Retiree association targets seniors issues
At 82, she will move away from friends to live in an apartment she can afford.
Dorothy Prickett is a widow. Her husband, Ronald, died two years ago.
Back when he was alive, they lived comfortably. He was a certified accountant. She, a real estate broker. They each had CPP incomes, and her husband had a small company pension.
When her husband became ill and disabled — stroke, heart surgery, kidney disease — it all seemed to be one problem after another, they had to cash in some RSPs to pay the bills.
When he died, she expected to receive 60 per cent of her husband’s CPP income. But she didn’t. She received a top up, enough to add to her own CPP income for a total of just more than $1,000 monthly. And yet, she still has the same bills to pay as she did when she had her husband’s income.
“If you have your own CPP, you get shortchanged,” she said, before a meeting Tuesday of the Niagara branch of CARP — the Canadian Association of Retired Persons.
“Your husband has paid into it all those years, why the Sam Hill can’t you get the 60 per cent?
“There’s a lot of people in my boat.”
She joined CARP to become part of a unified local voice to advocate for issues affecting seniors.
In Niagara, there are some 4,400 members of CARP. Across Canada, there are roughly 300,000 members.
On Tuesday, CARP’s director of operations, Anthony Quinn, spoke to the group in the auditorium of
Ina Grafton Gage Village about issues the national organization will be targeting this year. He encouraged the local group to grow its membership, in order to have a stronger voice of change.
In general, the two biggest issues for CARP is ensuring that seniors don’t outlive their savings, and making sure they are not discriminated against in the health care system, said Quinn.
Specifically, this year they will continue to advocate for reduced wait times for surgery and specialists, and improved funding for homecare.
“The longer you can stay in your own home, the better it is for the health care system,” he said.
Caregivers need to have better respite care for their loved ones. And CARP will continue to push for better standards to ensure financial advisers are more up front with the fees charged for investments, and to ensure that they give advice in the “best interest” For more information about the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, visit www.carp.ca
of their clients.
He also said they will hold the federal liberals to a “seniors price index” promise made in their campaign platform. If the price of products relied on by seniors increases — think food, hydro, medication — so should their Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement, he said.
Locally, the issue of dementia care needs to be addressed, said CARP member Clarice WestHobbs.
Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson has introduced a private members bill for a national dementia strategy, and she’d like to see it passed.
Meanwhile, Prickett said she will move to another apartment building in order to make ends meet.
She will leave a close circle of friends, but promises to return frequently to stay connected.
“My swimming buddies say, ‘Come back and swim in the pool with us anytime,’” she says.
And she will. “I wake up every morning and I feel good.
“You have to stay positive.”