Archive for the ‘Social Security Policy Context’ Category
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Fix CPP, not OAS, to head off a pension crisis
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Feb 20 2012
Making sure that Canadian workers can retire in comfort is possible in only two ways: Require workers to contribute more of their employment income to pension plans, or require workers to stay employed longer… However, increasing the age of eligibility for OAS from the current 65 will not accomplish either. Workers do not contribute to the OAS, and it is paid to all, not only workers. So increasing its age of eligibility will not increase the retirement security of older Canadians, but rather make it more precarious.
Tags: economy, pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
How to destroy a good poverty line
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Feb. 14, 2012
The MBM [market basket measure]… is intuitive and easily understood because it is based on the actual cost of basic goods and services… a simple and uncomplicated way to describe poverty, and they were so much simpler to understand than the Statistics Canada low-income cut-offs (or LICOs) traditionally used by most poverty analysts… Regrettably, we are forced to recommend – once again – that the MBMs not be used until they are fixed.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
America’s ‘Food Stamp Nation’ continues to grow
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb 11 2012
In 2006, there were 26.7 million people on food stamps in America. By September 2011, that number had grown to a record 46.3 million, bigger by far than Canada’s population of 33 million, and equal to that of Spain. In fact, if the Americans using food stamps constituted a country, they would be the 27th largest nation in the world… Anyone in America can apply for food stamps, technically known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and millions do… To be eligible, an individual must not make more than $14,088 per year.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Let’s debate OAS based on fact, not perception
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Feb. 06, 2012
OAS is taxable income, so a lot of the moneys paid out go straight back to Ottawa… If your income exceeds $67,668, then you lose your OAS at a 15-per-cent clawback rate. If you have income of $110,123 or more, you get no OAS at all… It’s well known that wealthy Canadians live longer than poorer Canadians… So two key questions need to be addressed. First, is raising the age of eligibility for OAS really necessary, or is the system sustainable as is? Second, how does one justify a public policy shift that’s so clearly regressive in its impact?
Tags: budget, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Poverty costs Alberta up to $9.5B a year, report suggests
Monday, February 6th, 2012
February 6, 2012
In a report being released today, Vibrant Communities Calgary estimates poverty costs the Alberta government between $2 billion and $2.4 billion and the overall Alberta economy between $5.1 billion and $7.2 billion – for a total of up to $9.5 billion annually. “This big $9 billion number doesn’t include the cost the government pays in social services or subsidies,” said Dan Meades, director of Vibrant Communities Calgary. “We were kind of surprised this was the number of just the external cost of poverty and it’s that big. We were surprised nobody fixed this yet.”
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Poverty+costs+Alberta+year+report+suggests/6107166/story.html#ixzz1lcBt5BTd
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Small fixes to Ontario’s welfare system not enough, says progress report
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Feb. 2, 2012
Small fixes will not be enough to bring about the transformational change Ontario’s social assistance needs, says a progress report by the province’s social assistance review commission. More employment support for those on welfare, including those with disabilities; streamlined delivery and new benefits available to all low-income people outside the welfare system are some of the ideas the commission is exploring… the update discusses different approaches and highlights areas for more discussion.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Stephen Harper’s old-age pension cuts unnecessary
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Jan 27 2012
There is no fiscal crisis in this country. True, the government predicts that the cost of pensions for the elderly, now about $35.6 billion, will triple by 2030… And when baby boomers start to die off, as they will from about 2020, spending on the elderly will start to decelerate on its own… the myth of pensioner excess provides an easy talking point for those anxious to cut social spending in Canada. The euro may be the true villain of the piece. But the story of the slothful Greek hairdresser is easier to understand.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 5 Comments »
Closing the gap between EI and welfare
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Jan 01 2012
Last year, more than 700,000 unemployed Canadians were either not covered by EI or ineligible… Under Mendelson’s proposal, income-tested forgivable loans would be available in bi-weekly payments of almost $700 for six months. The loans would be repaid based on total earnings for the year the money was received — they would be completely forgivable for those with incomes below about $10,000 and fully repayable for those earning about $71,000… All adults looking for work would be eligible for the full loan of almost $9,000 every five years and it would could cost the federal government about $1 billion annually.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Defined benefits ‘can still work’ [pensions]
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Dec. 15, 2011
In Australia, a nationwide switch away from defined benefit plans has led to widespread senior poverty. Half of Australian seniors live below the poverty line, and two thirds run out of pension income by age 75. Is that what we want here?” The beauty of DB plans is you know in advance what you’ll get out of them… you need to save $500,000 to provide yourself with an annual pension of $25,000, but that’s the reality. We owe it to people to help them get there – we need to make workplace pensions better, not worse.”
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, rights, standard of living
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Give to charities, but also advocate for justice for the poor
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Dec. 6, 2011
Justice is the gift that keeps on giving, through January and beyond. It tackles the root causes of poverty rather than focusing on its temporary alleviation… It would rebuild the social safety net that is supposed to help people get back on their feet but increasingly holds them down. It would tackle the chronic hunger experienced by so many… You might think it will be too expensive. But we all pay for poverty through higher health-care, policing, criminal-justice and social-service costs. Purely on economic grounds, it makes sense to tackle poverty directly…
Tags: ideology, philanthropy, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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