Benefit Eligibility Quotes

In the 1950s, buggery was a criminal offence. Now it's a requirement to receive benefits from the federal government.

It has always been the case that people on out-of-work benefits have to apply for more or less any job they can reasonably be expected to take. But the operative word there is 'reasonable,' because a job that's appropriate for a single, able bodied 22-year-old man may very well not be appropriate for a single mum who can't afford childcare.

If you can work and if you're offered a job and you don't take it, you cannot continue to claim benefits. It will be extremely tough.

You have to be looking for a job to get unemployment benefits. If you stop looking for work, you are no longer eligible to receive benefits.

I don't see any easy way of disqualifying people on the basis that they decide not to work.

Well, we certainly need to raise the retirement age. I've told my 19-year-old and my 22-year-old that they're not going to be getting retirement benefits at age 62.

I have a friend who's collecting unemployment insurance. This guy has never worked so hard in his life as he has to keep this thing going. He's down there every week, waiting on the lines and getting interviewed and making up all these lies about looking for jobs. If they had any idea of the effort and energy that he is expending to avoid work, I'm sure they'd give him a raise.

It will take a brave person to cull the benefits system and analyse who deserves and who doesn't.

I don't think it's appropriate for people who are citizens of Massachusetts to be waiting in line when folks who aren't citizens access benefits.

I had someone call me this morning telling me they had somebody who would only work a certain number of hours a week because if they worked too many hours a week then they couldn't get their government assistance. And that person has multiple cell phones, and gets them new every month with new minutes.

You have to make sure that [grants] reach people by virtue of their Identity Documents.

If you are advocating full retirement benefits starting at 60, my reaction is the system is already 31 percent underfinanced and can not afford what it's now doing, let alone such a policy change.

To make a coverage decision, doesn't one have to make a medical judgment?

We require Canadians who are collecting EI benefits to prove they are looking for work. It's only fair that we require employers looking to benefit from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to prove they really need it.

First, undoubtedly, there are some people who are coming from Cuba who immediately, or from any other country, benefit. But, what is the difference between that and someone who is coming from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, etc.? That is, we are simply going to say that someone who comes from another country to the United States - the first five years they're here - they don't qualify for federal benefits. They may benefit from local benefits, state benefits. Those decisions belong to other jurisdictions.

Immigrants contribute more than they take. It is a lie that they take public benefits, because they don't qualify for just about every benefit.

We have seen in recent years a large increase in the number of people coming in and cases of people going back, living in Cuba, but still receiving American benefits. That cannot be justified.

I've said repeatedly publicly, and other members have, that until you adjust the eligibility for entitlements, do things like raising the age for Medicare for future beneficiaries. Not for those currently receiving or those about to receive. Have serious means testing for high income people. You know Warren Buffett's always complaining about not paying enough taxes. And what I'm complaining about is we're paying for his Medicare. We ought not to be providing these kinds of benefits for millionaires and billionaires.