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Advocacy group recommended 5 tax breaks to finance committee member

Some B.C. seniors who used to rely on a spouse or partner to afford the basics and now live alone say they cannot keep up with the rising cost of living.

"I don't regard myself as poor," said Malcolm Roberts. "When you become a single senior and you lose all of those couples benefits, that does impact you a lot."

Roberts, 76, has been living in the same Kelowna, B.C., condo he moved into with his wife, Eleanor, around 20 years ago. She died in 2021, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

"Suddenly I lose all of those [benefits] because we could share. There was income splitting, I could share her deductions and suddenly all that was gone," he said. 

With a fixed taxable income of around $36,000 a year, Roberts says he's paying more now because he's in a different tax bracket.

That's on top of the expenses he used to share with his wife.

"I would love to be able to go out every now and again for a meal, but you know meals are getting to be quite expensive these days," he said.