The government has dropped plans to index age pensions to CPI and opted instead to tighten income and assets test. These are welcome changes but more needs to be done.
As expected, part-pensioners will be most affected by budget changes.
AAP Image/Melanie Foster
Part-pensioner couples who own their own home and assets worth more than about A$800,000 are expected to lose their part-pension altogether, under proposals in the federal budget.
Devoting time to looking after others can result in significant hidden costs to the carer.
Shutterstock/Goodluz
If the 5.5 million unpaid carers didn’t look after others – at the expense of careers and incomes – taxpayers would bear the costs, so as a community we should give carers a fairer deal in retirement.
The way pensions are indexed can have a significant impact on the end payment.
Alan Porritt/AAP
The policy solution to the ageing population laid out in the Intergenerational Report benefits the better-off in the future over the less well-off today.
What is so wrong about aiming for self-sufficiency as you age?
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Nobody denies spending on the Age Pension is growing, but the Intergenerational Report concentrates on fiscal projections and ignores retirement outcomes.
The focus is shifting to how Australians access their super to fund retirement.
Wendy House/Flickr
A good proportion of the Financial System Inquiry’s 460-page interim report is dedicated to a discussion of superannuation and, in particular, to making the financial system better at facilitating the…
Reverse mortgages can be risky for both borrowers and lenders.
Flickr/American Advisors Group
The Commission of Audit has recommended including homes above a certain value in the means test that determines who gets the age pension and how much. Under the proposal, homes valued in excess of A$500,000…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has his sights set on the age pension.
Daniel Munoz/AAP
Treasurer Joe Hockey last night stepped up his rhetoric on the the need for heavy government spending cuts, singling out the A$40 billion age pension cost as “much more than we spend on defence, or hospitals…
Older workers are already working longer; but the debate around paying for the Age Pension has only just begun.
Eric Yen/Flickr
Talk about increasing the Age Pension eligibility age to 70 has generated a lot of anxiety and indignation. What seems to be going unnoticed in all the hype is that we have just experienced a round of…
If Kevin Andrews was serious about sustainable welfare spending, his review would not have excluded the biggest, fastest-growing and most poorly targeted areas of expenditure.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Social services minister Kevin Andrews says a concern that the system is unsustainable is driving his review of welfare. It’s true that Australia has a budget sustainability problem. It’s not true that…
Dealing with an ageing population and workforce has been a concern for some years, with Tony Abbott promising changes to make it easier for older workers to find employment.
AAP/Paul Miller
The Federal Government only took a few hours to quash suggestions made by the Productivity Commission on Friday to lift the retirement age. But while the Commission’s report is based on research that’s…
Many pensioners are living in homes that are too expensive for them, says the Grattan Institute’s John Daley, arguing adding the family home to the assets test for the age pension would spur on downsizing.
juicyrai/Flickr
Charis Palmer, The Conversation e Kylar Loussikian, The Conversation
The Australian Government should tighten the welfare system for older Australians, adding the family home to the assets test for the age pension and limiting tax concessions on superannuation contributions…