Household maintainer status of person

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on February 10, 2026.

Definition

Household maintainer status refers to whether or not a person residing in the household is responsible for paying the rent, or the mortgage, or the taxes, or the electricity or other services or utilities. Where a number of people may contribute to the payments, more than one person in the household may be identified as a household maintainer. If no person in the household is identified as making such payments, a household member may be so identified by default.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Usage

To be considered a household maintainer, the person identified as responsible for household payments must be 15 years of age or older and be related to Person 1 in a way other than as an employee or as an employee's census family.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

There are no relevant internationally recognized standards.

Classifications

Relation to previous version

  • Household maintainer status of person February 10, 2026 to current

    The definition of 'household maintainer status' and the classification have been modified.

  • Household maintainer status of person July 15, 1998 to February 09, 2026

    This was the departmental standard from July 15, 1998 to February 09, 2026.

Date modified: