Social Policy in Ontario

Child care benefit flawed

Posted on April 12, 2015 in Child & Family Policy Context

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Readers’ Letters – Re: Child care: seriously off-target, Editorial April 2
Apr 10 2015.   Laurel Rothman

As a broad coalition of groups committed to eradicating child and family poverty in Canada, we have always maintained that Canada’s strategy to end poverty must include a universally accessible system of child care in addition to income security measures like the Canada Child Tax Benefit and its National Child Benefit Supplement for low and modest income families.

The combined CCTB/NCBS serves more than 90 per cent of children in Canada. The Universal “Child Care” Benefit is neither a child care program that supports the development of services that families desperately want and need nor a truly progressive income support.

Instead of enhancing the UCCB, a misguided approach in which families with incomes of $20,000 and those with $200,000 receive the same cheque each month, the federal government should work with the provinces, territories and indigenous communities to establish a Canada-wide system of child care services and increase the CCTB/NCBS, a truly progressive benefit in which the eligible families with lowest incomes receive the maximum benefit (about $3,800 per year) and the wealthiest families receive the least (as little as $120 per year).

That’s a fair approach that helps to recognize the cost of raising children, begins to close the inequality gap for children and is smart spending.

Laurel Rothman, Campaign 2000 Steering Committee, Toronto

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2015/04/10/child-care-benefit-flawed.html >

Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living

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