A report from Canada’s auditor general says the federal division that delivers Outdated Age Safety (OAS) and different applications to help seniors “didn’t have a complete view” of the wants of Canada’s aged and does not know if the month-to-month funds are offering seniors with sufficient monetary help.
The report discovered Employment and Social Improvement Canada is amassing knowledge on seniors, however hasn’t truly been analyzing it, and might’t say whether or not the federal government applications in place are addressing wants or if any main help gaps exist.
“Because the inhabitants of seniors in Canada continues to develop, Employment and Social Improvement Canada must strengthen its evaluation to make sure that help applications are assembly the evolving wants of seniors,” Auditor Normal Karen Hogan mentioned in an announcement.
Canada’s senior inhabitants is projected to climb from 7,021,430 folks in 2021 to 14,094,900 folks in 2061.
Radio West6:34BC’s incoming Seniors Advocate says low pensions and rising unaffordability is inflicting elevated poverty charges amongst seniors
BC’s incoming Seniors Advocate says low pensions and rising unaffordability is inflicting elevated poverty charges amongst seniors
Advantages for the aged, together with OAS and the Assured Earnings Complement for low-income seniors, represent the most important and fastest-growing a part of the federal price range.
Canada is anticipated to spend $88 billion on the applications subsequent 12 months. That quantity will then leap to $158.9 billion in 2040 and to $276.5 billion in 2060, in line with the audit.
The Outdated Age Safety pension is a month-to-month fee obtainable to Canadians aged 65 and older who apply and meet sure necessities. In contrast to the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP), it isn’t depending on an individual’s employment historical past and an individual doesn’t should be retired from a job to qualify for it.
“It is fairly gorgeous to have the auditor common discover that Ottawa bureaucrats in Employment and Social Improvement Canada (ESDC) do not actually have any clear concept whether or not or not the federal authorities’s costliest program is assembly its targets,” mentioned Paul Kershaw, a professor on the College of British Columbia’s Faculty of Inhabitants and Public Well being and founding father of Technology Squeeze.
“It sounds just like the auditor common has discovered that ESDC has not up to date its desirous about what goal Outdated Age Safety serves because it was created three-quarters of a century in the past.”
Federal Minister of Labour and Seniors Steven MacKinnon mentioned in response to the findings that “ESDC will strengthen its evaluation on how the OAS program is performing within the context of the totally different pillars of the Canadian retirement earnings system.”
MacKinnon famous the report acknowledged that ESDC’s evaluation on the Assured Earnings Complement (GIS) for low-income seniors influenced current program adjustments, together with growing the fee for single seniors in 2016 and enhancing the GIS earnings exemption in 2020.
The division’s evaluation additionally contributed to the ten per cent OAS improve for seniors aged 75 and over in 2022, the minister mentioned.
OAS in want of a rethink, says professor
The Bloc Québécois has pushed the Liberal minority authorities to spice up Outdated Age Safety funds.
Bloc Chief Yves-François Blanchet put ahead a movement in October demanding that the federal government transfer ahead with laws that may hike OAS payouts for seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 by 10 per cent.
Kershaw referred to as the Bloc’s concept “poorly designed.”
He mentioned OAS is in want of a rethink, arguing that it does not present sufficient for seniors in want and provides an excessive amount of to seniors who’re already financially safe.
Seniors have the bottom poverty charges of all age teams in Canada. About 11 per cent of individuals aged 18 to 64 years of age are categorised as “low earnings,” in comparison with simply six per cent of individuals aged 65 and over, the data reveals.
Kershaw mentioned OAS is likely one of the causes for these decrease numbers, however notes there are nonetheless a few half 1,000,000 Canadian seniors dwelling in poverty.
He mentioned the federal government may save not less than $7 billion a 12 months by shifting its OAS fee clawback threshold so seniors in households with six-figure incomes do not obtain as a lot.
“I feel if we truly had ESDC bureaucrats … not simply amassing knowledge, however truly analyzing it they’d see there are causes to assume our programs are working moderately nicely, however there’s a possibility right here to recalibrate them, to refine how we’re distributing money so we do not have to spend extra, however we may spend otherwise and we may obtain so many different social targets, together with eliminating seniors poverty as soon as and for all.”
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