Posts Tagged ‘pensions’
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Rae argues retirement benefit cuts a massive hit to Canadians
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
April 3, 2012
The Budget cuts retirement benefits by raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement from 65 to 67 years, forcing Canadians to postpone their retirement for two years. For low income seniors it’s even worse. They stand to lose up to $30,000 which could hike seniors’ poverty by up third. It’s a massive hit to the least-well off. It’s mean-spirited and it’s wrong. The Conservatives offered zero financial analysis to justify the cut because there is none…
Tags: budget, ideology, Indigenous, pensions, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | 6 Comments »
OAS changes will hurt disabled
Friday, April 6th, 2012
April 05, 2012
Between 45 and 60% of those on social assistance have a disability and this number continues to rise. Many have been, and will continue to be, excluded from the current labour market unless significant new initiatives are created to remove barriers to employment… Disabled people tend to have a lesser life expectancy. Should an exemption be made for persons with disabilities in regard to a change in age eligibility for OAS and CPP? The other long-term option as advocated by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities is for a greater federal role in a basic income support program for people with disabilities who have been excluded from the labour market. A “first step” would be to make the Disability Tax Credit refundable.
Tags: budget, disabilities, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
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
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Pensions: Harper gov’t pits generations against each other
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Feb 26 2012
It knew Canada’s dependency ratio (the number of retirees relative to the number of workers) would soon start rising. Number-crunchers had been urging governments to wake up for years. Instead of doing that, the Conservatives increased federal spending, wiping out the $13 billion surplus they inherited from the previous Liberal government. Now they’re warning Canadians the country’s 60-year-old pension program is unsustainable.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family 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
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Harper’s pension cuts will hit the young hardest
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Feb 22 2012
Were Old Age Security a frill, this might not matter. But it is not. It provides a basic stipend of about $500 a month to people 65 and over — with all or some being taxed back from those who earn more than a net income of $69,562. Along with an add-on Guaranteed Income Supplement for the very poor, OAS is credited with vastly reducing the poverty rate among seniors… However, CPP doesn’t provide enough to live on for most. And some, such as homemakers, don’t qualify for this pension at all. An even more fortunate minority has recourse to employer-sponsored pension plans. But these are swiftly disappearing.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, standard of living, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Older workers age 60-plus represent 8 per cent of the workforce, but account for 30 per cent of new job gains
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Feb. 23, 2012
… since mid-2009, when the economic recovery began, until January 2012, people 60 or older have accounted for about one-third of all net new job gains. That’s striking considering they only represent 8 per cent of the total labour force… And the reasons for this are many, from being healthy and living longer to the end of mandatory retirement in Ontario, says a new report from TD Economics called Older Workers Stampede into the Labour Market… older Canadians are looking for flexible work arrangements that can include part-time, temporary work and self-employment.
Tags: economy, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 2 Comments »
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
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Pension deficits aren’t the fault of public-sector workers
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Feb. 22, 2012
During those golden years, employers were making their pension contributions using money taken directly out of pension-fund surpluses. There was nothing strictly illegal about this. The surpluses legally belonged to them, just as deficits belong to them… Currently, a majority of Canadian workers do not have a workplace pension plan, and one-third has absolutely no savings set aside for retirement. The loss of supplemental pension plans would mean an increase in poverty among seniors, which in return would mean higher costs for the government in health care and social services.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
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