Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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‘Humans are suffering’: Axing of basic income pilot project leaves trail of broken dreams
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019
The Star and other media organizations have documented how participants have been able to eat healthier food, buy warm clothing, move into stable housing and enrol in college… In addition to the court challenge, mayors of the pilot communities, international researchers, the Hamilton and Thunder Bay Chambers of Commerce, 900 medical professionals and the CEOs of 120 Canadian companies have called on both Queen’s Park and Ottawa to continue the research project the remaining two years.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Meet the Economist Advising BC on Whether to Go Ahead with a Basic Income
Monday, January 21st, 2019
Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, much of the growth in income inequality in Canada was tempered with taxes on higher-income people and generous social programs… “Somewhere around the mid-1990s, the bargain broke down,” Green said. Governments at all levels rolled back social spending and made tax cuts, allowing inequality to grow unchecked… “In a society this rich we should not have people living on the street.”
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Measuring low income and Canada’s Official Poverty Line
Sunday, January 20th, 2019
the Market Basket Measure (MBM) will be used as Canada’s Official Poverty Line. Statistics Canada is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the MBM… By participating in this consultation, you will be supporting Statistics Canada’s ability to accurately measure low income and poverty.
Tags: featured, jurisdiction, participation, poverty
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Young Barrie widow elated to see end of age discrimination
Monday, January 14th, 2019
… the legislation said if a person is under 35 and has no children, they do not qualify for a spouse’s CPP. The belief was a young widow without children could adapt financially to a loss… And now, she’s received a letter from the government asking her to reapply for CPP. “It said effective Jan. 1 you are no longer required to have dependent children”… The government estimates it will affect 40,000 people.
Tags: ideology, pensions, rights, women
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Dealing with deadly donation bins only scratches poverty’s surface
Monday, January 14th, 2019
An estimated 30,000 Canadians remain homeless on any given night. The federal government’s ambitious 10-year, $40-billion Reaching Home strategy – a plan to cut chronic homelessness in half while building 100,000 units and repairing 300,000 more – won’t be launched until late spring. And we’re yet to learn how provinces, cities and community organizations will partner in its wake to produce meaningful change.
Tags: homelessness, housing, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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Re-instating basic income in Ontario would help raise children out of poverty
Friday, January 4th, 2019
Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau need to reinstate the basic income pilot. It’s inconsequential whether the provincial or federal government takes the initiative; quite simply it needs to be done… The cost of the Ontario basic income model would be about $30 billion a year. Costs could be recovered by eliminating Ontario Disability Support Programs (ODSP) and Ontario Works Programs (OW) and by adjusting tax incentives granted to high-income earners.
Tags: featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living, tax, women
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Hamilton couple with newborn prepares for wind-down of basic income
Friday, December 28th, 2018
Weiss never had the chance to go back to school before the province announced it was scrapping the project. They’re worried about losing their home without the extra income, which was up to $17,000 a year for individuals and $24,000 for couples, less 50 per cent for money earned. “Now we’re going to have to try juggling a newborn and finding the first things that come along,” Weiss said. “It’s increasingly looking like we just kind of have to give up on all the work that we were trying to put in.”
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Why we need to fix Canada’s new measure of poverty
Thursday, December 27th, 2018
… some vital daily costs don’t even make it into the basket; some, like child care or prescription medication, are designated as “out of pocket” expenses, not basic needs… The MBM may help Statistics Canada to show changes in poverty on tables and spreadsheets, but in its current form, it could harm the very people who live in poverty. That is because service providers across the country will use the cost of the basket, with all its flaws, to measure eligibility, meaning people may not qualify for services they need.
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living, women
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Liberals say they are looking at ways to provide guaranteed minimum income to all Canadians
Friday, December 21st, 2018
A guaranteed minimum income means different things to different people, but at its core is a no-strings-attached payment governments provide instead of an assortment of targeted benefits. What it costs in additional spending, the thinking goes, it makes up in reduced bureaucracy for both the government and recipients… Federal officials have considered the idea as one of a wide range of possibilities to reshape social-safety-net programs for a modern labour market marked by automation, more short-term “gig economy” jobs and a need for people to retrain several times in their working lives.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Making sense of Ontario’s social assistance reforms
Sunday, December 2nd, 2018
Under 2018 budget measures, since scrapped by the Ford government, those on OW would have been able to work themselves well out of poverty before losing their benefits. But under the changes, a person on OW will still be almost $6,000 below the poverty line when their earnings make them ineligible for welfare… Currently, a single person on ODSP can work himself out of poverty while still receiving social assistance, but under the changes would be almost $4,000 short when becoming ineligible.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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