Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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OAS not in crisis, no need to soak the seniors plan
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Feb 10 2012
The affordability of a higher-quality health care system does merit debate. Also affordable housing, the cornerstone of poverty reduction. Also education reform that better matches students with a workplace that, as a business think tank complained last week, is suffering a “desperate shortage” of skilled workers despite 1.42 million Canadians out of work. The PM is wrong about the sustainability of Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, paid to the poorest Canadians. And Canadians have let him know it.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, standard of living
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America’s ‘Food Stamp Nation’ continues to grow
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb 11 2012
In 2006, there were 26.7 million people on food stamps in America. By September 2011, that number had grown to a record 46.3 million, bigger by far than Canada’s population of 33 million, and equal to that of Spain. In fact, if the Americans using food stamps constituted a country, they would be the 27th largest nation in the world… Anyone in America can apply for food stamps, technically known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and millions do… To be eligible, an individual must not make more than $14,088 per year.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Let’s debate OAS based on fact, not perception
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Feb. 06, 2012
OAS is taxable income, so a lot of the moneys paid out go straight back to Ottawa… If your income exceeds $67,668, then you lose your OAS at a 15-per-cent clawback rate. If you have income of $110,123 or more, you get no OAS at all… It’s well known that wealthy Canadians live longer than poorer Canadians… So two key questions need to be addressed. First, is raising the age of eligibility for OAS really necessary, or is the system sustainable as is? Second, how does one justify a public policy shift that’s so clearly regressive in its impact?
Tags: budget, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Poverty costs Alberta up to $9.5B a year, report suggests
Monday, February 6th, 2012
February 6, 2012
In a report being released today, Vibrant Communities Calgary estimates poverty costs the Alberta government between $2 billion and $2.4 billion and the overall Alberta economy between $5.1 billion and $7.2 billion – for a total of up to $9.5 billion annually. “This big $9 billion number doesn’t include the cost the government pays in social services or subsidies,” said Dan Meades, director of Vibrant Communities Calgary. “We were kind of surprised this was the number of just the external cost of poverty and it’s that big. We were surprised nobody fixed this yet.”
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Poverty+costs+Alberta+year+report+suggests/6107166/story.html#ixzz1lcBt5BTd
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Small fixes to Ontario’s welfare system not enough, says progress report
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Feb. 2, 2012
Small fixes will not be enough to bring about the transformational change Ontario’s social assistance needs, says a progress report by the province’s social assistance review commission. More employment support for those on welfare, including those with disabilities; streamlined delivery and new benefits available to all low-income people outside the welfare system are some of the ideas the commission is exploring… the update discusses different approaches and highlights areas for more discussion.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Not a pension crisis, but reform opportunity
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
February 2, 2012
Lowering the threshold at which the OAS is taxed back would have the same effect on the bottom line as pushing back the age of eligibility, but it would still allow people to retire without fearing poverty at 65. Rather than legislate a solution during the current session of Parliament, the government should publish a white paper that lays out the problem that needs to be solved along with a range of possible solutions… An equitable solution should leave no aggrieved interests for opportunistic politicians to champion.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Best pension reform would be to take from the rich seniors
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Feb. 2, 2012
A much savvier political option for the Harper Conservatives than raising Old Age Security eligibility to 67 from 65 would be taxing back all benefits from all 65-plus seniors not decidedly low income. If they do anything else, they will be pegged as mean-spirited and excessively ideological. Because the truth is, Canada, while better off than most developed countries, continues to have a fair number of low-income seniors, mostly women – a group that inspires empathy from most Canadians.
Tags: budget, featured, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Anger rising over plan to reform OAS
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Feb. 2, 2012
“He is not only dumping on the vulnerable senior citizens,” Rae told the House of Commons. “He is also dumping on the provinces, dumping on municipalities, creating a cascade of injustice because of a totally manufactured crisis on his side.” Harper shrugged off the accusation, calling his assertions “nonsense” and “fear-mongering.” Harper reiterated in the Commons Wednesday the planned changes to the pension system won’t affect today’s seniors or those close to turning 65.
Tags: budget, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Stephen Harper’s long overdue talk about Canada’s pension crisis
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Jan 30, 2012
We can try to offset the demographic arithmetic directly, whether through increased immigration, longer working lives, or even — to the extent policy can — encouraging people to have more children. And certainly there is much room for improvement in our anemic national productivity performance: just a half-a-percentage point faster growth in productivity, compounding year after year, would make the next generations wealthy enough to bear those projected higher costs without having to endure the implied rise in taxes.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living, tax
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Old age benefits now slated for cost-cutting by Stephen Harper.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Jan 31 2012
Harper had never mentioned changing the terms of old age security (OAS) in Parliament or any of his public speeches… The Prime Minister may have thought debt-enfeebled Europe, with its cradle-to-grave social programs, would be the perfect backdrop to signal a shift in policy. He might have assumed the economic logic of his stance would be self-evident to Canadians. What he apparently forgot was that he sought a mandate to govern for the next four years last May without telling voters that re-electing him meant their pensions were vulnerable.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions, standard of living, tax
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