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One in three pensioners living below poverty line
A report from the Benevolent Society has found current age pension rates wholly inadequate, leaving 500,000 older Australians well below the poverty line.
The Adequacy of the Age Pension in Australia: An Assessment of Pensioner Living Standards report, also found many pensioners are resorting to extreme measure to save money, including skipping meals, avoiding medical care and turning off hot water.
The report comes with a raft of recommendations to change the pension system, including introducing an independent tribunal which would assess pension adequacy twice a year, as well as developing programs that would give pensioners better access to health and communication services that have becoming prohibitively expensive.
Benevolent Society CEO Jo Toohey told ABC, “The base rate of the age pension is currently around $794 per fortnight … and the rate for the poverty line, for example is around $851. When you look at the reason Fair Work sets the minimum wage … they also take into consideration things like housing costs and increases in general living expenses
"If I'm an age pensioner those increases in housing costs – particularly if I'm single, if I'm female, and I don't own my own home – my rent over the past 10 years for example has increased considerably more than what the age pension actually has."
Everald Compton, the chairman of the Longevity Innovation Hub and report co-author of the report backed this up, telling The Guardian, “The age pension in Australia is clearly inadequate – that is an indisputable fact and the government has to face up to that fact.”
How do these findings make you feel? Should the government be doing more to support pensioners, and do you agree with the recommendations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Video credit: YouTube / The Benevolent Society
Related links:
Major changes for age pension in 2017
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