Older Canadians amongst those that rely most on conventional mail to obtain pension cheques, remedy and payments
Opinions and proposals are unbiased and merchandise are independently chosen. Postmedia could earn an affiliate fee from purchases made by way of hyperlinks on this web page.
Article content material
Because the Canada Put up strike drags on, susceptible teams, together with seniors, in addition to passport candidates, are bearing the brunt of delayed providers. For seniors like Cecilia Lopes, a retired instructor residing in Montreal’s West Island, the strike’s influence is deeply private and financially destabilizing.
“I depend on a pension from Portugal, and so they don’t provide direct deposits to Canadian banks,” Lopes defined. “The cheques should come by mail, and now they’re caught. This threatens my subsistence.” She added that uncashed cheques could ultimately be returned to their nation of origin, creating bureaucratic nightmares.
Commercial 2
Article content material
Seniors are amongst those that rely probably the most on conventional mail, counting on Canada Put up not just for pensions but in addition for prescription drugs and invoice funds.
In accordance with a 2023 Canada Put up survey, Canadians aged 65 and older show greater dependence on bodily mail, significantly for such important paperwork as payments, authorities advantages, and private correspondence. This discovering is attributed to decrease charges of digital adoption amongst seniors, together with a choice for tangible communication strategies.
Article content material
Moreover, pensions account for 15.1 per cent of family belongings for seniors, highlighting their significance for monetary safety and underscoring the potential hardship brought on by disruptions to mail supply.
Lopes, who lives alone, expressed concern for others in related conditions, particularly these with out assist methods. “For some seniors, it is a catastrophe,” she mentioned.
Lopes’s state of affairs isn’t distinctive.
Many seniors additionally rely on the mail for personal pension cheques from employer-sponsored plans, unions, or insurance coverage firms. Though direct deposit has turn into extra widespread, not all suppliers provide the choice, leaving mail supply as the one methodology for some retirees. And whereas there isn’t a exact determine for what number of seniors rely particularly on mailed pension cheques, Statistics Canada reviews that greater than 6.7 million Canadians have been energetic members of registered pension plans in 2021.
Commercial 3
Article content material
The strike can also be having a major influence on these awaiting time delicate paperwork, together with passports. Rishi Balani, who lives in Ottawa and is in Canada on a piece allow, just lately handed over her passport to Service Canada for visa stamping. Regardless of paying for expedited service, the passport stays undelivered.
Balani described the emotional toll in an electronic mail to public providers minister Steven MacKinnon: “We’re being ping-ponged between Canada Put up and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), with no decision. This isn’t about items — that is about our id.”
Really helpful from Editorial
Though Canada Put up has agreed to proceed delivering home authorities pension cheques, Lopes criticized the dearth of assist for these counting on worldwide funds. “Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have pensions coming from overseas,” she mentioned. “The federal authorities must step in.”
• E-mail: [email protected]
Bookmark our web site and assist our journalism: Don’t miss the enterprise information that you must know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters right here.
Article content material
