Household disposable income

As with the annual DHEA, the sub-annual estimates of household disposable income relies on the Social Policy Simulation Database and Model (SPSD/M) to distribute aggregate household disposable income and many of its sub-components to households. The sub-annual DHEA uses the latest available SPSD-M which starting in 2020 and that was updated to reflect sub-annual changes in employment status as well as transfers from governments. For example, SPSD-M 28.1 released in June 2021 included a dynamic labour module.

While the SPSD-M is a central component to producing sub-annual DHEA estimates , the model is not without limitations. Perhaps the biggest limitation is the very fact that it is a model and therefore does not provide direct accounts of household income. For example, the SPSD-M does not include microdata on the various Covid-19 government support measures such as the Canada Emergency Relief Benefits (CERB), but rather relies on modelled weekly employment status, derived using the LFS, to estimate those individuals who likely received CERB payments. Modelled distributions of CERB and other Covid-19 government support measures were further aligned with microdata for the specific transfer program where applicable.