Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Stephen Harper’s anti-pension obsession hits Ontarians
Saturday, July 18th, 2015
Astonishingly, the Harper government will refuse to collect pension deductions on Ontario’s behalf or provide any information to assist the plan — services for which it would have been fairly compensated by the province… The result of the PM’s partisan tantrum? Higher accounting and compliance costs for business, and additional government funding made necessary by the same federal Tories who always claim to be reducing red tape and cutting waste.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
OAS must be increased
Tuesday, July 7th, 2015
Between 2007 and 2010, as poverty rates were falling in many OECD countries… in Canada they actually rose about two percentage points. Statistics Canada reported in December 2014 that 600,000 seniors live in poverty, including more than one in four singles. A senior who receives the maximum permitted for the CPP (Canada Pension Plan), OAS (old age security) and GIS (guaranteed income supplement) lives below the poverty line, yet the federal government won’t place on its agenda an increase to OAS. For shame.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Let’s stop pretending we can’t end poverty
Sunday, July 5th, 2015
The assumption is that we can’t afford to. Are we sure? What would it cost exactly? Answer: about $16 billion a year in today’s dollars. Big money. Yet nowhere near as much as it is costing us now to keep it going… we could reduce the societal cost of poverty by $6 billion per year by replacing the existing anti-poverty programs with a guaranteed annual income for all… despite the clear moral and economic arguments in favour of a guaranteed annual income, the idea remains outside of the politics of the possible. Why?
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s disastrous computer roll-out will trouble welfare rolls for months to come
Thursday, July 2nd, 2015
The consultants reported at the end of April that the government needed a major, but major, recovery plan, practically a do-over. They identified 57 high-priority fixes, just to get started with… They called it an “integrated transition plan”… The plan is still not done… The people who use SAMS are now at least familiar with its failings… But it’s still inefficient at basic tasks like changing the address on a welfare recipient’s file, which drives workers nuts.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Making poverty a priority
Sunday, June 28th, 2015
Poverty is not a moral condition, but a defect in the economic distribution system. Isn’t it simpler to change that distribution system than make a multitude of grand gestures that have a long history of failing to correct the situation? … Successful poverty reduction plans elsewhere have always involved the participation by the national government… We are shamefully behind many countries.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Where’s the anti-poverty strategy?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
What better way to justify the government’s inaction in addressing the basic levers that produce poverty than staking out the position that local solutions to poverty are the key to poverty reduction in Ontario? Creating a fund of $50 million to be made available to local anti-poverty strategy initiatives is an excellent way to shift the focus to local action rather than the failures of the current provincial government. Even better, it offers a way to silence critics by offering monies that forces them to endorse the government’s unwillingness to address poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Minimum income would only keep workers out of the labour market, if history is any guide
Thursday, June 18th, 2015
… the Speenhamland Law… initiated in England 1795-1834… provided a basic wage support linked to the price of corn (similar to the current Consumer Price Index)… wage subsidies discouraged rural employers from paying decent wages since their employees were already receiving financial support from the government… a guaranteed minimum income is very likely to discourage people from seeking more productive employment in other more economically vibrant areas.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Let’s give the negative income tax a proper try and learn from its failure
Monday, June 15th, 2015
… why have a bunch of different programs each with their own costly bureaucracy and sometimes irrational eligibility criteria? Why not just give people money because they’re poor and take some of it back if they get less poor? … we could keep the positive income tax as it is. But it would make things much simpler and more effective for low-income earners… the NIT is a bad idea. The real problem with welfare programs isn’t bad design, insufficient funding or bureaucracy. It’s that incentives matter and welfare, broadly defined, rewards the wrong things.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Simcoe Muskoka health unit first in Ontario to call for basic-income guarantee
Saturday, June 13th, 2015
The organization is pushing a campaign to ask provincial and federal governments to study ways of making a basic-income program a reality. It would mean people whose wages fall below the poverty line would receive extra money “to meet their basic needs and live with dignity… Issues such as poverty and income inequality are “very clearly linked to a whole range of health concerns,” such as increased rates of chronic and infectious diseases, mental illness and infant mortality
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario Works? I’m not so sure
Friday, June 12th, 2015
… even with seasoned help, there were weeks and weeks of frustration: missing file numbers, without which nothing could be done; messages which were left and not returned; workers who… left on vacation… I am disgusted by this province which, on our behalf, punishes those it should help… I want: A single point of contact for ODSP and OW, so that someone in trouble can find out the shortest route to help; workers who will answer questions with useful and timely information
Tags: disabilities, featured, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
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