<p>The impact of the 2016 Canada Child Benefit (CCB) on parental health has not yet been evaluated. We assess this using the Canadian Community Health Survey (2011–2021) and a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings indicate a small yet statistically significant positive effect on self-reported general and mental health, possibly driven by increased physical activity. This suggests that the CCB helped buffer against the average decline in parental health during our study period. The improvement in maternal general health was concentrated among those with young children, and the positive effect on mental health was observed for both mothers and fathers, regardless of the child’s age. An event study further reveals that improvements in mental health were fairly immediate and sustained over time. However, these benefits did not extend to economically vulnerable parents, lone parents or parents with four or more children, and overall the CCB did little to reduce the socioeconomic gradient in parental health. Our heterogeneity analysis shows that improvements in parental health were concentrated among higher-income parents and two-parent families, while the CCB had a detrimental effect on the mental health of lone parents, despite being income-tested. We argue that policy adjustments, such as larger or better-targeted child benefits, are necessary to address these health disparities.</p>