Will this happen?
In an announcement that would help 500,000 older Australians retire earlier, the Greens want to move the Age Pension eligibility age back down to 65.
And increase the benefits by 25%.
The announcement was made by Greens Welfare spokesperson Janet Rice, just before the election date of May 21 was confirmed on Sunday.
The Greens have announced this policy as one of the deals they intend to demand if a minority government is elected.
In a press release sharing detail of the policy, Greens leader Adam Bandt claimed it would lower the retirement age for half a million people.
But as we have recently noted, ‘retirement age’ is really your own decision. The change the Greens are proposing is more accurately understood as earlier access to the Age Pension. Currently eligibility is restricted to those aged 66.5 or older. The Greens believe many in the 65 to 66.5 age bracket are disadvantaged.
Senator Janet Rice, spokesperson for family, ageing and community services noted,
‘Thousands of older working people are living pay cheque to pay cheque and can’t afford to retire. Many are working for starvation wages, in back-breaking jobs – in manufacturing, in hospitality, in supermarkets, as labourers and salespeople – people who have worked hard all their lives and are being forced to wait an extra two years to retire.’
The planned increase to the rate of the Age Pension would be part of a wider increase to all income support payments, lifting them to a minimum of $88 per day or $1232 per fortnight.
Including supplements, the maximum single Age Pension is currently $70.54 per day, or $987.60 per fortnight. This represents a hefty 25% increase to the base rate.
Is this really likely to happen?
Currently the Greens hold just one seat in the lower house, where government is formed. They are specifically targeting 10 in the coming election. It is anybody’s guess as to the May 21 election outcome, but there is a real possibility of a minority Liberal NP or Labor minority government with the balance of power in the hands of independent and Greens MPs.
This means the Greens may well have significant bargaining power with any incoming government dependent upon their support.
What do you think?
Is a 25% increase too much?
Should Age Pension eligibility age be reduced to 65?
Is this fair to those who have already waited the (current) extra 18 months?
Knowledge is power
What is your status when it comes to Age Pension eligibility? The sliding scale of age can be confusing, depending upon your year of birth. If you are unsure as to your own entitlements, you can use our handy Age Pension Entitlement Calculator to get an answer in minutes.
Our free calculator has all the latest rates and thresholds and will help you work out what you could be entitled to receive.
%25 is a well needed rise and it should happen
I remember the govt giving themselves a %30 plus pay rise about 10 years ago and if they can do that for themselves then why not the pensioners who have been not only screwed over in the stimulous package and once again in the budget but as long as i can remember.
Pension increases are supposebly based on the CPI which is a joke.
This govt changes them rules to suit. and whoever works out the cpi.has not shopped as food today here in S.A. has gone up about %20 in the last 12 months..The govt does not take into account the fact we are forced to get mobile phones and the internet as that is the way the world has gone.and that’s not free .
30% in your dreams I was there then and had just over 20% over 15 years.
25% pension rise your children have to pay.
Better there is an easing in the rules for pensions being portable to other countries especially given the high costs of housing here…combine that with petrol(in 6mths again) and basic necessities and many pensioners(approx 25%) who dont own their own homes will be forced into “homelessness”.It makes economic sense to allow people to live overseas with reduced benefits therefore lower costs to taxpayers.
Totally agree, I wish to move overseas to retire eventually but can’t at present due to the loss of supplementary benefits, the base rate needs to increase! I can’t afford the housing costs here any more!
As an aged pensioner, reasonably fit able to work, my brain still works … for myself removing the income threshold is a better concept.
The Greens are a total disgrace and would never be in a position to do this they are simply making up these proposals to try and con older people to vote. Anybody who votes for them based on this is not thinking clearly
I agree with Arthur’s comment. Removing the income threshold is a better idea.
Pensions are NOT a cost (a deceit pushed by the coalition and not denied by labour. Pensions do not go into Australia,s balance sheet (our net worth). They are included in the annual financial statement (Australia,s cash flow). Paid fortnightly and spent fortnightly, they return to gov account, in taxes, in 7 weeks.
Clink spend $1.7B in admin of the income and assets test to reduce the “cost” of pensions by $1.0B !!! By abolishing this test gov could reduce it’s costs by $1.7B whilst boosting the economy by $1.0 and repairing the budget deficit. An age pension based on age !!!
Why shouldn’t bricklayers concrete workers and other hard industries retire at 65 what’s your excuse
Also women who work at home and have a job should retire 65 and earlier
YOU SHOULD FIGHT FOR THAT
There’s also people with DEPRESSION FROM STRESS AT WORK
WAKE UP DO THE RIGHT THING
Everything has to be paid for. Just abolish all the useless non value add public servants and bodies. There’ll be plenty left to pay pensioners.
The drop in the age limit is a good idea, As my wife is 8 years younger than me, I am 71 years my wife is 63 years old, I receive half of the couple’s pension which is around ($730 +) a fortnight it is strange as to the way they calculate this , a couple with age veraison of 8 years can live off $730 compared to a single person receives $980+ a fortnight,
# the figures quoted are dased on not checking the pension scale at the time of writing
Hi Dennis on April 12, don’t complain. I’m 71 and my partner is not retirement age. I don’t receive any income from Centrelink and not eligible for even a Health Care card due to my partner’s income. My partner and I have been together for 31 years and always maintained separate finances. We have both been married before and decided very early on that what was his, was his and what was mine, was mine. We bought a house together 12 years ago and pay for everything equally. We have not left each half of the house to each other, but instead given the option of buying the other’s half or selling the house to settle the deceased estate. I worked until I was 69 and paid taxes all my life but receive nothing and try to live on my own money I have in the bank, until my partner retires.
the drop in the age limit back to 65 years be a very good idea, its will give more work for the young that is taking up by the old, in time’s we are in now, we need a younger work force, at the moment the way things are no Business in their right minds will take on anyone age 60-67, knowing they may retire in year’s to come, they will train a young age work force to stay 20 to 40 year’s with them, in knowing that by putting it back to 65 year’s it will give the one’s that is out of work now age 65 to 67 something
I’m a single woman who worked for 54 years, retired at 70 last year, and went home to take care of a 94-year-old dementia mother full-time (to avoid going to a nursing home). Although super is very meager, I can’t get a penny of centrelink age pension, because I have an investment property with half morgage, and the total assets of a single person exceed the standard! If I have a partner, I am qualified and not exceeding the standard, I can enjoy part of the pension, and I can share the care of my mother. But now I got nothing only because I am single, this is really unreasonable.
The pension scheme is not fair at all – penalize those who worked hard, paid their taxes and save what they can for raining day
I am a widow and age 69, still working, as I can’t get even a Health card
What I have, does not drop from sky. Is through years of hard work and saving
Government should either have universal pension scheme or for those who are not qualified for pension, at least a Health Card
I would be happy with a pension increase and back-pay if the age goes back to 65! If people can work and want to work, fine, but that goal is unobtainable for many. Not all can find or are capable of work.
Like many women, when I started work at 16, I expected to retire at 60, then it became 65, then 66. 6 extra years.
However, when a contract ended at age 60, I could NOT get another job. After 2.5 years, I had NO replies to my ongoing, all-consuming job applications. I still had to fulfill compulsory job search quotas for the so-called employment provider. I was threatened: no full quota, no payment. (Providers did not know the regulations for people over 60 or that DEWR said- at that time – quotas were negotiable.) My physical health diminished drastically. I was allowed to search for part-time work = fewer jobs to apply for, but the quota was still in place. In 5.5 years, the providers told me of perhaps 4 jobs to apply for, requiring physical work that I could not do.
Now ‘retired’, instead of unemployed, I do not get a full pension because of my super, even though I worked and paid taxes for the age pension for 40+ years. Super started about almost halfway through my working life & I didn’t have enough time or the wherewithal to build a proper nest egg. If I use super as a pension supplement now, it will run out in 20 years. (If I had been employed for that extra 6 years and able to top-up the super as planned, I would have been ok.) Without a pension boost when it runs out, I will not be able to stay in my home.
All the age-pension and super calculations fail to consider that staying employed is not always possible. The model is faulty.