Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category

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The perverse logic of social assistance

Monday, March 4th, 2024

In Ontario, single adults who are unhoused… receive $343 per month for basic needs, and $0 for shelter. That works out to about $11 per day. No one can say with a straight face that $11 per day is a program designed to help people. How is it possible for someone to get by, let alone to get back on their feet, with so little? … It doesn’t function to bolster their well-being, or stop them from falling further into poverty. Instead, it responds to a person who has lost their home by making their life even harder.

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Ontario Budget 2024 should advance the right to an adequate standard of living

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

To advance the right to an adequate standard of living, Ontario’s Budget 2024 should bolster social assistance, help low-income workers, support rental housing, and work productively with other orders of government to achieve these goals… the government must address the systems acting counter to this goal — social assistance, employment-related supports, and housing services.  

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Child poverty is on the rise in Canada, putting over 1 million kids at risk of life-long negative effects

Friday, February 23rd, 2024

In addition to being a human rights issue, addressing child poverty makes economic sense. This is why addressing child poverty needs to remain a priority for all Canadians. Governments, employers and communities… can do this by: Adopting a national living wage policy…; Reducing food insecurity… through nationally available school food programs; Increasing school readiness by providing universal access to quality early childhood development programs across Canada.

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Canadians want their governments to tackle poverty, but nobody can agree on what to do

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, lone-parent households, recent immigrants and single adults aged 45 to 64 have a poverty rate that is double or triple that of the rest of the population. More than two-thirds of working-age individuals living in poverty belong to at least one of these groups… Better universal access to affordable quality physical and mental-health care, early childhood care, and social housing are some of the win-win policy actions that encourage both growth and poverty reduction.

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Social-assistance rates in Ontario should ‘set off alarm bells’: Report

Thursday, October 5th, 2023

Researchers have found that being on social assistance in Ontario is correlated with a higher likelihood of poor health outcomes, homelessness, and food insecurity, among other things… In fact, the “Welfare in Canada” report finds that both OW and ODSP rates have been below the deep poverty line since 2008… “You show how you value people through how you budget.”

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Governments should see social assistance as a solution, not a problem

Thursday, October 5th, 2023

Shouldn’t social assistance prevent poverty? At minimum, it should be a net that prevents people from falling into abject poverty. But it should also provide a ladder, something that people can use to help them up. By failing to deliver social assistance that performs either of these functions, governments are squandering the opportunity to improve people’s lives, their health, and, where possible, their ability to get and maintain paid work.

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Realizing the right to an adequate standard of living

Monday, September 4th, 2023

Everyone in Canada has a right to an adequate standard of living… having adequate food, clothing, and housing, and the continuous improvement of living conditions. [ICESCR – 1976] Maytree’s submission to the 2024 budget calls on the federal government to help people realize this right by strengthening income supports, investing in more affordable housing, and embedding human rights into social policies and programs.

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Basic income could help create a more just and sustainable food system

Monday, May 1st, 2023

… a basic income guarantee could not only be an important tool for addressing economic access to food, but also in supporting sustainability across the food system… reducing economic uncertainty for the most vulnerable agriculture and fisheries workers… [and] supporting new entrants in agriculture and fisheries. Across Canada, the commercial fishing and farming workforces are aging. 

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Does Ottawa’s grocery rebate signal a shift to a broader guaranteed basic income?

Monday, April 10th, 2023

Food banks… were first introduced as a temporary measure in the early 1980s in response to economic downturn… though inadequate… they are now relied upon as part of the “social safety net.”… What’s required now is a fundamental philosophical shift in societal and political will to go beyond grocery rebates and support efficient government programming that supports the choice, agency and dignity of all Canadians, regardless of income.

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What the new Ontario budget means for those on social assistance

Friday, March 24th, 2023

In this budget, as in all its previous changes to social assistance, the government did not introduce any new funding for the province’s nearly 400,000 Ontario Works beneficiaries. Ontario Works is social assistance for those who are not disabled but cannot work. The program provides a maximum of $733 per month for a single adult, an amount that has not changed since 2018, when the current government halved planned increases . 

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