Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
Ontario pays $320K in legal fight over its cancellation of basic income program
Monday, April 22nd, 2024
After battling five years against a class-action certification process, the Ontario government has paid $320,000 to the law firm spearheading a lawsuit against the Ford government over its decision to cancel a guaranteed basic income pilot project… One-third of respondents reported that the pilot gave them enough money to go to school. One in five said it funded their transportation to work. Almost three-quarters said they started eating better and nearly three in five said they managed to improve their housing. A large majority felt less stress, anxiety and depression.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, poverty
Posted in Social Security History | No Comments »
‘Aspirations are not going to lift people out of poverty’: Ontario disability advocates react to the federal budget
Friday, April 19th, 2024
… the feds have placed primary responsibility for funding disability-related social assistance firmly back in the province’s court. The budget calls out “the inadequacy of disability assistance provided by many provinces,” while saying that the federal government “aspires to see the combined amount of federal and provincial … income supports for persons with disabilities grow to the level of Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).”
Tags: budget, disabilities, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Basic Income for a New Model of Canadian Social Democracy
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
Basic income is a paradigm-shifting idea on how to ensure economic security for everyone… there are several pivotal issues around which we can begin to construct a new model of social democracy that incorporates, and complements, a basic income… Canadian social democrats should incorporate the principle of guaranteed, unconditional and universal economic security as a fundamental program for its vision a better society.
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
How government penny-pinching makes life harder for unhoused Ontarians
Tuesday, March 26th, 2024
In Ontario, if you lose your home, you get less social assistance than someone who has a home. The government cuts your benefits in half. Why punish people when we can help them get back on their feet? If it’s simply about saving money, surely the government can find lots of other ways to do that without ruining people’s lives… Social assistance should help people, not make their lives even harder.
Tags: budget, homelessness, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
The perverse logic of social assistance
Monday, March 4th, 2024
In Ontario, single adults who are unhoused… receive $343 per month for basic needs, and $0 for shelter. That works out to about $11 per day. No one can say with a straight face that $11 per day is a program designed to help people. How is it possible for someone to get by, let alone to get back on their feet, with so little? … It doesn’t function to bolster their well-being, or stop them from falling further into poverty. Instead, it responds to a person who has lost their home by making their life even harder.
Tags: featured, homelessness, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario Budget 2024 should advance the right to an adequate standard of living
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
To advance the right to an adequate standard of living, Ontario’s Budget 2024 should bolster social assistance, help low-income workers, support rental housing, and work productively with other orders of government to achieve these goals… the government must address the systems acting counter to this goal — social assistance, employment-related supports, and housing services.
Tags: budget, disabilities, housing, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
How should the new Canada Disability Benefit interact with existing disability supports?
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
For the new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) to meet its goal of financially supporting and reducing poverty of people with disabilities, it will need to supplement existing supports rather than causing them to be clawed back. This policy brief analyzes how the new CDB should interact with provincial/territorial social assistance programs and the federal Canada Pension Plan disability benefit (CPP-D).
Tags: disabilities, jurisdiction, participation, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Child poverty is on the rise in Canada, putting over 1 million kids at risk of life-long negative effects
Friday, February 23rd, 2024
In addition to being a human rights issue, addressing child poverty makes economic sense. This is why addressing child poverty needs to remain a priority for all Canadians. Governments, employers and communities… can do this by: Adopting a national living wage policy…; Reducing food insecurity… through nationally available school food programs; Increasing school readiness by providing universal access to quality early childhood development programs across Canada.
Tags: economy, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Canadians want their governments to tackle poverty, but nobody can agree on what to do
Wednesday, January 10th, 2024
Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, lone-parent households, recent immigrants and single adults aged 45 to 64 have a poverty rate that is double or triple that of the rest of the population. More than two-thirds of working-age individuals living in poverty belong to at least one of these groups… Better universal access to affordable quality physical and mental-health care, early childhood care, and social housing are some of the win-win policy actions that encourage both growth and poverty reduction.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Welfare rates now $200 a month below the Harris cuts of 1995
Saturday, January 6th, 2024
… inflation over two PC tenures since Bill Davis and Frank Miller has risen 35.2 per cent with no increases to Ontario Works and a total of just 12 per cent for ODSP. The last PC Premier to raise OW rates was Bill Davis 39 years ago in 1985… The cumulative effect of multidecade inaction — whether on housing or climate change — is now coming home to roost. Just look at food bank usage.
Tags: budget, featured, housing, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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