civil rights | Financial Fairness For Singles

(These thoughts are purely the blunt, no nonsense personal opinions of the author about financial fairness and discrimination and are not intended to provide personal or financial advice – financialfairnessforsingles.ca).

We have talked many times in the past about how singles are being forced out of the housing market. Crises such as the Covid crisis further amplifies this issue.

Regardless of whether singles are in their younger years or seniors they are being forced into smaller and more expensive housing both from a rental and a purchasing perspective (affordable-housing-discrimination-for-singles-perpetuated-by-misinformation-and-lack-of-knowledge).

As children, social service agency rules generally dictate that when they reach a certain age they should have their own bedrooms. When these same children reach the age of majority formulas such as living wage formulas generally imply that singles only need studio apartments without a separate bedroom.

Apartments and condos for singles are becoming smaller in size, some with only bar fridges and microwaves with no laundry facilities or storage space. There is little doubt that during crises such as the Covid crisis singles will experience claustrophobia and restricted space especially if they are forced to work from home in these spaces.

As seniors the Covid crisis further amplifies how crowded Canadian nursing home spaces increased the number of senior deaths as outlined in article “Hundreds of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented by eliminating four-person nursing-home rooms: study” (multi-bed-rooms-in-nursing-homes-could-have-saved-many-lives-study)

As stated: ‘The study by University of Toronto, McMaster University and Public Health Ontario scientists, found a clear association between the degree of crowding in homes — how many people share a room and lavatory — and the virus’s spread. Residents of the most tightly packed facilities were twice as likely to get infected and to die as those in the least-crowded homes, concluded their paper. And yet, one in four long-term-care residents were in four-bed rooms when the pandemic hit, they say.’ ‘COVID-19’s disastrous toll on nursing homes has been the central story of the pandemic in Canada, accounting for about 80 per cent of the country’s 8,500 deaths.’

Some standards have been introduced that state new facilities should only have no more than two people per room.

The irony of the above is that while it is quite acceptable for couples to share a room, singles would still be forced to have a roommate even when they have for much of their lives always lived by themselves and do not wish to have a roommate. As stated in the article, ‘past surveys indicate that 80 per cent of residents would choose to have a private room over a shared one’. Senior singles are often forced to pay more per person than coupled persons, but singles only have one income.

CONCLUSION

It is high time that families, politicians and governments realize that singles are part of the family and deserve to live in the same reasonable housing spaces as the married and their children expect to live in. Singles regardless of where they are in their life cycle should not always be the ‘losers’ in the setting of housing standards. They should not be forced to have roommates when they don’t want roommates and their spaces should be of a reasonable size. Anything less is a violation of the civil rights and family values for singles.

FINANCIAL FAIRNESS FOR SENIOR SINGLES NOT PART OF PLAN

(These thoughts are purely the blunt, no nonsense personal opinions of the author and are not intended to be used as personal or financial advice).

This article was published in a local newspaper on August 19, 2015. The Conservative Party was in power federally at the time. In the October, 2015 federal elections the Conservatives were ousted by the Liberal Party. Proper names have been removed.)

In the midst of a Federal Election the financial rhetoric continues. The Conservative Member of Parliament, Wildrose, in his latest mailbox flyer, states that Conservatives have been committed to helping provide Canadian seniors with a secure and dignified retirement. The reality is that married/partnered people stand to gain much more from the Conservative Action Plan 2015 and other Conservative financial initiatives than individual/single seniors.

First, increases in the contribution limits of the TFSA account favors married/partnered people as the contribution limit per person is doubled. (The doubling of the TFSA was rescinded by the Liberals when they came into power in the October, 2015 federal election).

Second, pension splitting benefits applies only to married/couple people, not singles.

Third, the Age Credit benefits initiative increased by an amount of approximately $1,000. This benefit is incrementally reduced by 15% of net income exceeding approximately $35,000 and is eliminated when net income exceeds approximately $80,000. Any unused portion of the Age Credit can be transferred to the individual’s spouse or common-law partner. Comparable benefit of unused portion to individuals/singles without a spouse/common-law partner is zero.

Fourth, in the targeted tax relief benefits a senior couple can earn $40,720 without paying income tax (marital manna benefit), while a single senior can only earn $20,360 before paying income tax.

Fifth, Allowance for people ages 60 to 64 benefits are available to the spouses or common-law partners of GIS recipients. The spouse, age 60 to 64, of a senior with a single income of less than $31,584 may receive an allowance of $1,070.60 per month. This is an additional $12,000 per year. Furthermore, this benefit may also be available to immigrant married/coupled people who have been in the country for only ten years. Canadian-born and immigrant individuals/singles have nothing comparable to this benefit.

These are just a few of many more examples.

The following tables showing the income and net worth/wealth of unattached individuals versus families of two or more have been taken from MoneySense, The All-Canadian Wealth Test, January 2015 (moneysense) (based on Statistics Canada 2011 data)

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INCOME TABLE

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INCOME

HOW DOES YOUR PAY STACK UP

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Quintiles Unattached Individuals Families of Two or More

Bottom 20% $0 to $18,717 $0 to $38,754

Lower-Middle 20% $18,718 to $23,356 $38,755 to $61,928

Middle 20% $23,357 to $36,859 $61,929 to $88,074

Upper-Middle 20% $36,860 to $55,498 $88,075 to $125,009

Highest 20% $55,499 and up $125,010 and up

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NET WORTH TABLE

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NET WORTH

ARE YOU RICH?

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Quintiles Unattached Individuals Families of Two or More

Bottom 20% Negative to $2,468 Negative to $67,970

Lower-Middle 20% $2,469 to $19,264 $67,971 to $263,656

Middle 20% $19,265 to $128,087 $263,657 to $589,686

Upper-Middle 20% $128,088 to $455,876 $589,687 to $1,139,488

Highest 20% $455,877 and over $1,139,489 and up

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An individual/single person who has an income of more than $55,000 is considered to be in the top 20% ‘wealthy’ category, but has great difficulty living a ‘wealthy’ lifestyle on $55,000 especially if they have a mortgage or need to pay rent in their senior years (meanwhile wealthy family income is $125,000 and up). Women between ages 45 and 64 earn on average $23,000 less than men.

What is even more revealing is the net worth of unattached individuals compared to families of two or more. The MoneySense article makes the following comments:

“The collective net worth of the lowest 40% of individuals wouldn’t match the poorest 20% of families. Families can build wealth faster than individuals because they can pool resources, which enables them to pay down debts faster and make larger purchases. And what a difference it makes: between ages 55 and 65, families are worth, on average, a whopping $670,000 more than unattached individuals in the same age group”.

(It should be noted that the net worth is probably even higher for families of two or more, since it appears that single parents with children are included in families of two or more statistics. Single and divorced/separated parents of children, especially if younger in age, should excluded from families of two or more and placed into their own category for more accurate statistics -added January 20, 2016).

It is always prudent to have more than one source for verification of facts, so here are another two.

The “Current State of Canadian Family Finances 2013-2014” report by the Vanier Institute of the Family vanierinstitute.ca states that

“between 1999 and 2012 the net worth of families advanced more than it did for unattached individuals”.

The 2009 “Report of the National Seniors Council on Low Income Among Seniors” (seniorscouncil) states that:

“between 1980 and 2006, the unattached have the highest incidence of low income of any group, with 15.5 percent of unattached seniors living below LICO in 2006, a rate 11 times higher than that of senior couples (1.4 per cent)”.

So how can married/coupled people continue to demand more financial benefits? How can governments continue to increase the financial means of married/coupled people at the expense of unattached individuals/singles? And, how expensive is it really to raise children when families can achieve so much more net worth than singles? Financial fairness requires balance and elimination of unfair benefits such as income/pension splitting and ability to transfer credits from one spouse to another.

The Conservative MP claims to “stand up for Canada’s seniors who have helped make Canada the strong and prosperous country it is today”. However, this holds true more for married/coupled people in Canada than it does for individuals/singles. In his flyer, the Conservative MP wants feedback on the question “Am I on the right track to deliver support to seniors?” For senior individuals/singles the answer is a resounding and unequivocal “NO”.

Individuals/singles need to stand up, speak out and make facts such as the above known to their members of Parliament, those with decision-making power, and families. Individuals/singles need to decide which political parties are detrimental to their financial health and vote for the party which best meets their financial needs in the Federal election. They need to demand financial sensibility and equality. Financial discrimination of one segment of the population over another is a blatant violation of human rights and civil rights.

(This blog is of a general nature about financial discrimination of individuals/singles It is not intended to provide personal or financial advice.)

Category Archives: civil rights

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