The Cost Of Poverty

• Poverty has a significant cost for governments. The federal and Ontario government are losing at least $10.4 billion to $13.1 billion a year due to poverty, a loss equal to between 10.8 to 16.6 per cent of the provincial budget.

• Poverty has a cost for every household in Ontario. In real terms, poverty costs every household in the province from $2,299 to $2,895 every year.• Poverty has a very significant total economic cost in Ontario. When both private and public (or social) costs are combined, the total cost of poverty in Ontario is equal to 5.5 to 6.6 per cent of Ontario’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The cost of poverty is reflected in remedial, inter generational, and opportunity costs.

• The remedial costs of poverty related to health care and crime are substantial. In Ontario, poverty-induced costs related to health care have an annual public cost of $2.9 billion. The national added cost to health care budgets is much greater, at $7.6 billion per year. The poverty-induced costs related to crime in Ontario have a relatively small annual public cost of $0.25 to $0.6 billion, split between federal and provincial governments.

• The annual cost of child or inter generational poverty is very high. If child poverty were eliminated, the extra income tax revenues nationally would be between $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion, while for Ontario, the additional (federal and provincial) taxes would amount to $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion. The total economic cost (private and social) of child poverty Ontario is $4.6 to 5.9 billion annually.

• Opportunity costs or lost productivity due to poverty has a great economic cost. Federal and provincial governments across Canada lose between $8.6 billion and $13 billion in income tax revenue to poverty every year; in the case of Ontario, Ottawa and Queen’s Park lose a combined $4 billion to $6.1 billion.

Full story
http://indpress.wordpress.com/an-analysis-of-the-economic-cost-of-poverty-in-ontario-a-plan-to-cut-poverty-in-half-by-2020-by-yhe-oafb/

For more stories go to http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/

Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario
Email welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com

Blog http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/
Group http://groups.google.com/group/bad-faith-in-owodsp?hl=en

Legal Clinics

The questions

Are you satisfied with your local legal clinic?
Have you ever been turned down by your local legal clinic and what did you do about it?
Do you have faith in your local legal clinic?
How could your local legal clinic improve itself if at all?
Have you been hurt by any of the above?
Have you ever wished you could have gotten help from somewhere else?

For more stories go to http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/

Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario
Email welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
Group http://groups.google.com/group/bad-faith-in-owodsp?hl=en