Canada Pension creating poverty Flaherty told

Canadian pension system creating poverty for seniors and those living with disabilities

By Stephen Pate – Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty heard repeatedly that Canada’s pension system is failing those who need it. Speaker after speaker at last night’s town hall meetings in Charlottetown said the system did not provide a reasonable income for Canadians. The system keeps Canadians far below the poverty line or LICO.

Speakers told the Finance Minister and his panel that it is impossible to live on the $11,000 a year average benefit under the Canada Pension. Even the GIC and OAS don’t help to bring the pensioner’s income up to the cost of living.

Leo Broderick, of the Council of Canadians, noted the disparity between what pensioners live on and the cost of living. He called on the government to double the Canada Pension benefit.

Everett Baker of Cornwall repeated the request to double the Canada Pension benefit. Baker said the Canada Pension has more than enough money at $123 billion in the trust fund to pay for the increase.

Ron Kelly of the Seniors United Network said seniors are choosing between their medication, food and rent. Their pensions are not enough to cover all the costs of living and something vital is suffering.

I spoke on the need to increase the benefit to Canadians with disabilities who can no longer work. They are forced to live on less than 60% of the cost of living through no fault of their own. In addition they have medical expenses that are not covered by Provincial social assistance plans.

Many of these Canadians with disabilities are women in between 50 and 65 who must survive on less than $9,000 a year. Living alone, they are unable to work due to their disabilities and have no way to supplement the Canada Pension for disabilities.

They often get the lowest benefit since they were raising children and not working for a large part of their adult lives. A parliamentary committee issued a report in December 2009 but no legislative changes have been made to address the issues documented.

Reforms recommended

The Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women has prepared its report Pension Security for Women. The Standing Committee has already made recommendations to Parliament that were repeated last last night by the public.

Among those recommendations made to Parliament were:

Recommendation 2 -That the Guaranteed Income Supplement be raised to the after-tax low income cut-off (LICO);

Recommendation 6 – That the government adopt a pension plan protection bill applicable to employers under federal jurisdiction as soon as possible so that the pension benefits of retirees or future retire;

Recommendation 9 – That the federal government conduct a thorough gender-based analysis (GBA) of all policy proposals relating to women and pensions.  This should include a consideration of the impact of unpaid care giving work on the lifetime income of women; the impact of elder-care responsibilities, which are disproportionately borne by women, on the retirement options of women; and the fact that women have a longer life expectancy than men.es are not reduced;

Recommendation 11 That the replacement rate in the Canada Pension Plan be increased from 25% to 50% to maintain a decent income and an acceptable standard of living, and that this modification come into force progressively over the next ten years.

The government has studied the Canada Pension problems. Let’s hope the town hall meetings end with some concrete legislative changes and not more meetings, hearings and consultations.

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