Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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Canada, provinces agree to ‘historic’ pension deal
Tuesday, June 21st, 2016
The agreement came together as pollsters pointed to overwhelming popular support for public pension reform amid concerns about the adequacy of retirement savings… The federal Liberals ran on a platform to upgrade the public pension system, as did their Ontario cousins. The result also means Ontario will abandon its project to go it alone with its own pension plan… the deal was reached in part because of compromises and the desire to maintain a single, portable CPP across Canada.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
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Child benefit to pull record number of kids out of poverty, minister says
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
Canada’s new child benefit, which will begin arriving in mailboxes after July 1, will slash child poverty by 40 per cent, the largest single drop in the country’s history, according to the federal minister in charge of the initiative… “It will cut child poverty from about 11.2 per cent to 6.7 per cent . . . and lead to the lowest child-poverty rate ever in Canada.” As highlighted in the Liberals’ election campaign last summer, the Canada Child Benefit will pull about 300,000 children out of poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living, youth
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Canada’s pension-reform debate needs a large dose of reality
Thursday, June 9th, 2016
Wage growth has been quite modest, but largely because earnings have been diverted; the share of employee compensation from employer social policy contributions (EI, pensions, health benefits etc.) has reached record highs (16.2 per cent of wages and salaries in the first quarter of 2016 – up from 9.5 per cent in 1981). Employees are, on balance, better protected now than ever before, but they themselves have borne the costs.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
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How a guaranteed minimum income could work in Canada
Tuesday, June 7th, 2016
… maybe a one-size-fits-all basic income guarantee is out of reach, at least at one go. It’s still possible to move in that direction, one piece at a time. Indeed, we already have what amount to basic income guarantees for children in the new Canada Child Benefit (combining the old Universal Child Care Benefit, the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement) and the elderly, via Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement. The federal Working Income Tax Benefit is a basic income for the working-age population, in embryonic form.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Society has an obligation to provide safety net for pensioners
Saturday, June 4th, 2016
That some four million Ontarians alone are suffering that social deficit prompted… an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan that would top up inadequate federal income supports. Millions of Canadians have not saved enough for retirement… millions of Canadians have been unable to save, lacking sufficient income to do so… the middle class hasn’t had a pay raise in three decades, adjusted for inflation. Another factor is “precarious employment.”
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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How CPP reform could kill Ontario’s pension plan
Saturday, June 4th, 2016
… a last-ditch effort to revive CPP expansion is muddying the reform waters… Updating the CPP, whose maximum payout is a mere $13,110 annually, requires seven provinces with two-thirds of the population. Realistically, the only way to achieve reform is to stick with a “modest” CPP expansion that is minimalist, hewing to the lowest common denominator and taking the maximum amount of years to phase in… Ontario’s nightmare scenario is more talking, dithering and deferring by Ottawa and the other provinces.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Basic income: social assistance without the stigma
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
When you compare people’s views of Mincome to welfare what stands out is that people took ardent, moralistic positions about welfare, but were pragmatic when asked about Mincome. In fact, the social meaning of Mincome was powerful enough that even participants who opposed welfare on moral grounds and believed strongly in the principle of earning one’s own living felt able to collect government payments without a sense of contradiction.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Canada Child Benefit is basic-income guarantee, says families minister Jean-Yves Duclos
Friday, April 8th, 2016
The streamlined, income-based and tax-free Canada Child Benefit the Liberals unveiled in the March 22 federal budget can be considered a form of basic-income guarantee, Duclos told the Star in an interview Thursday, because of its simplicity and equitability… A guaranteed minimum income… was never mentioned in the Liberal platform. But Duclos, who is responsible for developing the national poverty-reduction strategy… has said he would be open to the idea.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
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Ontarians warming to guaranteed minimum income, poll suggests
Wednesday, March 30th, 2016
Forum Research Inc. found that Ontarians are open to the idea — if it replaces the myriad of existing “social assistance, welfare and other provincial support payments.” Of those polled, 41 per cent back the concept while 33 per cent oppose and 26 per cent don’t know. “Attitudes are changing quickly in North America on certain social issues”
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, poverty
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Federal budget is good time to reframe child benefits as family benefits
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016
In the United States, parents with low wages are supported by the Earned Income Tax Credit; the United Kingdom is gradually replacing its Child Tax Credit with a new Universal Credit. Could Canadians also acknowledge that low-income workers, not just their children, deserve support? If child benefits were reframed as family benefits, they would be structured differently… I would retain some element of universality in the Canadian child benefit system.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, tax
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