Abstract:

Data drawn from the 1991 Canadian Survey of Aging & Independence (N = 20,036 respondents) are used to demonstrate how social research can contribute to the current pension debate about raising the age of retirement, the merits of partial retirement, & the adequacy of the new Seniors Benefit. Logistic analysis of a subsample of 4,827 persons who were retired by 1989 shows that professionals & those at the periphery of the economy were more likely to return to work, while those with little education, poor health, or at the core of the economy, were not. Unskilled workers most likely to need a job would suffer the most from a raised retirement age, & costs would likely shift to other social programs. Likewise, the proposed Seniors Benefit, which transfers pension costs from the state to the individual, would be most detrimental to the sick & poor, because it fails to bring retirement income up to the poverty line. Results suggest that a blanket pension policy will not meet the needs of the heterogeneous Canadian population.