We can give more to the poorest seniors and strengthen affordability for young and working people without asking more from taxpayers.
The fix is simple: ask retired couples with incomes over $100,000 to take a bit less from OAS. Just one in five would see a reduction of about $3,000 after tax, while some single seniors would receive more.
This one change would save Canadians $7 billion a year. With this, we could:
- Virtually eliminate seniors’ poverty
- Make homes, education, and child care more affordable
- Expand benefits for low-income workers
- Defend Canada’s economy and sovereignty
- Put the brakes on ballooning deficits
A $100,000 OAS threshold isn't stingy. It's more generous than the $81,000 Canada Child Benefit cut-off, and it's also well above the median income for families of $74,200. No wonder ¾ of Canadians including ¾ of seniors support this plan.
And we can double our impact.
Phasing out two outdated tax shelters — the Age Credit and Pension Income Credit — would free up another $7 billion a year. These credits no longer make sense when retirees as a group hold more wealth than younger Canadians, while low-wage workers face greater poverty and housing insecurity.
Combined, we'd have $14 billion every year to invest in the social infrastructure we need to address rising costs and growing uncertainty.
That's far more than other recent affordability investments, like $1 billion a year for the Canada Disability Benefit, or $250 million for the school food program.
Want to learn more? We relied on the same policy modelling tool as the Parliamentary Budget Office to test out OAS reform scenarios. To dive into the details, check out the recently published paper in the Canadian Tax Journal.
