Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Deferring Receipt of Public Pension Benefits: A Tool for Flexibility
Tuesday, June 26th, 2018
C/QPP benefits can start at any time between age 60 and 70 and Old Age Security benefits at any time between 65 and 70… “Pushing back the deferral period to age 75 would enhance retirement planning flexibility for many middle-income Canadians,” says Morency. “As we wait for broader enhancements to be completed over the coming decades, this reform would be a good first step.”
Tags: pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Quebec shows the way to fight child poverty
Monday, June 25th, 2018
Last year a Statistics Canada study found that though Quebec has the second-lowest household income in the the country, it also has the second-lowest rate of child poverty. Why should that be? According to Statistics Canada it’s because the province has chosen to invest generously in two proven poverty busters: universal day care and the most generous provincial child benefits in the country.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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To be a reformer, Trudeau must focus less on the middle class and more on the poor
Saturday, June 16th, 2018
We should demand a pan-Canadian strategy to address the needs of the millions of Canadians living in poverty. And, unlike what happened in 1989, this should include specific benchmarks and timelines for child poverty so that subsequent governments can be held accountable. There should be an annual report to Parliament on its implementation… With the federal government leading the way through targets and provision of the needed key investments, the provinces, First Nations and Indigenous communities should be brought in as participating partners.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Why don’t people want free money? The uncertainty around universal basic income
Saturday, May 19th, 2018
The original idea, first introduced to the Canadian debate by former Conservative senator Hugh Segal in 2012, was that a guaranteed basic income would be a simpler, more effective and less intrusive way of getting help to both the unemployed and the working poor. But that’s not why so many people elsewhere are watching the Ontario pilot. They are responding to what at first seems an apocalyptic view of the future… [that] 47 per cent of U.S. jobs as liable to be automated in the next 20 years
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario Making Progress on Child Poverty
Thursday, May 17th, 2018
Overall, the 2017 Annual Report underscores how critical it is for governments to develop and implement poverty reduction strategies with clear targets and timelines… The Ontario Child Benefit is an example of a policy that has had a major impact in reducing child poverty in Ontario: a clear reminder that good policies can make a real difference in the lives of people who are experiencing poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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Reforming Ontario’s income security programs to reduce poverty and expand opportunity
Monday, April 30th, 2018
To move forward in response to the advice and recommendations of the working groups, the incoming government should set both a near- and longer-term agenda for reform to address the shortcomings of the current system… Near-term actions: Move to a flat-rate benefit for social assistance that combines the current basic needs and shelter amounts into a single rate adjusted for household size… [and] create a new housing benefit that is not tied to social assistance eligibility
Tags: budget, economy, featured, housing, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Guaranteed not-even-low income a leap in the dark
Tuesday, April 24th, 2018
… who but a monster would balk at paying a measly three extra points to end poverty? … On the other hand, if $17,000 a year still sounds a lot like poverty to you… the basic personal exemption on federal income tax forms is just $11,809 this year. Before we hurl ourselves headlong at a new social program of a relatively untested nature, maybe we could explicitly just stop taxing the poor first?
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Ontario’s basic income experiment would continue under Doug Ford
Tuesday, April 24th, 2018
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives support Ontario’s basic income pilot project, a three-year experiment to determine whether regular, no-strings-attached payments improve health, education and housing outcomes for people living in poverty. “We look forward to seeing the results,” a party spokesperson said Monday about the Liberal government initiative launched a year ago today.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
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Canada can afford a guaranteed basic income. But should it?
Monday, April 23rd, 2018
the Parliamentary Budget Office pegged the net annual cost of implementing Ontario’s “negative income-tax“ plan nationally (more than seven-million people would qualify) at $43.1 billion. The figure was reached by calculating the total cost ($76 billion) and subtracting the federal benefits it would replace. The net increase of $43.1 billion is a lot of money, but it represents just two per cent of GDP and 5.6 per cent of consolidated federal and provincial expenditures…
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Pitfalls for Ford’s mimimum wage tax-break plan
Sunday, April 22nd, 2018
The first issue is who will benefit. Is it only minimum-wage workers, or will it include part-time workers with the same annual earnings? What about those who make slightly more than the minimum wage? This is an important detail, as poorly designed policy can make taxpayers face what is known by economists as the welfare cliff… A simpler way is to raise the basic minimum exemption (the amount every person isn’t taxed on) to what an average minimum wage worker earns.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
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