Or, almost-seniors. Those approaching the age of 65 must be gasping for breath this morning, learning of Harper's hint at perhaps raising the age for receiving 'old age' benefits to 67. More sinister are his plans for OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, necessary programs for caring for those who are not able to support themselves on what they have saved and what the government provides according to the pensioner's contributions.
As a person hurtling towards the golden age of 65, and one who has worked around the world and has little in his pension fund, Harper's words seem more than a little threatening. I guess he feels people can work until they're 67 and beyond.
But take it from someone a couple of years shy of that golden age, who is spending his life savings looking for work and finding no one is hiring, there are a lot of seniors or soon-to-be-seniors more than a little nervous today. If Harper thinks there's a market for older workers, think again Stephen.
If Harper wants to cut expenditures, faced with the boomer seniors boom, he'll be better off going after less vulnerable prey. You want to see protests, forget Occupy. If Harper proceeds with any plans to gut the pension program or raise pension qualification age, he's met his match.
UPDATE: Impolitical has a couple more objective posts than this quasi-hysterical post on raising the age for OAS.
5 comments:
The level of income support for seniors in this country are already criminally inadequate. Sadly Harper's attack on vulnerable seniors comes as no surprise as he is merely following in lockstep his neoliberal brethren.
I also mostly worked overseas. Prior to that I was a stay at home mom...not considered valuable in this country. One has to be very careful as a Canadian and make sure one registers as a non-resident. That involves not owning anything while away or Canada Revenue will ding you big time. Imagine not finding work in one's own country but going abroad to work and bringing home money that the country would not otherwise have but to stay in the country and go on welfare. Upon my return to Canada I could not even use the employment office for six months. In Australia, their citizenry provide a copy of contracts to the government and are paid a small amount of support while looking for work. Canada and Ireland are the only countries that punish their citizens for working overseas. Could it be by depriving Canadians by way of poverty pensions, it is a tactic to help the elderly to expire before their time? And, where the hell in this country will one find people willing to hire people over the age of 65 even though we are educated, capable and wanting to work. Oh yes, we could find something at McDonald's or at a car wash...the worse kind of employment for the older person. Where does Mr. Harper get off going to a foreign country and letting Canadians know what is in the works? The very wealthy 1% could very easily bring North America out of the recession. Warren Buffet makes a statement that the wealthy ought to be paying more taxes. How about taking a few billion and putting it where it will do the most good...even giving it to the government?
Mr. (MeMeMe) Harper will get his gold-plated and heavily subsidized pension, so why should he give a damn about the rest of us.
I am a senior who lost my RRSP in the last recession, so I depend on my government pension. It is very unnerving, but not at all surprising, to have him go down this path.
Maybe seniors will have to commit a crime to get bread and board in one of the new prisons.
I actually feel relatively well to do on the OAS +GIS but don't tell Mr Harper.
84% of recipients of GIS are women.
Many of us were busy raising kids,on our own so that we didn't put in enough time or dime to get a healthy pension.
What bugs me is that seniors are getting OAS even up to $75,000. True, it does taper off a bit, but come on guys, these people lived off the fat of the land,sold their houses which they bought when housing was affordable and bought condos, down sized or whatever, and now fly about whenever they feel like it to far away placesThey wine and dine,drive new cars,renovate and have plenty to spend. For them, this OAS is a drop in the bucket. They DON"T NEED IT!
We used to do this handout to everyone with kids,even if they were millionaires they got the Child Tax Credit.
On the Westcoast, one can readily
witness all this.
As for working past 65...well,there are many considerations here.Younger people need jobs and they are not abundant as they were in the 60s and 70s when these seniors were readily finding employment.
Seniors could volunteer as mentors in their communities.
BC has devoted much time and resources for helping seniors for several years.
We can ride the ferries for free 4 days a week, there is a SAFER program to help pay rent, there are many low income senior rental units, and stores and services offer senior discount days.
I don't know enough about Harper's plans, but he should definitely start at home and target MP pensions, as well as their salaries and ridiculous expense accounts
If Harper tampers with OAS and GIS...I will be out on the street and that is the truth. I am female, was a stay at home mom, went through a divorce, went back to university on student loans and graduated, went overseas to work and now no one will hire me because I am over 65.
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