Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Stretched food banks a measure of Canada’s frail recovery
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Nov. 01, 2011
… recipients span the spectrum. Nearly 100,000 of them are first-time users and one in five actually has a job or has recently been employed. More than one in ten are immigrants or refugees – many of whom are highly educated, and usage is growing among seniors… The findings show 18 per cent of food-bank recipients are part of the working poor – people who have earnings from a current or recent job… Almost half of recipients are women and girls. One in ten is aboriginal. One in four are individuals from dual-parent families with kids.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Disability tax credit plan a too well-kept secret
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Oct. 26, 2011
It’s hard to criticize Ottawa, along with the major banks, when it comes to the generosity and promotion of the Registered Disability-Savings Plan… Yet, in the three years since the program was announced, just 48,000 accounts have been opened, serving only a fraction of those eligible. So last week the Conservative government, to its credit again because it was the Tories that started this ball rolling, announced a review of the plan. The public has until Dec. 16 to comment… only 5% cent of Canadians with disabilities hold RDSP accounts. Another 44% of those with disabilities had never heard about the plan.
Tags: disabilities, pensions, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Tax-free savings accounts give wealthy access to poverty benefit: study
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Oct. 23, 2011
Wealthy Canadians are getting access to a retirement benefit that was intended for the elderly poor, suggests a new report on the country’s retirement-security system… Tax-free savings accounts, or TFSAs, allow Canadians to save up to $5,000 each year with all earnings and withdrawals exempt from taxation. FSAs also come with another big plus: none of the money counts when determining whether the account-holder is entitled to a retirement benefit for low-income seniors.
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Proactive plan could save Canada billions
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
September 29, 2011
The council report says, in 2007, it would have cost about $12 billion to bring all Canadians’ income to a level that was above the poverty line, about half of what it says poverty costs Canadian taxpayers each year. Asked whether the government can afford to take such measures, he said it can’t afford not to. “If we’re already affording $24 billion, it’s kind of a nobrainer to afford $12 billion to make it better,” he said, though he added more money would be needed for measures that help keep people out of poverty.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Party platforms thin on fighting poverty, says coalition
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
Sep 29 2011
Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives have made no campaign commitments to help vulnerable children and families get ahead, says a coalition of anti-poverty groups that has analyzed the various party platforms for the Oct. 6 election. But the Liberals, NDP and Greens offer only limited solutions to ending child and family poverty, according to the analysis by Ontario Campaign 2000, which has joined with the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction in calling for more political attention to the issue.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Canadians cover $24-billion a year in poverty costs: Report
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Sep 28, 2011
The initial investment could be in the billions of dollars, the report suggests, which says it would be worth the expense in the long run. “In an investment model, the more resources devoted to preventing poverty and directly lifting people out of poverty, the greater the payoff would be for all Canadians in reduced health-care and other indirect costs,” says the report, titled The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
What gives with charity crackdown?
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
September 24, 2011
The Harper regime hasn’t been shy to go after charities it disapproves of. Therefore, in recent years, nameless bureaucrats at Canada Revenue Agency have been dispatched across the country to rough up charities – such as those preoccupied with the environment or animal welfare or birth control or international issues – and to threaten them with loss of their charitable status. Because they’re too “political.” … But to use the power of government to silence those you disapprove of? That isn’t just uncharitable. It’s unconstitutional.
Tags: ideology, rights, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Look for the party that will do the most to help those in need
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
September 19, 2011
The Liberals have taken some steps to address issues during the last eight years, such as dental care for children from low incomes and child tax credit, but as far as raising assistance rates to any livable rates, that seems to never gain traction. And the only party that I have heard tout the Guaranteed Annual Income that has been proposed time and again from Conservative Senator Hugh Segal is the Green Party… Our economy will grow if everyone has a chance to participate, and that includes those who are struggling every day to be included.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario woman entitled to sympathy, not benefits, court rules
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Sep 9, 2011
An Ontario court has scolded the province’s Social Benefits Tribunal for giving disability benefits to a mother of four who did not even try to work, and had only minor or easily treated ailments… Under the law, a person is disabled if and only if they have a continuous or recurring physical or mental impairment, verified by an expert and expected to last a year or more, that results in a “substantial restriction” in their ability to function in the community and workplace.
Tags: disabilities, Health, mental Health, pensions
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 4 Comments »
Should recent arrivals qualify for Old Age Security?
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
September 1, 2011
I find it hard to distinguish why we should impose residency requirements on Old Age Security but not other public benefits or public spending. Why restrict Old Age Security to long-term residents but not public health insurance? … as the short twenty-year span of contributory Old Age Security taxes fades from fiscal memory, the argument for excluding short-term residents from the benefits received by other Canadian seniors will become harder to make.
Posted in Social Security History | 2 Comments »
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