How Government-Backed Registered Retirement Savings Plans Impact Canadians’ Tax-Free Savings Account:

Abstract

Personal savings can help cushion financial difficulties and reduce the need to apply for government assistance. This study examined who benefits the most and the least from the government-supported Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). The compound theory of social equity was used to analyze data from the 2019 Canadian Survey of Financial Security. The results suggest that there are disparities in contributions to TFSA and RRSP based on the level of education and gender of single parents. Our analysis using correlation, OLS, and quantile regressions found that there are statistically significant but relatively small differences in contributions for less educated individuals and single-parent families led by women. These findings suggest that governments could focus on financial education, improve financial inclusion policies, and review rules on TFSA and RRSP contribution limits, which could pose a cognitive administrative burden for vulnerable households.