Who can claim the Canada Workers Benefit
The CWB test is short, and it is set out on the first page of CRA Schedule 6. You must meet all of the conditions in the year, and none of the exclusions must apply to you. The test turns on residence, work, and household — not on the kind of job you do. Employees and self-employed workers both count, as long as the income is working income.
The test, in full
| Test | Rule (CRA Schedule 6, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Residence | You were a resident of Canada throughout the year. |
| Working income | You earned working income (employment income, self-employment income, and certain taxable scholarships and grants). |
| Age or household | At the end of the year you were 19 or older, or you lived with your spouse or common-law partner or your child. |
| Tax return | You file an income tax and benefit return for the year. Without a return there is no claim. |
| Student exclusion | You were not enrolled full-time at a designated educational institution for more than 13 weeks in the year, unless you had an eligible dependant at the end of the year. |
| Prison exclusion | You were not confined to a prison or similar institution for 90 days or more during the year. |
| Tax-exempt exclusion | You were not exempt from Canadian income tax as an officer or servant of another country (such as a diplomat), a family member living with such a person, or an employee of such a person. |
Eligible spouse and eligible dependant
An eligible spouse is your cohabiting spouse or common-law partner on December 31 who was resident in Canada throughout the year and meets the same student, prison, and tax-exempt conditions. If you had been living separate and apart because of a breakdown for at least 90 days including December 31, you are not treated as having a cohabiting spouse on that date. An eligible dependant is your child, or your spouse's child, who was under 19 and lived with you on December 31 and was not eligible for the CWB themselves. A child under your custody and control who was wholly dependent on you for support counts, and a child you lived with and cared for under a kinship or close-relationship program can still count even if you received payments under that program, as long as those payments were not a children's special allowance.
What counts as working income
Working income is employment income and other employment income, taxable scholarships, fellowships, bursaries and artists' project grants, and self-employment income (excluding losses). Investment income, pension income, and social assistance are not working income, so they do not help you clear the working-income floor — although they do count in your net income for the phase-out. That distinction matters: a person can have working income above the floor and still receive a reduced benefit because other income lifts their adjusted family net income. Including tax-exempt working income earned on a reserve is optional, but if you include it in one part of the calculation you must include the matching amounts elsewhere on the form.