Sixty and Single in Ontario

The province's government income security system discriminates against those in the 60-64 age bracket who are not married or widowed.

I turned 60 this week, and I began to reflect on what it means to enter the seventh decade of life. I received a letter in the mail from my bank congratulating me on the lower fees I would now enjoy. I thought about how I did all the calculations for an early CPP Retirement Pension and eventually decided not to go through with it, and get more at age 65. But I also started to reflect on what it means to turn 60 and to be single and poor in Ontario. The reality is that if you have no other form of income, have no disabilities, are in need, and are looking for work, you will qualify for an Ontario Works welfare cheque of up to $585 a month. With GST, HST, and Ontario tax credits, the total for the year comes to $7,878, around 60 per cent below any recognized poverty line.

But was it always like this? Did we always expect 60-year-olds to get along on this little money? The answer is a resounding no. It used to be much higher. Let's follow the tortuous story through its many twist and turns. Back in 1975, one piece of unfinished business in the success story of Old Age Security was the policy dilemma concerning couples in which one spouse was age 65 or over and the other was younger than that, usually between ages 60 and 64. The older spouse – usually the man – had retired, and the woman had not worked. The payment of Old Age Security for just the man was insufficient for the couple to live on, and many senior couples lived in poverty. The Trudeau government solved the dilemma by bringing in a Spouses Allowance (1975) that now pays a maximum of $950.70 a month or $11,408.40 a year to a spouse of a pensioner. With tax credits of $848 a year, the total comes to just over $12,250. This is in addition to what the 65-year-old receives brings the couple's total income to slightly more than $28,000 if they have no other outside income.

This created a “knock-on” policy problem surrounding the widows and widowers of Old Age Security recipients and single 60- to 64-year-olds. Married people were taken care of, but arguably the poorest of those in that age bracket had lost out.

In 1982, then Minister of Social Services in Ontario Frank Drea extended what was called the Guaranteed Annual Income System for the Disabled (GAINS-D) to women age 60 to 64. I worked for Drea, and I can still hear him saying "Johnny, we're going to help the widows – get me the numbers." In 1982, a special allowance was paid to 60- to 64-year-old women in Ontario at the same rate that persons with disabilities now receive under the Ontario Disability Support Plan today. The government allowance covered all single women aged 60 to 64, widowed or single. One of Drea's strategies was to put pressure on the federal government to extend the spouses allowances to all single women 60 to 64 by creating the special benefit. Along with his counterparts in other provinces, he was partially successful.

In 1985, the federal government under Brian Mulroney brought in a new program called the Allowance, but that program was restricted and is still restricted to 60- to 64-year-olds who are widows or widowers of Old Age Security recipients age 65-plus. It now pays $1,053.83 a month, or about $13,500 when tax credits are added in. The singles were still left out. This left Ontario with a program for single women aged 60 to 64.

But 1985 was also the same year that the equality rights provisions of the Charter of Rights were enforced, and a program for women only could not survive. The Ontario extension of the GAINS-D program to 60- to 64-year-old women was also extended to men of the same age in that same year.

By the time Mike Harris came to power in 1995, the allowance paid to single 60- to 64-year-old men and women without any other income was $930 a month. It remained at exactly that level from 1993 to 2004, when the Liberal government once again began to raise social assistance rates.

However, in 1998, Harris brought in two new programs to replace the welfare legislation in Ontario, one for persons with disabilities (the aforementioned ODSP) and Ontario Works for everyone else. The extension of the disability program to 60- to 64-year-olds was severed, but anyone already on the program was grandfathered in. It only took a short time (five years) for all the single 60- to 64-year-olds to leave the program, most through eligibility for Old Age Security. Any new applicants had to go to the Ontario Works program, Ontario's workfare program. So there you have it: if you are a spouse, you get at least $12,250 a year, and if a you are widowed, you get at least $13,500 in Ontario in 2010.

If Harris had continued the policies of the 1980s Progressive Conservatives, 60- to 64-year-old single persons would now receive at least $1,042 a month or $13,350 a year with tax credits included.

Being poor and turning 60 in Ontario as a single person reveals a series of unfairnesses. This group is not only discriminated against because of their present marital status, but also because of their biography. Widows or widowers or those who can prove a common-law relationship receive a 71 per cent higher income than those who were never married or in a common-law relationship.

In addition, the widow(er) faces no asset test, avoids the stigma of welfare, and has no work requirements. Single 60-year-olds can have assets of only $585 in total, can get their income only from a welfare payment, and must meet work-search and community participation requirements.

And all for the want of a relationship with a spouse of the same or opposite sex who has passed away. The 60-year-old single or divorced person who can't get work is left in destitution, waiting for their 65th birthday. This is one really strange way to run a government income security system.