Susan Eng, VP of CARP Advocacy responds to an article published on Toronto Star, December 3, 2014. Click here to read the article and more similar content.  

 

“Telling people they don’t need any help to save for retirement because other people, on average, have more than enough is poor public policy thinking. The average senior today may well have $600K in assets including their house, and factoring in the one percent with millions in assets, but the median assets other than the house is closer to $215K, that is, half of today’s seniors have less. Almost 60% of these seniors had a workplace pension. Today the reverse is true – two-thirds of younger workers do not have a workplace pension. The impact is stark – RRSP savings of people aged 65-69, is less than $40K. So without a pension, most seniors would have assets in the 5 figures only. So conflating timelines is also not a good way to set public policy. Finally, resolving to end poverty in old age is a commendable goal but is not a substitute for helping younger people save now, so that they won’t need that largesse in their retirement.”