Why do married couples get less government incentives than single people?
 

Now that I'm at retirement I'm beginning to see that some of my friends who are single are better off than myself even though I have a private pension. They even have some dental and eyeglasses.It seems to me that if your married you get penalised. What are your thoughts? Thanks.

Perhaps it started with “I do”!
Never really looked into it, would be interesting to see some input from the forum.


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Far far more tax advantages if your married

That must be through private insurance that they bought not government funded. The Dippers made an agreement with the Liberals to get public funded dental for low income families in exchange for supporting Justin. Not in effect yet. Currently, you get the coverage that you pay for.

Once you are retired you are on your own for benefits. When you make the decision to retire you should have your ducks in a row. That includes not living off the gubernment.

Your referring to dental benefits for children of low to mid income?

No idea about how being single verses married matters for dental and eyeglasses. But you’ve mastered the “complain about everything” stage of retirement early!

Go to this link and read it: https://www.alberta.ca/dental-optica...e-seniors.aspx

It applies to both single and couples and you won't be eligible if you do not meets the eligibility requirements. Basically a plan for low income seniors in Alberta.

The more Income you have the less likely you will get eyeglass or dental work paid by blue cross on seniors deal. It goes by over all family income. Singles may have less income than us married folks. But we all get incredible discount on meds especially if you are on as many pills as I need daily. Ambulance is free. I needed one just last week again for my second heart attack in 5 and a half years. Got a free bed was taken care of at hospital promptly. Nothing to complain about from me. I make enough I don't get free eyeglass or dental coverage and dont want to make less just to have free things like that.

Trudeau got rid of income splitting but thankfully he left pension splitting. I'm able to shift up to (I believe) a max of 50% of my pension income to my wife who has a small pension. Sure makes a difference at tax time.

Well.. mostly I'm regards to single low income vs married low income, you are much better off being separated, you get better top ups and access to better programs. Inlaws just went thru this. Pretty rediculous if you ask me.

I don't know the answer to the questions the OP asked. What I can say is the condescending answers some of you have provided are wholly inappropriate. Saying all retired do nothing but complain, should have checked stuff out closer prior to retiring, should be relying on govt programs when everyone in Canada relies on govt health care etc is REALLY unhelpful.

After working 40 or 50 years, paying tax out the wazoo, and raising a family, those that retire deserve some respect. If you can't provide useful insight move on. OP hope you find some answers on how to access the benefits you have way more than paid for.

The ability to income split your pension with your spouse likely makes up for any perceived benefit a low income single senior could possibly have.

For many seniors living on CPP/OAS, along with a modest pension and some RRSP/RRIFs their total taxes paid often increases when one of them pass away. The survivor is left with ONE CPP/OAS along with their other sources, but without the ability to income split their total taxes payable rise, and they may become ineligible for the gov’t benefits you referred to in the first place.

Yes you have two mouths to feed, but your total taxes may in fact be more favorable than your single friends of similar total income.

100% agree.
I'm sure 90% of the population that retires gets nervous about finances when they are starting down the barrel of 20+ more years on this earth without a pay cheque.

I am single never married ,no kids.Yet i have to pay school taxes,why ?.Being single male .always pd the most ,for vechile insurance. Now 68 yoa & Turdo selected ,2 payouts .Too these couples over 75 wtf.They have 2 incomes.
For years the statement was User pay...What a pile of BS..

Need to fund education for those that may be looking after you or others in the health system at some point in time. I never go to the hospital. Should I get 40% of my taxes back or whatever is allocated to health care? Just saying.

Why not?
We don’t need to pay for this
We are forced to pay for it
If any politician were to entertain this idea, they would get my vote
If people even paid a little extra for healthcare and education based on their usage. It would ease the tax burden on the rest of us

Some of us are tired of carrying more than their fair share of the load

I think it’s call socialism .:scared0018: . Long way from retirement but I was told many time by friends and accountants, that if i am planning on the government to take care of me. Then iam pretty much SOL, we might not even get a liveable pension in 40+ years of work , yet we been paying into it like a Ponzi scheme .

Ok...you get a break for not going to the hospital....hope you saved it when you have to go, or is it still free for you?

There is a lot of wasted money that could be better spent elsewhere if people where remotely accountable

So high taxes and socialized services are popular I see. Wait time to get into a elder care home, about 1 year if you are lucky. If you want in sooner, pay the full shot yourself, 5-9,000 a month. Try moving to a new town and finding a doctor. Need hip or knee surgery, the Knee clinics and Specialists are refusing to take any referrals from doctors at all, when you do finally get to see one, 2 to 3 year wait for surgery. Need an MRI, pretty much 8 to 12 months out. This despite Alberta spending 22 BILLION a year on health care and employing 150,000 people in a province with 4,000,000 residents.

Got a kid starting school, may have to send them to one 10 miles away because your local schools are full up or don't have enough teachers. Need to put a kid in daycare, rules are so tight many got out of the business and it now costs 1200 a month per kid, plus the waiting lists are up to 2 years to get in. Just wait till dental work is socialized like the NDP are pushing for, will be a year wait for a filling.

Try living on CPP and OAS as your sole form of income. Look at the number of homeless Veterans. Despite paying into your mandatory government pension for 40 years, you can't survive on that alone. Add to that the out of control inflation from rampant gov spending and destruction of business through 3 years of rolling shut downs, means many are having to downsize and choose between food and utilities. Not very hard to see how incompetent the government is at living up to its obligations.

We pay a crap ton of taxes, fees and check offs over our working lives and we are NOT getting value for it. I do not blame retired folks, and even those still working full time, for being afraid of the future.

So you are saying potential Dr's, (nurses?) should get get free education paid for by tax paying Canadians whose average wage is $30 an hour compared to a Dr.'s average salary of $255,000. I've never heard of a Dr. being out of work? It's nice to never have to go to the hospital. I think 100% of us could agree to that. But life doesn't work that way.

No the doctors kid should not get a free education, but if he walks to work should he not have to pay any taxes allotted to road building and highways? The issue from my previous comment was regarding opting out of taxes because we don’t directly utilize the service they do at for. The poster mentioned school taxes because he his single.

Not agreeing with our government spending. It is out of control and way too much “fat” driving up everyone’s taxes.

To get back on topic of the original post I am simply saying that I believe singles have fewer breaks because they have no ability to income split like a senior couple.

I think he’s saying everyone deserves the right to a basic education and you make what you can out of it. I have no kids but I do see the need to pay school taxes because everyone paid mine. Once I went to get a trade, I paid my own way, but had the high school education that allowed me to do the math and taught me how to study, so for that I am grateful.

There’s enough meth heads and criminals running around already, we don’t need more. I don’t need to pay for hockey arenas etc. either, but if it gives young people a healthy place to enjoy life and learn to work together then hey I’ll pay for that. It’s not all about me keeping as much as I can, it’s about keeping as much as I can and have a relatively healthy society.

What homeless veterans? Do you have any data? If your referring to the guy who spent a year or two in the service, got punted and spend most of their days trying to figure out how to game the system, those guys would have been homeless no matter what career path they chose.

My spouse spent a career looking after veterans. They are looked after pretty well as compared to many, many other countries.

This is only one. Google will find you a ton more info. I am sure your spouse worked hard at doing the right thing but the outcomes speak for themselves.

https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/vete...problem-canada

I assume you went to school and graduated. It wasn't free. You should look at it as if your paying back the debt for your basic education, 12 years of education isn't cheap.

I agree single people without children pay maximum taxes without tax breaks that dual income parents with children get. Also most single childless people when it comes to retirement have no family support system. They also have to pay their bills out of one CCP and OAS pension whereas a couple, outside of increased food bill, prescriptions and a few other expenses, have two CCP and OAS pension incomes to pay similar costs of living.

If you are single with an average income your relative living expenses are pretty similar to a couples. One average income, no kids, means you better have your house, cars, toys and credit cards paid off by the time your 45-50, live within your means and invest/save your disposable income for retirement because its going to be tough, if not impossible to live off a single CCP/OAS income without a substantial nest egg. If people are struggling to keep their head above water, couples or single, during their working career and not saving for retirement, they are living beyond their means and are going to be in trouble upon retirement with no company pension to augment gov't pensions.

I live an austere single lifestyle but will be ok upon retirement, pending how high and long this bout of inflation lasts(scary). One must factor inflation into the retirement equation. I know lots of people with all the frills and toys with similar average income, no company pension who are going to be in shock come retirement. They will undergo a rude awakening with severe downsizing and cutbacks because they spent all their disposable income on depreciating toys and interest payments. Heaven help those average income earners, married or single who still have a mortgage and debt when they turn 65. One must look at future retirement in terms of future expenses not current expenses.

In my opinion the old rule of saving 10% of your net income for retirement doesn't cut it anymore. It needs to be 25% of your net nowadays. Impossible for many, the future will be bleak, even bleaker if gov't continues to blow our tax dollars on frivolous nonsense and keeps raising taxes.

Fair point, but I still believe once you turn 65 paying the school tax should end

I get real tired of people whining.Little jhnie or suzy,can't understand the circulum .It's the parents that don't understand it.

To set the record.I started working ft at 16.Retired at 55.Boughta house& pd for all of it,before my 40 birthday.Mortgage rates were 13.5 %,when i bought it.[1981].So when i here these whiner's whineing about 3.5% .My head hurts...