Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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Equations of poverty
Friday, May 31st, 2013
Even after the increases in this budget, the values of OW and ODSP benefits – when adjusted for inflation – will be less this fall than they were when the Liberals took office 10 years ago. The budget also did not ad-dress the issues facing the working poor. Rather than increasing the minimum wage to lift workers above the poverty line, the budget proposes the establishment of an advisory committee… We need to see action on issues like affordable housing and the minimum wage.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Canada Pension Plan boost would be far from free
Thursday, May 30th, 2013
Millions of working Canadians do not have access to a pension plan through their place of work, and that is why CFIB has been pushing provincial governments to move forward with legislation to enable pooled registered pension plans (PRPPs). These low-cost, easy-to-manage plans would make retirement savings accessible to more Canadians than ever before, while not imposing new obligations on employers or employees who cannot afford a hike in mandatory taxes or fees.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, pensions, standard of living
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Poor ‘under attack by the city’ — SCAP
Thursday, May 30th, 2013
When the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit was eliminated Jan. 1 by the Liberal government, the province announced that, of the $120-million in funds for benefit, half the money would be transferred to municipalities to be used for the Community Homelessness Preventative Initiative… the reason SCAP is so outraged is due to the vast differences between Community Homelessness Preventative Initiative funding in Toronto and Sudbury.
Tags: budget, homelessness, housing, poverty, standard of living
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Defunct social agency comes back to life
Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
They’re calling their national data hub the Canada Social Report. Initially it will include 72 federal and provincial social indicators, from pension coverage to child tax benefits, employment insurance payments to inequality trends… their initiative will act as a model and incentive for other non-profit groups capable of reviving agencies the Tories have axed… the Health Council of Canada, the National Council of Visible Minorities, the Canadian Council on Learning, and the Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development….
Tags: budget, economy, Health, homelessness, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Seize the day on the CPP
Sunday, May 26th, 2013
Most Canadians simply cannot save enough to live in dignity in retirement. Wages for middle-income earners have been stagnant for 25 years. One third of family units have no workplace pensions or private pension assets such as RRSPs… The [CLC] advocates a gradual doubling of Canada Pension Plan benefits… Virtually all employed and self-employed Canadians already contribute to the CPP. It is fully portable and provides an inflation-indexed lifetime retirement benefit.
Tags: ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Strong society requires strong social safety net, symposium hears
Friday, May 17th, 2013
We blindly cut, hoping that will drive us back to prosperity and out of the worsening cycle of child and family poverty… Three decades of austerity-worship, and the promise of four more austerity budgets to come in Ontario, have worsened child and family poverty… In 1989, about 10 per cent of Ontario kids lived in poor families. By 2010, that number was up to 14.5 per cent… The conversation needs to change… Forget minimum wage and the discussion of what costs business will bear. Let’s talk about the living wage.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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No pension savings crisis: Canadians have $7.1-trillion in net worth savings
Wednesday, May 15th, 2013
… we believe that the “inadequate savings” argument ignores a significant component of savings, namely the investment in real estate including principal residence, other forms of real estate and business ownership… aggregate statistics exclude those in the bottom quintile who may not own their own home and thus cannot avail themselves of home equity… [but] the bottom quintile actually do better in retirement due to OAS, GIS and CPP and their pension income is typically higher than the income earned in their working years.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Province playing welfare shell game
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
There is a strong sense of disappointment that the previously expressed social justice convictions of the new premier have not moved from rhetoric to action and that the NDP leader never advocated for the interests of Ontario’s poorest with the same vigour as for its car owners… It is a strange notion of social justice that asks disabled people with medical needs to sacrifice essential health supports in order to begin to relieve the deep poverty of single adults not in the labour market.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Once-in-a-generation chance to modernize welfare lost
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
This is the end of the road for anti-poverty activists who fought tenaciously to get the province to overhaul its punitive, rule-bound welfare system. It is a tacit acknowledgement by Wynne that she cannot create the escape route from poverty that she once envisaged. And it is a signal to taxpayers that they can expect to keep pouring billions of dollars into what is essentially a poverty maintenance system.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Budget Makes Progress Towards Poverty Reduction
Sunday, May 5th, 2013
This budget… starts the process of social assistance reform… [but]… We are disappointed that Ontario’s political leaders have failed to increase the Ontario Child Benefit to its maximum… in 2013, a crucial step to meeting our poverty reduction target… The 25in5 Network was also disappointed that the budget did not announce a much-needed increase to the minimum wage… [which]… should be poverty-proofed.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
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