Carole said she collects CPP, OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, but her annual income is still below what is considered the poverty line in Canada — $25,000.
Carole is advocating for the people whose income is below that. She explains she is not the only senior who, despite collecting their Canada Pension, Old Age Security, and a Guaranteed Income Supplement, still have incomes below the poverty line.
“If a low-income senior doesn’t own their own home, it could come close to ‘living-in-my-car-time’ — if they have a car,” she said.
Even though she spent most of her life working, Carole calculated her retirement income to be $7.36 an hour and incomes sitting on the poverty line are $12.14 an hour. She points out this isn’t even close to minimum wage, which in B.C., will increase to $17.40 as of June 1st.
“I just want the federal government to raise pensions and stop clawing back the guaranteed income supplement,” she says. “Even when we try to make some money by picking up odd jobs, we are penalized the next year on our taxes.”
“It’s not like we want this money to take trips to the Caribbean, we just want to make it to the poverty line.”
