Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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CWP’s Spring 2015 Economic and Social Rights Course
Wednesday, April 1st, 2015
… international human rights law, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which lay the foundation for human rights laws around the world… Although these rights cannot be enforced directly by courts in Canada, the federal and provincial governments have a responsibility to make sure these rights are protected. But, what do economic and social rights have to do with Canadians?
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Welfare recipients treated like guinea pigs
Wednesday, April 1st, 2015
… a new Employment-Related Benefit for people with disabilities… has been postponed to Oct. 1 to the vast relief of the intended beneficiaries. They didn’t ask for — and don’t want — an overhaul of the Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP)… The government’s assumption is that ODSP recipients need hand-holding to get into the labour market. Self-starters who have already found a job with an employer willing to accommodate their disabilities lose $100 a month.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Social Assistance Summaries 2014
Monday, March 23rd, 2015
… an advance viewing of 12 of Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial Social Assistance programs… A summary was prepared for each province and territory with input and feedback from government representatives in every jurisdiction. All reports include program descriptions and data on the number of social assistance cases and recipients dating… from 1997 to 2014.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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Harry Smith Is Coming for Stephen Harper
Monday, March 23rd, 2015
[Harper] “… has one consideration, and that is to let the rich get richer and the poor fend for themselves.” … the ”epidemic” of child poverty in Toronto, government service cutbacks, and tax loopholes used by corporations are some of the most concerning threats facing the country… Today is starting to have that same edge — the same cruelty, the same divisions between those that have, and those that have not, that polarized the 1920s.”
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Ontario set to replace welfare cheques with debit cards
Thursday, March 19th, 2015
… our plan is to introduce a single reloadable payment card program for ODSP and Ontario Works recipients who do not receive their social assistance payments through direct bank deposit to increase customer convenience for social assistance clients… reloadable cards are expected to reduce the reliance on expensive cheque-cashing services, remove the “stigma” of the welfare cheque and reduce the need to replace lost, stolen or damaged cheques.
Tags: poverty, standard of living
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Ontario pours another $5 million into problem-plagued welfare computer system
Thursday, March 19th, 2015
… the grand total of additional money the province has had to pay out for SAMS-related costs such as training, overtime, and additional hires for Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, to just over $20 million. That doesn’t include the $242 million the province spent developing the system… when SAMS assigned overpayments to 17,000 clients, totalling $20 million, money the province and its municipalities have had to scramble to recover. The system has also caused some clients to receive little or none of their social assistance.
Tags: budget, poverty, tax
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Reforming Retirement (5): Don’t cut OAS. Cut the need for it
Friday, March 13th, 2015
The federal government’s long-term plan to address rising OAS costs – which are a real threat – may end up reintroducing elder poverty to a country that had nearly done away with it. There is a better way. If more middle- and lower-income Canadians had better pensions, they would not be so reliant on taxpayer-supported OAS. The best way to make that happen is through CPP expansion.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Ottawa urged to put child poverty pledge into action
Thursday, March 12th, 2015
It has been more than 25 years since Ottawa’s 1989 vow to end child poverty by 2000. But, lacking a plan or timeline, the percentage of poor children in Canada swelled from 15.8 per cent that year to 19.1 per cent in 2012. Poverty among indigenous children is about 40 per cent… Since 1989, Canada’s economy has more than doubled, while child poverty has grown by 17 per cent
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax, youth
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National income floor for troubled times
Monday, March 9th, 2015
Inequality is rising; full-time jobs are being replaced with precarious, part-time work; highly trained young people are being sidelined; globalization is accelerating; outsourcing is increasing; living standards are declining for all but the rich minority; and public attitudes toward the poor and disabled are hardening. This is not the future they envisaged for their children… Their last hope is a guaranteed annual income (also known as a basic income guarantee, negative income tax, national income floor and minimum adequate income).
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Reforming Retirement (4): Canada needs to ramp up CPP, ASAP
Saturday, March 7th, 2015
Ensuring that everyone has adequate savings and income, and doing so without imposing new burdens on future taxpayers, calls for… an expansion of the Canada Pension Plan – and a more generous but also more targeted Old Age Security program. The CPP is an actuarially sound, exceptionally well-run, defined-benefit pension plan. All workers are covered, and their pensions really are guaranteed… expanding savings through CPP would have another enormous consequence: It would lower the price of the OAS program…
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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