What’s to become of our seniors?

The Report released last week by the Conference Board of Canada evaluating Canada’s record on poverty has generated reactions from various media outlets, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Press and CanWest News Service, as well as poverty alleviation and public justice organizations like CPJ. Carol Goar from the Toronto Star weighed in today with her reaction to the dramatic increase of seniors living in poverty in the last decade and a half, despite this issue being viewed as a success story for over a decade.

Goar describes how the rate of seniors living in poverty dropped from 36.9% to 2.9% from 1971 to 1995. This illustrated great success on the part of the government in improving and creating programs designed to help seniors. However, in the decade that followed 1995, the rates began to rise again, doubling by 2005 with a rate of 5.9%.

Many of the issues leading to the increase in the number of seniors living in poverty are tied to social security programs. In terms of Old Age Security, the level of benefits are tied to personal retirement savings like RRSPs, which can change with market fluctuation, as we witnessed last fall.

In addition, although benefits for such programs increase with inflation, the benefits do not take into consideration certain increases in the basic costs of living, such as the recent rise of oil and gas prices, which directly affect the costs of heating and electricity.

A motion was introduced and passed through Parliament in June 2009 calling on the government to expand social security programs for seniors, including Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and Guaranteed Income Supplement. But so far, no efforts have been formally made to improve or expand such programs.

A rate of 5.9% is nothing compared to that of 36.9% from the early 1970s. However, the current trends are troubling, especially considering Canada’s aging population. The Baby Boomers have already started to retire, and in large numbers.

With this rise in the number of seniors, along with the doubling of the rate of seniors living in poverty in just ten years, can we really afford to ignore the problem? If these trends continue, what will this mean for younger generations of Canadians, as they eventually approach retirement?

Plans for poverty alleviation and elimination must include our seniors.