Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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Why the left and right should embrace a universal basic income
Friday, March 16th, 2018
What the evidence from the Ontario pilot suggests is that from a social perspective, a basic income improves mental and physical health, which in turn encourages recipients to find more gainful employment… From an economic point of view, as the global economy continues to change more quickly and drastically than ever before – and government looks at how to ease the economic disruption it will cause – a basic income has the ability to act as a stabilizer.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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What does the federal budget mean for low-income Canadians?
Saturday, March 10th, 2018
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the budget in terms of poverty reduction was the announcement that the Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) would become the more generous Canada Workers Benefit (CWB). This change… works by topping up the incomes of working people… once wages exceed a certain threshold the amount decreases with each dollar earned until it reaches zero.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical, women
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How to make Ontario’s Budget 2018 the Income Security Budget
Monday, February 26th, 2018
Budget 2018 can deliver greater prosperity by increasing support to low-income workers, unpaid family carers, and those excluded from the labour market. In particular, Maytree offers recommendations in four areas: Modernizing Ontario’s response to working poverty… Protecting the poorest from falling further behind… Delivering housing affordability by investing in supply and demand… renewing investment in care and carers
Tags: budget, economy, housing, participation, poverty, standard of living
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From ‘barely surviving’ to thriving: Ontario basic income recipients report less stress, better health
Sunday, February 25th, 2018
The three-year pilot project, which began in the Hamilton and Thunder Bay areas last summer and in Lindsay last fall, is testing whether unconditional cash support can boost health, education and housing for people on social assistance or earning low wages. Information gleaned from the three test sites will guide future provincial policy on how to better support all Ontarians living in poverty.
Tags: disabilities, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Pooled Risk Insurance Can Save Seniors from Cat Food
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018
Longevity insurance can provide a secure income stream at older ages without many of the criticisms associated with traditional annuities, but Canadian tax environment is unfavourable for private-market longevity risk products. MacDonald proposes a national, completely voluntary program that would give retiring Canadians the option to buy into a pooled fund that provides a stable income stream starting at age 85: Canada’s Living Income For the Elderly (LIFE).
Tags: pensions, standard of living
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Biting cold exposes deeper rot in Toronto’s attitudes to poverty
Saturday, January 6th, 2018
… fixing short-term inadequacies will have to be paired with a more sweeping strategy involving all three levels of government to improve income security, strengthen mental health, addiction, and overdose prevention services, and make affordable housing the national priority it used to be. None of these things can or will happen until we acknowledge that the austerity consensus in public policy has been a failure; that real efficiency means actually meeting human needs rather than perpetually looking for and inventing new ways to cut public spending
Tags: budget, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty, tax
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Quebec’s bold new basic income offer: Does it benefit the right people?
Thursday, December 14th, 2017
… while bolstering support for those unable to work, Quebec continues to embrace punitive measures for those deemed fit to work, particularly single men… beyond severe physical and mental disabilities, there are many barriers to employment, such as illiteracy, poor education, a criminal record and lack of decent work opportunities… There are many perverse disincentives that keep people trapped on welfare.
Tags: disabilities, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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How expanding tax credits would help to lower our country’s welfare wall
Wednesday, November 29th, 2017
… while the new funding is welcome, the WITB is relatively ineffective in raising the incomes of the working poor, and does not greatly help social-assistance recipients transition to employment. It should be reformed so as to provide a supplement to wages in real time, should provide a higher maximum benefit and should be phased out much more slowly as employment income rises so as to reduce high marginal tax rates for the working poor.
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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There is a prescription for poverty’s punishing impact on health in Ontario
Wednesday, November 15th, 2017
One of the reasons poverty is expensive is because people living in poverty have higher rates of chronic disease, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Children in low-income families are at higher risk of diagnosed mental health problems, nutritional deficiencies, asthma and injury… Aside from being inadequate, our social assistance programs are dysfunctional… With the cost of poverty at more than $32 billion per year in Ontario, we can’t afford to continue with the same flawed system…
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Why the history of poverty keeps repeating itself
Saturday, November 11th, 2017
Allocating too much money for welfare risks antagonizing other voters who fret about waste or dependency. And who want their own needs and entitlements taken care of first — like hydro rate reductions, child-care subsidies, or middle class tax cuts… Logic (and humanity) demands a single, simple, basic income program that consolidates the tangle of existing rules into a more coherent and cost-effective form of social support, now being tested in a pilot program in parts of the province.
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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