Stapleton on Harper’s Proposed OAS/GIS Changes

John Stapleton has an opinion piece out on Prime Minister Harper’s proposed changes to Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

I find the following quote from Stapleton to be particularly troubling:

By providing OAS and GIS at age 65, Canada has greatly reduced the incidence of poverty among seniors. By moving the age of eligibility for OAS to 67, absent any other measures, the Conservative government will place a whole new age cohort into risk of poverty.   My own estimate is that almost 50,000 social assistance recipients, most of them persons with disabilities, would be forced to live in poverty for up to two more years.