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Seniors wealthier than before

TOBI COHEN

Canadian Press

Latest comment posted at 2:24 AM EDT 02/05/08

Poverty down, incomes up among today's seniors compared to 25 years ago, census data reveal ...Read the full article

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  1. Johnny Canuck from Canada writes: I wonder what this number would be if you took out the public sector workers and their gold plated indexed pensions? I suspect the number would be much, much, lower.
  2. E. Biggs from Canada writes: Johnny That very well may be true but this group also enjoy the benefit of the real estate market and sold homes and downsized with money in their pockets.

    These monies were placed into retirement plans making some decent money for them.
  3. globefan Eh from Canada writes: Johnny Canuck, that's an excellent point, don't forget gold plated pension packages of politicians who have to put in minimum years to achieve pensions and for which other Canadians would work a lifetime of service.

    Government employees all..what is wrong is the unbalanced distribution of the benefits. Many Canadians without a pension plan contribute to pension plans of their "servants".

    Somehow that seems wrong at every level.
  4. Valerie Spentzos from Vancouver, Canada writes: You must be joking !!!!! My "gold-plated" indexed government indexed pension rose a whopping $39 per month, in January, raising it, along with CPP and OAP, to less than half the median income for seniors. The indexing wouldn't pay for the huge increase in home-heating oil and gas prices, never mind the increases in food, taxes and public transportation. If we had not been forced to make a contribution to these pensions, we could have invested the pension contributions in our mortgages or other real estate ---- a much more lucrative investment in the past 30 years. The grass looks greener .........
  5. JEANNE FARINE from Vancouver, Canada writes: This subject is more than a mite threatening when you remember where the Reform wanted to go not that long ago...and the corporate world spokesmen...
    All those folks were frothing about public pensions and conveniently forgetting that for the vast majority of such plans, their beneficiaries were simply receiving back what they had paid for over their years of service. And not all public plans are fully indexed, and even the limited indexing is paid for by the future pensioner during their working years. Get over it cons, or face the fact that you are flirting again with what Paul Martin accused the Reform of being, in his Parliamentary response to Mr. Manning in the nineties...thieves.
  6. PEI Paul from Charlottetown, Canada writes: As a Public Servant I pay through the nose for my pension. The cost used to be capped at 7.5% of gross salary per pay, (combination of Superannuation and CPP contributions) but after the Feds scooped $30 billion of the so called surplus from the Public Service Pension Plans in the late 90s to fight the deficit, all of a sudden the plan was no longer viable without increased premiums from the employees. This has resulted in a pay cheque deduction of 9.7% of gross pay for these pensions contributions. The indexing benefit is an additional deduction from my pay. It is not a freebee. As one of the other readers stated. If I had invested the same money in real estate for the past 30 years, I would be a multi millionare. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief out there, my pension will provide just a modest income for me in my retirement.

    The government has rewritten the law that allows them to raise premiums for public servants but they don't need to share any surpluses that the plan accrues. The employer can also take premium holidays while employees can't. Some gold plated pension plan.
  7. Alastair james Berry from Nanaimo BC CANADA, Canada writes: ...."The number of seniors living in poverty has declined dramatically over the past 25 years as incomes for those over 65 more than doubled, according to the latest census data released Thursday by Statistics Canada....."

    ......Those old enough to be working when Lester B Pearson killed the OAS and instituted the Canada Pension Plan and received the little booklet, explaining why only the disabled would be allowed to claim benefits for seven years, may remember his simling face and the claim that he had eliminated poverty in the elderly in the future by the stroke of his pen.......

    Perhaps he was correct!!

    But again it might JUST be that the GOVERNMENT HAS DEBASED THE CURRENCY A BIT FASTER than the rate at which it had previously operating the Mint's printing press!

    Since we left the discipline of the GOLD STANDARD our Canadian $1 has lost over 98% of it's PURCHASING POWER!!
  8. John Hinkley from Thornhill, ON, Canada writes: It sure is fine if you're a retired couple and getting special treatment vis a vis CPP and income splitting.

    Once you spouse dies, your situation will change dramatically.

    For example, if you're both receiving maximum CPP, your spouses CPP payments due to you as the survivor are reduced to zero.

    That's right $0.00.

    And, instead of sharing that wealth between two people, one person is immediately saddled with the tax responsibility for the total amount that once was split.

    That's right - no phase in period, all of it - you're now taxed as a single person even though the wealth was accumulated as a couple.

    Certainly not fair treatment for the survivor!
  9. urban ranger from Vancouver, Canada writes: I receive a modest retirement pension from working for my provincial government. If you want an indexed pension, you too should go to work where one is offered.

    Or you can just keep on whining that you don't have one. Your choice.
  10. george miller from naples fla, United States Outlying writes: Wow, $45,673 a yr for seniors. That's $125 a day less income tax = $100 ?
    Less GST, PST, prop tax & health tax, 18% gas tax. = poverty
  11. globefan Eh from Canada writes: PEI Paul, apologies..9.7% of your paycheque for pension is significant, on top of UI and CPP. Is any part of it voluntary?

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