In Canada, in addition to welfare, we have 3 federal government run entitlement vehicles for retirees: Old Age Security (about $1200/month, but it's clawed back incrementally after the taxpayers yearly earnings exceed $60,000); Canada Pension Plan (funded by payroll taxes - the employee pays about 5% of gross wages and the employer pays 5%, in other words, 10% of every dollar earned goes into CPP. For this, one can expect to receive about a maximum of $900/month, depending on how much one put in.); and lastly the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which tops up the other two if the governmennt decides you aren't getting enough to live on.
For all of this, Canada has close to the highest payroll taxes in the world, but the CPP has been basically "self-funded" without any need for government bail-outs.
