Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Ontario budget 2013 should boost child benefit to help poor kids
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Ontario’s child benefit is the cornerstone of the province’s 2008 plan to cut child poverty by 25 per cent in five years and lift 90,000 children out of poverty. So far, the benefit has helped to pull 40,000 children above the province’s low income limit. But advocates worry that without the promised increase, the government will miss its 2013 target… The 25-in-5 Network for Social Justice, a coalition that lobbied the government for the poverty reduction target, is looking for budget measures to…
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Danes Rethink a Welfare State Ample to a Fault
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
… [Danes are] deeply engaged in a debate about whether their beloved welfare state, perhaps Europe’s most generous, had become too rich, undermining the country’s work ethic… Denmark has been at work overhauling entitlements, trying to prod Danes into working more or longer or both… The population is aging, and in many regions of the country people without jobs now outnumber those with them. Some of that is a result of a depressed economy. But many experts say a more basic problem is the proportion of Danes who are not participating in the work force at all
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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PFO’s Six Point Plan for Action on Poverty Eradication
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Mar. 14, 2013
It has been almost five years since the social assistance reform was announced as one of the cornerstones of the Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy… The budget to be delivered in April offers an opportunity for the Premier to show “good faith” in her expressed intention to be the “social justice premier”… more than 100 PFO leaders from more than 20 communities all across Ontario… endorsed the following Six Point Plan for a Social Justice Agenda:
Tags: budget, Health, homelessness, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Welfare reform plan scares Ontarians with disabilities
Saturday, March 16th, 2013
Mar 15 2013
Under the new system, there would be no distinction between disability support recipients and general welfare recipients… Nor would there be a special diet allowance. Individuals with “wasting diseases” (those causing loss of body mass) such as HIV/AIDS and Huntington disease, could apply to the Ministry of Health for nutritional supplements.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, pensions, poverty, rights
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Wealthy Canada can do better for its poorest citizens, UN report says
Monday, March 4th, 2013
March 4, 2013
More than 900,000 people are assisted by food banks in Canada, according to Food Banks Canada… The number of households in Canada that are unable to meet their food needs every day is rising, from 7.7 per cent in 2007-08 to 8.2 per cent (1.1 million households) in 2011… Aboriginal households are three times more likely to experience hunger than non-aboriginal households.
Tags: Health, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living
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Grasp the nettle of guaranteed income
Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
March 3, 2013
What about drawing a poverty line below which no one may fall? A line above which income will still be taxed but below which income is topped up from overall tax revenue? … How much more efficient it would be than the piecemeal income-support systems we have now… How much less demeaning and costly it would be than our systems involving means tests and overlapping bureaucracies at every level of government.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Pensions hit the perfect storm
Saturday, March 2nd, 2013
Mar. 02 2013
CPP rates eventually are going to rise.. Or, governments could acknowledge that seniors’ needs for drugs are almost universal, and so add drugs for seniors to the CPP, paid for by higher contributions, an initiative that would meet a genuine social need and extend the spirit of medicare in a financially responsible fashion.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, pensions, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Build on Canada Pension Plan to bolster retirement savings
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Feb 21 2013
Unlike other investments, a CPP-linked mechanism would be easy to understand and simple to participate in. It would encourage savings over a decades-long horizon. It would lock in contributions until retirement. It would https://spon.ca/benefit from scale, good management and a low cost structure. And it would deliver a predictable income on retirement. In short, it’s a safe, secure option.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Canada’s economic stabilizers are broken
Friday, February 15th, 2013
Feb 13 2013
Neither level of government is expected to provide any respite for the working poor, people with disabilities and those still struggling to get back on their feet after the recession. The problem is not just austerity. It is austerity imposed with no regard for the hardship caused by a stop-and-start, up-and-down, lurch-prone economy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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As the fiscal chill thaws: social policy ideas for the medium term
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Jan. 30, 2013
This commentary argues that we need to begin now to develop well thought-out ideas for social policy reform. It sets out 12 areas for future social investments by the federal government, including increases to the Canada Child Tax Benefit and enhancements to the adequacy and coverage of the Working Income Tax Benefit.
Tags: budget, featured, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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