Hal Kendig, Australian National University dan Andrew Podger, Australian National University
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.
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.
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 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.
Nobody denies spending on the Age Pension is growing, but the Intergenerational Report concentrates on fiscal projections and ignores retirement outcomes.
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
Charis Palmer, The Conversation dan 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…