Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Reforming Retirement (3): More RRSP, not more TFSA, please
Saturday, March 7th, 2015
Instead of increasing TFSA contribution limits, the Harper government should consider upping the maximum contribution limits to the retirement-income shelters that have long served Canadians: RRSPs and company pension plans… TFSA expansion would allow many Canadians, especially wealthier Canadians, to build multi-million dollar, tax-free nest eggs. The TFSA is a tax shelter that mortgages the future. RRSPs and pensions are the exact opposite.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Reforming Retirement (2): Getting Ottawa’s mitts off your RRIF
Saturday, March 7th, 2015
Seniors were ordered to annually withdraw – and face income tax on – a set percentage of their RRIF savings, starting at age 71. What’s more, the federal government decreed that the older you got, the more of your retirement savings would have to be withdrawn, and the more of it would be subject to tax… The policy undermines the financial health and retirement plans of millions of seniors – while doing nothing for Ottawa’s long-term fiscal health. It simply pulls future tax revenues into the present.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Reforming Retirement (1): How the TFSA turned into Godzilla
Saturday, March 7th, 2015
The reports… agree that the relatively new and still tiny TFSA program is growing like compound interest… it won’t be long before it is taking a huge bite out of federal and provincial government revenues…. Starting in less than a decade, the average lower- and middle-income Canadian will, over the course of their retirement, collect less OAS – but a good number of upper-income Canadians, thanks to their TFSA, may get more from OAS, even as they pay less tax on their other income.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Ontario’s really bad pension scheme
Friday, February 13th, 2015
Governments do have a role in supporting our seniors. Poverty among single seniors is extraordinarily high at 20%. Long-term care will be a serious issue in the future for many seniors living longer periods with ill health. The ORPP is an expensive and poorly targeted approach to support seniors. The Government should focus with more precision to help the most vulnerable.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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It’s not just welfare computer system that needs a fix
Wednesday, February 11th, 2015
… a computer program can’t provide judgment on individual cases and penalize recipients for deviating from the welfare system’s complex rules. Nor can it make allowances for unforeseen circumstances: domestic violence, evictions, sudden changes in earnings, medical emergencies or funerals… The province must do better. First it has to fix the computer system. Then it must simplify the overly complex welfare system so it can be responsive to recipients.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Stop blaming ‘computer glitch’ for welfare woes
Friday, February 6th, 2015
Computers treat people as interchangeable widgets. They don’t take into account that Ontarians who depend on social assistance (446,500 welfare recipients, 448,500 disability support recipients) have unpredictable lives, unstable housing, intermittent earnings and episodic illnesses. They don’t allow for flexibility or discretion… Nor will the new system make allowance for unforeseen circumstances: domestic violence, evictions, sudden changes in earnings, medical emergencies or funerals.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Today is a big day on the road to ending poverty in Canada.
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015
This plan was developed through an extensive process of community engagement by Dignity for All and presents the key planks of an anti-poverty plan that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of low-income people living in Canada, achieving greater prosperity and security for all… Canadians care about poverty; it is no longer an issue that individual members of parliament can avoid.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ignoring the poor impoverishes politics
Friday, January 30th, 2015
… having shrunk the definition of who is poor, and knowing that those who are poor don’t vote much, why would any party spend much time even talking about them, let alone proposing to do anything for or about them? This triumph of marginalizing all talk of the poor represents a significant intellectual (and therefore political) victory for the Conservatives… Failure to think about the poor, let alone talk about them, impoverishes politics – it spins the discourse around what’s in it for me, rather than what’s in it for all of us.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Annual earnings exemptions urged for Ontario welfare recipients
Thursday, January 15th, 2015
… allowing people on welfare and disability benefits to reconcile their earnings annually, rather than monthly, would encourage them to take on more work and free up welfare workers to provide more employment support… Under the B.C. changes, monthly income reporting continues, but deductions don’t kick in until a person’s annual earnings exemption is reached… “Why do we insist on monthly reconciliation for social assistance? … It only makes an already complex system needlessly more complicated.”
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Two Views of a Guaranteed Annual Income
Monday, January 12th, 2015
The new [Fraser Institute] report states that “eliminating work and other requirements may lead to administrative savings but also increase the risk of long-term dependency among able-bodied Canadians”… Segal disagrees… “The level of payment… I am recommending wouldn’t be sufficient to keep people comfortable. It would be sufficient to meet their basic needs, but most folks want to do better than that. There’d be no disincentives in our system to them doing that.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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