's going to be a lot trickier. You're just one person saving for the down payment, one person going to the bank for the loan, one person paying the mortgage, one person, you know, paying for the upkeep or any renovations that need to be done.

And that can seem super daunting, if not impossible, for a lot of single people. So I'm going to be the person who is yelling at the radio. listening to this, who says, it's wonderful that you are in your apartment by yourself and you have your space to, just get a roommate, that if you had a roommate, life would be a whole lot cheaper. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. And some people are. Rommate households are the fastest growing household type in the country, up 54% in the last

20 years. And forget moving in with a friend or even, you know, a total stranger of Craigslist. Living with mum and dad, well into your 30s, is also on the rise. And while those setups can work, lots of the people in their 30s are. I spoke with felt the same way that I do that, like, at a certain point, you just want your own space, right? Coming home to dirty dishes in the sink or having to wait to use the shower gets pretty old. We've been talking about the daily expenses. What about just living your life? I mean, enjoying being alive. I mean, the way I think about it, you've, you know, you've tried your

best to save up some money at the end of each month. You want to be able to enjoy it at least a little bit, right? And I mean, going on vacation is one of the big ones when it comes to when single tax can really sneak up on you. If you're like traveling solo, you've got no one to split the hotel room with or the car rental or the Uber home from the airport. There was even this investigation that showed that some US airlines were charging solo flyers more for their tickets. And I've been finding this super frustrating lately as someone who's new to Canada. I'm, you know, trying to see as much of the country as I can. And I feel like I'm getting hit by the singles tax at almost every turn. We've been talking about younger singles. He's younger 30s. What about people who are

older later in life. How does the singles tax impact them? I mean, this definitely isn't just an issue for younger people. I met up with Catherine Bryson. She's single and in her 60s. She spent the last 20 years caring for her sick parents and now that they've died, she's been navigating this next chapter of her life. Yes, well, the house was built in 1912, craftsman style. Yeah. And in the 30s, it was children's hospital. Right. She lives in this place called the Abbey Field House. It's this big, pastel yellow, rabbit Warren-like heritage home in South Vancouver. Yes. So here's the balcony.

Oh, lovely. And it's got a lovely view. And it means that in the summer we can relax out here, you know, bring a cup of tea, have a chat. Yeah. It doesn't mean that it's... Each of the 16 people who live there have their own bedroom and bathroom, but they share a kitchen, a dining room, a few different living rooms, as well as the washer dryer. I mean, that doesn't sound like a terrible setup. Yeah, exactly.

And these houses are designed to be affordable, sort of family-style homes for seniors. They're in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as here in BC. And the hope is really that single seniors live independently, but can still feel part of a community. I wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted to be in my room and relax, do what I enjoy, not feel any need to do anything. but just do what I like to do on my own, but also connect. And I did.

There's another resident here. We often go out together. People forge friendships here. They forge friendships. All their meals are provided by live-in coordinators. And as you just heard there, I arrived in the afternoon, just as dinner was getting pressed. So the whole house was really starting to smell amazing.

We eat meals on whichever side we live on. However, we do have flexible seating. So if I want to change to another dining room, I can. And all of those were sort of big reasons why Catherine decided on Abbeyfield, but a key part of her decision to live there was also the cost. This place was affordable and I had needs. This place is like a gemstone because I pay, you won't believe this, $2,200.

Meals included, utilities included. Incredible. I sometimes wonder, were it not for here, where would these people be? Where would they be? Where could they live? How could they live? You know how high the rents are here. In my previous place, I was paying $2,200 without utilities, simply out of my reach.

So it sounds like people like Catherine are trying to figure out. a way to make this work. But is there anything that's happening on a broader level institutional government to address this? Governments will often talk about helping, they'll say hardworking families need our help. And what they're not saying is that singles kind of are out of that bubble, that they may not be getting the help the governments are targeting towards families.

So is there anything to address the financial gap that we've heard about here? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as we know, Matt, tax season is upon us. Couples out there will know the benefits of filing together. And if you're a single parent, there are benefits you can claim like the Canada Child Benefit and the GSTHST credit. But if you're just a single adult with no dependence, the singles tax can really hit you here too. It's something that the group single seniors for tax fairness is trying to tackle. This is their director, Elizabeth Brown.

We're a nationwide movement that's basically devoted to lobbying the federal government for revisions to the Income Tax Act to provide fairness and equity for single seniors. there are no tax benefits that single people receive that couples don't. There's a lot in the other direction. So when it comes to, you know, tax planning or retirement planning, they really don't have as much, you know, many tools. So for example, with it comes to a couple, they've got things like pension income splitting. And that's where you have within a case of a couple, the higher earning member of a couple can allocate up to 50% of certain pension earnings to a lower income spouse. And so what that means is that lowers the tax burden. burden for that household, but can also allow them to drop below maybe the clawbox for things like old age security. So those are things that singles cannot do. So they've got a handful of recommendations for the federal government. Those include things like increasing the pension

income for single seniors from $2,000 to $3,000. They also want a tax provision put in place for single seniors to offset the reduction in tax that's payable by couples who are applying for pension income spitting. You're doing a journalistic look into this, but I mean, you're also living through this. And so I just wonder whether you're thinking about how that impacts you in a new way now. Yeah, I think so. I mean, there have been like a couple of big takeaways from doing this piece for me. I think the first is that like not only a single people really facing a financial burden, as we've heard, but there's also sort of an emotional tax that comes with this too, right? Like everyone I spoke with talked about how as a single person, you're having to navigate

everything by yourself, making every decision big and small on your own. And it's something that Andy thinks about too. If something happens to one person, someone else being able to respond, whether there's a crisis for one person or someone goes back to school, you know, being able to have that support network behind you, you can shift your goals together. And when you're single, you kind of just have to hold and juggle all the balls at the same time. You know, you have to keep working, even if you want to consider making any changes or that kind of stuff. There's so many fixed aspects of your life that it's really hard to kind of make changes when you're single too. find that you're not as nimble as well.

Now, I'm a super type A person, Matt, and I'd like to be prepared for all eventualities when I can be. So I got some words of wisdom from Catherine on this. Clean up your act so that other people don't have to clean it up for you. Even if you're only 30, start making plans and start thinking about things. Care is and free. It's not free you have to pay. So somehow you've got to have the money.

Don't leave it. too long because it's going to happen sooner than you know. Cece, clean up your act. Yeah, I know. I've been told. I've been told. And I suppose just sort of lastly, I loved how almost all of the people I spoke with in their 30s were like totally happy with being single at this stage in their lives. They, you know, they love the time and the freedom they have to really invest in friendships and hobbies and, you know, in themselves.

And I think that while a lot of them really wanted to have a partner in the future, they weren't willing to settle down with just anyone to avoid the singles talks. Cici, thank you very much for this. Thanks. Cici Armstrong is a producer with the current. She and Matt Galloway spoke in February. You've been listening to the current podcast. I'm Paul Hunter.

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