I usually try to add a rave or two before I rant again – but this one just has to be vented.

There are a great many financial benefits for being part of a couple……even more if you are part of a senior couple.

• two incomes to share the costs of accommodation (housing, maintenance, utilities, insurance, property taxes) – or rent for that matter
• two incomes to share the costs of owning a car (having two cars is a choice)
• income splitting at income tax time
• it’s always less expensive to feed more than one on a per capita basis
• spousal RRSPs

Where, oh where, is some sort of dispensation for being single?  Benefits for married folk have changed over the years – but they have been around since long before my time.  Anyone who lives alone will tell you it is very expensive and there is nobody to share the basic costs of living.  Does nobody care?  Are we not standing up for ourselves?

Have you ever tried to travel anywhere by yourself?  They slap a whopping “single supplement” onto an already large sum of money because you are “alone”.  If it’s a cruise, it’s as much as another 50% of the total package cost.

One thing worse than being single is being a single senior – one pension (maybe one), one OAS, one CPP……so I  might, grudgingly, even settle for some special dispensation for being a senior – reduce our property taxes, reduce our utilities – we no longer have kids in school and goodness knows – we’ve paid for the infrastructure many times over.

There are a great many people talking about how difficult it is becoming to keep your financial nose above water these days.  There is talk about helping those with the lowest incomes.  I don’t have a problem with that.  However – I would truly like to hear some talk about helping single income households.  It is long overdue.