Undoubted Income of Single Mother (On Strike)

The thought of illustrating the generosity of social-finance programs with the example of a single mother with six children did not occur to me, because that would be highly improbable. It would appear that the guy should arrange the scenes.

However, this is the situation with the union member of the Autonomous Federation of Teachers (FAE). Newspaper, Last week. She explains her difficult financial conditions, her duties as a mother, her family environment, her expenses and what is left of her teacher’s salary.

I would like to point out that the question here is not to lecture the author or to criticize his approach. He blames his union for not providing a safety net for its members in the event of a prolonged strike.

The author confirms that, in his particular situation, his income is insufficient to build an emergency fund, as suggested by FAE’s leaders (like myself in this column). She picked up a pen to tell her story.

On the day it was published, the testimony escaped me. It seems to have got people talking. It was a LinkedIn intervention by Luke Godbout, professor of taxation at the University of Sherbrooke, that led me down this path.

Like many parents who focus on salary and forget about family allowances, he noticed that the teacher underestimated his income. how much In the case of a single mother of six, this is shocking. You will see more. For a French teacher who prides herself in the media on how to use a calculator, this omission seems a bit large to me.

The holder of the research chair in taxation and public finance did not seek to impeach Stryker, but rather to expose “taxation anomalies”. The first paradox: you can benefit from a large part of the welfare state, so that individual income puts you among the privileged.

Briefly: A secondary school teacher with over 20 years of experience and a mother of eight children, six of whom are completely dependent on her. Siblings include two sets of three-year-old twins. That girl deserves support and a medal.

He doesn’t hide his salary as a teacher, which the public already knows: $92,027. He notes in the newspaper that after all deductions, including his union dues, he is left with $2,200 for two weeks.

Luc Godbout approximates other elements of the situation. The teacher pays $1,500 a year to his union, pays $7,300 to his pension plan, pays $1,300 in group insurance premiums, pays $5,270 in social security contributions (RRQ, AE, RQAP) and $19,800 in helmet tax. Disposable income, therefore: $57,000.

With such a large family, expenses must match, and all will be revealed Pres : $2574 rent, $395 electric month, $400 gas. She says she spends a fortune on the little twins who attend unsubsidized daycare, not to mention them.

The situation seems very unfavorable, especially since our protagonist avoids the cost of clothes, toys, sports activities, vacations and more.

As you already know, there is a lack of income. According to Luke Godbout, if all six children under her sole care are minors, the teacher gets $50,000 in family allowances, tax-free.

Yes, but her personal daycare expenses, should they eat up a good portion of all of them?

The invoice amount is not specified. The educator used this hypothesis: $10,000 per child per year, totaling $20,000. This is where another paradox emerges. In a completely different situation than our case, childcare costs are more than covered by the state.

In other words, sending your children to unsubsidized childcare increases the mother’s disposable income. Quebec offers a tax credit of 70% of the daycare bill. The full $20,000 she pays is deductible at the federal level ($8,000 for a child under seven, $4,000 for a child seven and older).

These deductions reduce your tax bill, increase your Canada Child Benefit amount and increase your GST tax credit.

Luc Godbout points out that financially, it would be less advantageous for her twins to attend subsidized daycare.

In his testimony, the author ignores about $51,000 in tax-free income (including the GST credit) if the descendants are all minors. In total, the mother would have $108,000 of disposable income.

The most ironic part of all this is that while she fights not to lose her purchasing power, the payments and credits she receives are fully indexed to inflation, namely 4.8% for the federal sector and 5.08% for the provincial sector, in January.

Automatic without strike.

If you would like to respond to this column, please write to us [email protected]. Some answers can be posted in our comments section. If you want to contact our columnist directly, you can do so [email protected]..