The Canada Workers Benefit is a refundable tax credit with a simple idea: if you work and your income is low, the government tops it up. It replaced the old Working Income Tax Benefit in 2019, and its best feature arrived in 2023 — you no longer have to wait until tax time for all of it.

The two sets of numbers (this is the confusing part)

Two different maximums are in circulation, and both are correct — they just apply to different moments:

  • $1,633 single / $2,813 family (disability supplement $843) are the 2025 tax year amounts. These drive the advance payments landing from July 2026 to January 2027, because advances are calculated from your most recent assessed return.
  • $1,665 single / $2,869 family (supplement $860) are the 2026 tax year amounts, indexed up 2%. You will see these when you file your 2026 return in spring 2027.

Amounts differ in Quebec, Alberta, and Nunavut, which run variations of the benefit.

How the amount builds and fades

The benefit phases in at 27% of working income above $3,000. Earn $8,000 from work and you have built up $1,350; a single worker hits the full maximum at roughly $9,048 of working income. Then it holds steady until adjusted net income passes the phase-out threshold (for the 2025 tax year, about $26,855 single and $30,639 for families), where it reduces at 15 cents per dollar and reaches zero around $37,740 single and $49,393 for families.

Getting half of it early: the ACWB

The Advanced Canada Workers Benefit pays up to 50% of your expected CWB in three instalments during the year — in the current cycle, January 12, July 10, and October 9. At the maximum, a single worker’s instalment is about $272; with the disability supplement, about $413. There is no separate application and no form: filing your return enrolls you, and the CRA calculates the advances from that return automatically. The balance is settled when you file the next year’s return.

One caution: the advances are an estimate based on last year’s income. If your income jumps, your final entitlement may be lower than what was advanced — the CRA reconciles it at tax time, though small overpayments are generally not recovered.