this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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‘Why am I getting so little pension?’ Quebec woman turns to food bank, can’t make ends meet (globalnews.ca)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't know her circumstances, but at her age (and generation), she should have already paid off her mortgage 20 years ago.

A lot of boomers were poor. There's no guarantee she owned a house or had the money to save a significant amount.

$1200 mortgage-free would be like retiring like a millionaire!

If she's paid off her home, property taxes would be around $4,800 ($400/mo). Say another couple hundred bucks for utilities. Suddenly she's living on $150/week.

The median rent is $1,900. That's rough on $1,200/mo.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If she’s paid off her home, property taxes would be around $4,800 ($400/mo).

In fairness, no retired old woman is expected to live alone in a house big enough to warrant a $4800 property tax. The fact that she's "only" paying $1200 in rent tells me that she's not in an expensive area to start with.

The idea, or at least, the ideal, is to either downsize or move into a retirement home when you're done working. If your mortgage is paid off, then you'd expect to make $400,000 - over $1,000,000 for any type of home.

But really, the thought that any person her age would need to struggle just looks bad on the country. This isn't how it's supposed to be.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't it say that $1,200 doesn't cover her housing needs?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yup, the article suggests her rent is ~$1,700:

At $1,200 a month, her pension doesn’t even cover her housing needs.

“I’m short like $500 just for the rent,”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I missed understood that.

Does she not also get the Guaranteed Income Supplement? She certainly qualifies based on her age and income <$21,000 a year. That would get her an extra $1000 a month.

said she started collecting her pension when she was 60 but kept working until she was 65.

I might also be wrong about this, but doesn't that majorly screw you over? To collect your pension before 65?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah, I wish the article had more details about her situation. I don't know when she's talking about her "pension" if she's talking about her total income, her QPP (maybe including her OAS & GIS?), her private pension, or something else.

I might also be wrong about this, but doesn’t that majorly screw you over? To collect your pension before 65?

This articles lays it out pretty well. It's highly dependent on your personal situation, how long you think you'll live. I do question her choice to start collecting at 60, but we don't have enough info to judge if this was financially prudent, short-sighted, or just desperate.