Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Ontario PCs roll back Liberal-era social assistance changes
Wednesday, August 1st, 2018
Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said she has asked the province’s Auditor-General to investigate “hundreds of millions of dollars” in fraud in social-assistance payments. The Ford government has given itself until early November to remake Ontario’s social-assistance system… She blamed the former Liberal government for creating an assistance system that spent money on “handouts that actually do little if anything to break the cycle of poverty.” … the Ford government’s new assistance program would be focused on jobs.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario government scraps basic income pilot project, limits welfare increase to 1.5 per cent
Wednesday, August 1st, 2018
The new Doug Ford government is cutting a planned 3 per cent welfare increase in half and scrapping a basic income pilot program the Progressive Conservatives promised to keep during the spring election campaign. Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said Tuesday the increase scheduled by the defeated Liberal government will be reduced to 1.5 per cent while the PC administration embarks on a 100-day revamp of social assistance programs serving almost one million Ontarians.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario government cuts welfare hike in half, ends basic-income trial
Wednesday, August 1st, 2018
The problem, MacLeod said, is that the social-assistance system doesn’t help people… “It was, to put it mildly, a mess. The Liberals presided over a disjointed, patchwork system, with no interest at all in whether these programs delivered results,”… The Tories did not mention social assistance in their list of promises before the June election… The government is also scrapping an experiment with a universal basic income the Liberals started… The Progressive Conservatives had even promised to see the experiment through.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Social policy-making still stealthy after all these years
Tuesday, July 31st, 2018
Governments seem to love the stealth approach because history proves they can get away with it − for a while at least… Social policy by stealth has two main dimensions: indexation and complexity. Understanding these dimensions allows us to better understand and design social policy… Today, indexation stacks up pretty well. Most of Canada’s income programs and taxes are fully indexed… However, other programs are still complex. Employment Insurance… the Canada Pension Plan… Welfare remains a labyrinth that seems impervious to reform. The majority of welfare systems remain un-indexed.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Disability payments must be boosted
Saturday, July 21st, 2018
In short, it is far from being a livable income… Half of what we earn goes back to ODSP in a punitive tax-like system that adds stress, administration and close surveillance. Our basic needs still are not covered and our jobs stay precarious if they even last. Our health deteriorates and our thoughts can become suicidal.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Addressing poverty, not policing, is solution to gun violence
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Providing opportunities, programs and social supports for daycare aged children as young as two, all the way through to assisting youth to pursue post-secondary education, it is resources rather than enforcement that go a long way to address poverty… Decades of research… all highlight the need to support and not punish our communities.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
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Universal basic income revival.
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
David Croll pioneered the first study and report in Canada on UBI, then called a guaranteed annual income: Poverty in Canada – A report of the Special Senate Committee (1971)… which formed the basis for many subsequent studies and experiments. Its failure to be adopted was attributed to an economic downturn in the late 1970s and insufficient support by provincial governments.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, Senate, standard of living
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Why the world should embrace universal basic income
Saturday, July 14th, 2018
These studies… counter many of the most common objections to a UBI. Such policies do not turn the safety net into a hammock, for one. People still work, particularly if the payments are not too big. Indeed, one benefit is that such payments do not penalize people for working and earning more, as many other welfare programs do… The pilots also provide evidence for some of the potential salutary effects of such a policy, in terms of making people healthier and less stressed, providing recipients with more control over and choices in their lives, and eliminating poverty.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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30 years later, child poverty remains a national disgrace
Saturday, July 7th, 2018
Despite Canada being one of the world’s richest countries, 4.8 million people live in poverty — 1.2 million are children. More than 850,000 Canadians rely on food banks — and those numbers are growing — and more than 250,000 Canadians experience some form of homelessness annually… Instead of cutting poverty over the last three decades, we’ve seen tax and program cuts, the steady growth of precarious work and insufficient investments in our social safety net.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, homelessness, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, poverty, standard of living
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New Report Shows Child Poverty in Canada Knows no Boundaries
Thursday, July 5th, 2018
… over 1.2 million children, or 17.4%, are living in poverty with their families. That’s the finding from Campaign 2000’s riding by riding analysis of child poverty in Canada, released June 18th, 2018… Significant child poverty exists in every one of Canada’s 338 ridings. It brings to light the disparities that exist in ridings home to both extreme wealth and deep poverty. One such example is the riding of Toronto Centre [where]… Four out of ten (40%) children live in poverty…
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, youth
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