Kaye Fallick, Author at Retirement Essentials

How interest rates affect retirees

The Reserve Bank meets on Tuesday 20 May. This is one of eight scheduled meetings each year. The decision the Monetary Policy Board takes may affect your retirement income. We spoke with respected independent financial commentator, Saul Eslake, before the meeting was held, for a plain English explanation of how interest rates work – and how they can affect retirees. But first, here’s a brief backgrounder on Australia’s Central Bank.

What does the Reserve Bank do?

According to the bank itself, it is responsible for Australia’s monetary policy. This primarily involves setting a target for the cash rate, but the bank has other tools at its disposal as well.

What is the Reserve Bank’s goal?

By setting monetary policy, its aim is to maintain price stability as well as full employment. To this end the Reserve Bank has a target inflation rate (measured by CPI), to remain between 2 and 3%.

How is this achieved?

The bank sets a cash rate (currently 4.10%) which is the interest rate that banks pay when they borrow from other banks in the overnight money market. This amount then influences other interest rates for loans and deposits which, in turn, influence overall economic activity, including employment and inflation.

Age Pension and super changes 1 July 2025

by Kaye Fallick | Centrelink Age Pension

What are the main changes which will affect retirees and their income over the next 12 months?

Here’s a handy End of Financial Year (EOFY) checklist to keep you up-to-date. You may wish to also share this with friends and family. Some changes are not yet legislated, so keep an eye on your Retirement Essentials emails, as we will confirm these rules as soon as they do become law.

Income and Asset thresholds will change

Income and assets tests change three times a year. The upper (disqualifying ) income and asset thresholds change on 20 March and 20 September, in line with indexation (based upon the CPI figures from the previous 6-month period). The lower thresholds change just once a year. This means that they will change on 1 July – and this is likely to increase the number of people able to qualify for a full Age Pension.

The specific amount of the new limits will shortly be confirmed by the Federal Government. As a benchmark, last year the income test limit was increased by $8 for singles and $12 for couples combined while the asset test limit (for non-homeowners) was increased by $22,250 for singles and $28,500 for couples combined.

How to plan ahead

You can check out the current thresholds here and use the Age Pension Entitlements Calculator to test your current Age Pension status. You may be entitled to a higher fortnightly payment after 1 July. Or if your entitlement is currently borderline, you may now become eligible for an Age Pension as well as the automatically issued Pension Concession Card.

Election 2025: Which issues matter most

by Kaye Fallick | Centrelink Age Pension

As we reach the ‘business end’ of the 2025 Federal Election campaign, you may have a clear idea who you wish to vote for and why. Yet that’s not the case for everyone, with The Guardian suggesting that nearly 47% of Australian voters remain undecided or open to changing their vote. Some voters will not decide until they enter the polling booth on 3 May. Whether you have a clear idea of the party that deserves your support, or you are still shopping around, as we have done in the past, Retirement Essentials has compiled a brief summary of each of the three major parties’ promises that most affect older Australians.

What’s not in this summary are the policies of the minor parties, such as One Nation and the Trumpet of Patriots. Similarly, there is no summary of the position of individual teal candidates as they are not a party and hold different views on many of the main issues. The information on these candidates is readily available on their websites and will no doubt be coming through your letterbox as we speak.

Retirement Essentials is also not offering an opinion on the policies of any of the parties, nor a view on who should win your support. Our democracy thrives based upon the assumption that each individual is capable of reaching a reasonable conclusion and voting however they want.

It’s also worth noting that whilst the following table shows a comparison of the promises as they relate to older Australians, many retirees are vitally interested in positive outcomes for all ages and so they will vote on policies that help their younger family members and friends.