Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Canada, provinces agree to ‘historic’ pension deal
Tuesday, June 21st, 2016
The agreement came together as pollsters pointed to overwhelming popular support for public pension reform amid concerns about the adequacy of retirement savings… The federal Liberals ran on a platform to upgrade the public pension system, as did their Ontario cousins. The result also means Ontario will abandon its project to go it alone with its own pension plan… the deal was reached in part because of compromises and the desire to maintain a single, portable CPP across Canada.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Federal government, provinces agree to new deal on CPP reform
Tuesday, June 21st, 2016
The agreement-in-principle, which only Quebec and Manitoba neglected to endorse, will see an increase in monthly premiums phased in starting at $7 a month in 2019 for a typical worker earning about $55,000. Once the plan is fully implemented, the maximum annual benefits will increase by about one-third to $17,478. Mandatory matching contributions will also mean a jump in payroll expenses for employers.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Expanding CPP will help all Canadians
Saturday, June 18th, 2016
Historically, CPP benefits were set low on the assumption that most Canadians would have another pension plan through work. But… only two in five Canadian employees (and one in four private-sector employees) have a pension at work. Even for those who do, workplace pension coverage has been declining for years… As a result, millions of Canadians are on track to retire with more debt and low or significantly lower incomes… businesses, and local economies will bear the consequences.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario families on welfare to keep full federal child benefit
Saturday, June 18th, 2016
Ontario families on social assistance will not face provincial clawbacks when the new Canada Child Benefit kicks in on July 1… almost 260,000 children in families who rely on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program will benefit from the full amount of their federal child benefit payment. The new program replaces the current child benefit and supplement as well as the taxable Universal Child Care Benefit with a single non-taxable benefit. The average Canadian family is expected to receive an additional $2,300 a year under the new initiative.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Child benefit to pull record number of kids out of poverty, minister says
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
Canada’s new child benefit, which will begin arriving in mailboxes after July 1, will slash child poverty by 40 per cent, the largest single drop in the country’s history, according to the federal minister in charge of the initiative… “It will cut child poverty from about 11.2 per cent to 6.7 per cent . . . and lead to the lowest child-poverty rate ever in Canada.” As highlighted in the Liberals’ election campaign last summer, the Canada Child Benefit will pull about 300,000 children out of poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Canada’s pension-reform debate needs a large dose of reality
Thursday, June 9th, 2016
Wage growth has been quite modest, but largely because earnings have been diverted; the share of employee compensation from employer social policy contributions (EI, pensions, health benefits etc.) has reached record highs (16.2 per cent of wages and salaries in the first quarter of 2016 – up from 9.5 per cent in 1981). Employees are, on balance, better protected now than ever before, but they themselves have borne the costs.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
How a guaranteed minimum income could work in Canada
Tuesday, June 7th, 2016
… maybe a one-size-fits-all basic income guarantee is out of reach, at least at one go. It’s still possible to move in that direction, one piece at a time. Indeed, we already have what amount to basic income guarantees for children in the new Canada Child Benefit (combining the old Universal Child Care Benefit, the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement) and the elderly, via Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement. The federal Working Income Tax Benefit is a basic income for the working-age population, in embryonic form.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Society has an obligation to provide safety net for pensioners
Saturday, June 4th, 2016
That some four million Ontarians alone are suffering that social deficit prompted… an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan that would top up inadequate federal income supports. Millions of Canadians have not saved enough for retirement… millions of Canadians have been unable to save, lacking sufficient income to do so… the middle class hasn’t had a pay raise in three decades, adjusted for inflation. Another factor is “precarious employment.”
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
How CPP reform could kill Ontario’s pension plan
Saturday, June 4th, 2016
… a last-ditch effort to revive CPP expansion is muddying the reform waters… Updating the CPP, whose maximum payout is a mere $13,110 annually, requires seven provinces with two-thirds of the population. Realistically, the only way to achieve reform is to stick with a “modest” CPP expansion that is minimalist, hewing to the lowest common denominator and taking the maximum amount of years to phase in… Ontario’s nightmare scenario is more talking, dithering and deferring by Ottawa and the other provinces.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Basic income: social assistance without the stigma
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
When you compare people’s views of Mincome to welfare what stands out is that people took ardent, moralistic positions about welfare, but were pragmatic when asked about Mincome. In fact, the social meaning of Mincome was powerful enough that even participants who opposed welfare on moral grounds and believed strongly in the principle of earning one’s own living felt able to collect government payments without a sense of contradiction.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments