Of the 1%, for the 1%, to the 1%

03Apr 2012 by johnastapleton

 

Of the 1%, for the 1%, to the 1%?

Single People and social assistance

  • In 2012, three years following the greatest recession since the Great Depression, 1.1% of Ontarians (157,000 men and women) received social assistance (Ontario Works) in Ontario (in February 2012).
  •  The number of single people receiving Ontario Works has increased by over 65% (157,000 vs. 95,000) since the year 2000.

Social assistance benefit rates

  • Ontario’s single social assistance rate (Ontario Works) was increased to $599 a month in December 2011, with $227 allocated (by regulation) to basic needs.
  • The minimum monthly cost of a nutritional food basket requiring secure, energy efficient, and affordable storage, freezing, refrigeration, and cooking facilities is $270.
  • Ontario’s single social assistance rate was $663 a month in 1993.
  • If adjusted for inflation since 1993, Ontario’s single social assistance rate would now stand at $942 a month, $343 more than in 2012.
  • It would take a 57% rate increase to equal the single rate paid in 1993.

Social Assistance and Minimum wages

  • The social assistance single rate now stands at 36% of full time minimum wages ($10.25 an hour), the same as in 1937 when minimum wages were first legislated.
  • In 1993, the social assistance single rate stood at 60% of full time minimum wages ($6.35 an hour)

The record of successive governments

  • In 1995, the Harris government cut the single rate by 21.6% to $520 a month.
  • The $520 rate was not adjusted in the next 8 years by Mr. Harris or Mr. Eves
  • If adjusted to inflation, the $520 would have risen to $614 a month in 2003
  • In other words, just to get this rate back to where it was when cut would have required an 18% increase.
  • The McGuinty government inherited the $520  rate and has raised it several times to $599 a month, an aggregate increase of 15.2%
  • Had the $520 rate been adjusted to inflation since 2003, it would now stand at $613 a month
  • It would take an additional 2.3% increase to raise rates to where they were in 2003 and a 39.2% increase to raise them to the inflation adjusted level ($724 a month) they stood at after the Harris cuts.
  • The current $599 a month rate – in real terms – is $225 a month less than what it was following the Harris cut of 21.6%.