Guaranteed Income Supplements Need Adjustment to Liveable Income Levels
Submitted
Most seniors don’t need to watch the news to know that times are increasingly hard; they can see the evidence in their own lives. So perhaps it’s no surprise that older adults are leading the charge toward change.
After her retirement at age 74, Vancouver resident Sharon Elliott had spinal surgery. In the days following, she quickly saw that help from the public purse was far from adequate to meet her needs. “I found that I was having to choose between health treatments and basics like food and housing.”
Since then, Sharon has been actively working to persuade governments to make more resources available to older adults.
Specifically, she says, Guaranteed Income Supplements must be increased. “We need a livable income for 2024. What we are offered is not enough.”
Vernon senior Carole Fawcett agrees. She has been mobilizing seniors in her hometown as well. “At the very least,” she says, “Retirement income should match the poverty line.” Carole adds that the recent increases are insultingly miniscule. Her supporters say that seniors feel they are being ignored, and many are discouraged and embarrassed to admit they are struggling.
Back in the lower mainland, Sharon says that seniors fall roughly into three categories: those who are active; those who receive care at home; and those who are in long-term care.
“Wouldn’t it make sense,” she reasons, “to keep as many people as possible in the first tier by providing adequate housing and access to healthy food?
Sharon has organized three rallies and had meetings with government and health authorities. Our representatives, she says, are long on sympathy but short on action. “They seem to listen and then they show me a list of the things that they’re doing. Well, for every single thing they are doing, I can tell them ten things they aren’t doing.”
Demonstrations are planned province-wide in March under the banner of the Seniors Tin Cup movement. For those unable to attend a rally, there are other ways to make our voices heard. Sharon invites seniors of all backgrounds to speak to their elected representatives.
A campaign of phone calls and letters will do something to keep this issue in the public eye. “They tell me, you have to be patient, these things take time. But seniors don’t have time. We need change now.”
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