cover image: Federal favouritism : Why does the federal government spend five times more per retiree than per person under 45?

Premium

20.500.12592/crz7g5

Federal favouritism : Why does the federal government spend five times more per retiree than per person under 45?

29 Sep 2015

While she concedes that “these categories are rather ungainly as compared with seniors and children, or labor market participants versus dependents,” she emphasizes that the “definition of the relevant age groups is compelled… by the considerable overlap between the well-being of children and non-elderly adults, and the scant similarity between the well-being of seniors and of their children’s and [...] For brevity, we often report the age attributions only for the under 45 group and the over 65 group, with the residual representing the portion allocated to the middle cohort (age 45 to 64). [...] We calculate total federal government spending for each of the ten categories by drawing on the federal 2015/16 budget (Government of Canada 2015b), and the Government of Canada (2015a) Main Estimates for the same year summarizing federal spending by department. [...] We apply this 2011 per capita value to 2015 population estimates in order to estimate how the aging of the population and population growth since the base year influence the distribution of spending between Canadians under 45, 45 to 65, and age 65+. [...] This method captures the influence of the aging population AND the evolution of government spending priorities as they impact the value of expenditures made for each of the three age cohorts in 2015/16.
older people old age assistance

Authors

Kershaw, Paul W, Anderson, Lynell

Pages
24
Published in
Vancouver, British Columbia