Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Avoid the blame game and speak plainly about poverty
Monday, January 12th, 2015
The conversation we need to have is about how we are actually dealing with the challenge of poverty now… Are the systems now in place driven by measuring input costs or actual measurable outcomes? Do we have a rational basis for understanding the costs of present levels of poverty on longevity, early-life learning, family breakup, substance abuse, illiteracy, hospitalization or policing and the judiciary? Are we comfortable with how much we now spend and, more importantly, how effectively it is being spent?
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Three ways to end poverty in Canada
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
1. Education… the aboriginal high school dropout rate is four times higher than the national average. Improving literacy rates, early childhood learning and skills development… / 2. a basic income plan for Canadians. It would start moving people off the costly social welfare systems to an income tax managed formula. / 3. … tax reform… Let’s improve the fairness and progressivity of our tax system, tackle tax havens and loopholes and establish a carbon tax.
Tags: budget, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living, tax
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A Canadian City Once Eliminated Poverty And Nearly Everyone Forgot About It
Wednesday, December 24th, 2014
ideologically, the present government would eye the notion that this is some ‘kooky left-wing scheme’ without addressing the fact that really strong social and economic conservatives like Milton Friedman argued in favour of a negative income tax,”… In Canada, the idea of an universal basic income was first presented at a Progressive Conservative policy convention in October of 1969. Then-leader Robert Stanfield argued the idea would consolidate overlapping security programs and reduce bureaucracy… “One begins to sense, not that the ice is breaking, but the currents underneath the ice are beginning to move more quickly,”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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How can a city so rich have so many poor?
Saturday, December 20th, 2014
… the problem of poverty seems overwhelming, insoluble, eternal. In Toronto, poverty is entrenched, generational. Over the course of decades, an elaborate institutional infrastructure has been established to deal with it. The cost is in the billions. Still it is not enough. Nor is it spent in ways that address causes rather than effects. People are reduced to statistics and poverty becomes a theoretical, almost abstract, concept that can be counted and quantified…
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Welfare computer woes cost Ontario millions in overtime
Friday, December 19th, 2014
The new computer system, which is used to administer welfare and disability payments to hundreds of thousands of recipients across the province, has been plagued with problems since it was launched in mid-November… Dealing with clients who didn’t get their social assistance in time, arranging repayments for those who got too much money… and other functionality problems with SAMS, have left many case workers and supervisors frustrated.
Tags: budget, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | 3 Comments »
Same problems keep recurring in welfare computer systems
Tuesday, December 9th, 2014
Ontario has 14 separate rules governing who is automatically ineligible for benefits, eight sets of benefit categories, and 12 sets of rules that define dependency… The test of need includes complex rules surrounding liquid assets limits that vary by the presence of disabilities, family size and family structure with at least 42 separate rules that apply differently in three separate life situations… Add to this approximately 600 more rules defined in other regulations, directives and memoranda to administrators… let’s work harder on the preposterous over-complexity
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Food banks are not enough
Saturday, December 6th, 2014
There are countless ways our country would benefit from the elimination of poverty. Importantly, it would save us money in the long term. For every dollar spent in poverty reduction, we would save at least $2. The elimination of poverty would save us about 20 per cent of our health care costs. It would also save us buckets of money in the education and justice systems… let’s look beyond the holiday “feel good” food drive campaigns and demand that our governments implement a Basic Income Guarantee to eliminate poverty. It will make a better country for all of us.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario falling behind its own poverty reduction goals
Monday, November 24th, 2014
TheStar.com – News/GTA – Campaign 2000’s annual report card shows province not meeting goal it set in 2008 to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent over five years. Nov 24 2014. By: Jennifer Pagliaro, City Hall reporter One in five Ontario children still faces life in poverty, according to a new study. This remains true […]
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
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End child poverty in Canada now
Saturday, November 22nd, 2014
By any standard, Canada is a rich country… why is Canada ranked 24th among 35 developed countries by the OECD on child poverty? Or why is it graded at just a C by UNICEF, while smaller economies like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are consistently ranked with As? The problem isn’t a lack of money. It’s a lack of political will on the part of the federal government that could adopt policies the experts say would pull more families out of poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 4 Comments »
25 years after Ottawa’s pledge to end child poverty, it’s time to hit ‘reset’
Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
On the anniversary of the government’s unfulfilled pledge, almost 1.2 million children go to school hungry, don’t have a good winter coat or can’t afford to play sports. Religious leaders, economists, teachers and doctors say it’s time to reset the clock on the pledge to ending child poverty and embark anew on the road to ensuring that every Canadian child gets a good start in life.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
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