Archive for the ‘Social Security Policy Context’ Category
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How Dalton McGuinty can undo the welfare legacy of Mike Harris
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
October 11, 2012
Social assistance today is more or less unchanged since the Harris Tories… in the mid-1990s… The current culture stresses catching people out rather than helping them out with housing, health or addiction challenges that keep them on welfare… all these years after Harris squeezed welfare, the best way to get more out of it — and secure public support — is not necessarily with more money or less, but sounder investments.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, housing, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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An end to the perpetual welfare trap? Guaranteed incomes debated
Monday, August 27th, 2012
22 August 2012
… the idea is a no-brainer. Replacing Manitoba’s complicated welfare system could free up social workers to do what they do best — help people deal with addictions, get skills training and find daycare and decent housing, instead of parsing a huge menu of welfare rules. And it could shrink the city’s burgeoning poverty industry — food banks, charities, non-profits and social-services agencies that eat up millions in government funding.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
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Let’s aim to eradicate poverty
Friday, July 6th, 2012
July 6, 2012
Dr. Christine Saulnier and economist Angella MacEwan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Halifax… found that poverty is costing P.E.I. $315 million per year and that $40 million is in health costs. Lower-income status has been found to account for 33 – 40 per cent of hospitalization rates in Canada. One study estimates that an increase of $1,000 per year would lead to nearly 10,000 fewer chronic conditions, and 6,600 fewer disability days every two weeks.
Tags: economy, Health, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Governments can’t ignore income security forever
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Jun 10, 2012.
Except for Newfoundland and Labrador, all provinces pay welfare rates well beneath the poverty line, helping to feed the costly pathologies of poverty that fill our hospitals, our homeless shelters, our prisons and the tragedies of family violence and substance abuse. A frank discussion about income security, poverty and the kind of income floor that could obviate other programs that are unbalanced, expensive to operate, wasteful and disconnected from reality, is long overdue.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Do No Harm [OAS]
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
June 04, 2012
The 2012 federal Budget’s announcement that the age of eligibility for Old Age Security will be increased from 65 to 67 violates the first principle of social policy. Low-income seniors will be hurt, not helped, by this decision. Worse still, poor seniors will be hit harder than the better-off… This move will reduce income overall for low-income Canadians aged 65 and 66 and, as a result, raise their poverty rate… Caledon has proposed a fix: provide an income-tested benefit for low-income seniors ages 65 and 66, to shield them from the age raise.
Tags: ideology, pensions, poverty, rights, standard of living
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OAS savings could turn out to be costly
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Mar 27 2012
If OAS had been denied to all 65 and 66 year olds in 2011, the overall costs of OAS would have dropped by about $4 billion. But because OAS is included in taxable income, there would also have been a drop of roughly $500 million in federal income taxes and a $300 million decline in provincial income taxes… Further, because these seniors (the 65 and 66 year olds) would have lower disposable incomes and hence less money to spend, there would be over a $100 million drop in federal GST and almost a $200 million drop in provincial sales and other commodity taxes and health premiums.
Tags: budget, pensions, poverty
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Fending off Canada’s pension crisis
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Mar 18 2012
… we propose a voluntary pooled target-benefit pension plan (PTBPP). It involves commingling assets across all participating workplaces to maximize scale efficiencies in investment and to manage actuarial risk. Employers’ matching contributions would be mandatory but fixed, as in a defined-contribution plan. As with the PRPP, it would be available to individuals and the self-employed… upon retirement, members could expect a benefit within a target range, depending on market performance… On balance, the proposed PTBPP would provide better pension coverage, cost efficiency and retirement income security for plan members than would PRPPs or most current private group or individual plans.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions
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Ontario targets the poor by freezing welfare and delaying child benefit increase
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Mar 26 2012
“We are not prepared to balance this budget on the backs of families who may find themselves in difficult circumstances . . . or on the backs of our children,” McGuinty said. He then proceeded to do exactly what he’d said he wouldn’t by announcing that Ontario’s welfare rates will be frozen at their already lamentable level. Even worse, poor children will be denied a $100 payment they were to receive next year… McGuinty is wrong to freeze welfare rates, including for the disabled, as the cost of necessities jumps…
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Old Age Insecurity?
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Feb.27, 2012
Low-income seniors will be hardest hit by increasing the age of entitlement for Old Age Security, since they rely on that program for most of their income and they have a lower lifespan than middle- and upper-income Canadians. If the federal government goes ahead with that ill-considered change, then at least it should provide an income benefit to poor seniors aged 65 and 66 so that they do not have to keep working or remain on welfare for two more years.
Tags: budget, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Finley defends pension reform but does not address poverty concerns
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Feb. 21, 2012
The federal government is stepping up its rhetoric to justify plans to cut public pension benefits, but remains silent on how it will address seniors’ poverty… Government officials have made it clear that when cabinet ministers talk about reforming old age security, they are lumping in the guaranteed income supplement with the basic benefit that delivers about $500 a month to 98 per cent of Canadians over 65… Unless Ottawa takes steps to separate the top-up from the basic old age security benefit, poor seniors would stay on provincial welfare rolls for an extra two years.
Tags: ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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