Perhaps we should check out the Devil in the Details.
Employment areas suitable for over 55's:
Building industry, labourer, gardening and landscaping...
(arthritis, knee and hip replacement, RSI, impaired eyesight and hearing...)
Hospitality and Service industries
(Dominated by juniors on reduced wages, -in the lower incomes, 18 can be too old)
IT (in direct competition with 1st turn Uni graduates -who are also suffering high unemployment rates)
The key to getting people to work longer is getting them into jobs they enjoy -before they turn 50.
If you find something you enjoy doing, you'll never 'work' another day in your life.

With apologies to Margaret Thatcher, just who are these “age pension (ers) (who) would prefer to be in paid work.”? I don’t know any. Work is a necessity to most of us (not many people “ loooooove” what they have to do) and, with few exceptions there is not much a person of pension age can do in the work force. Quick thinking, physically active age pensioners are as scarce as those ‘longer living’ types, especially the baby-boomers, who are living shorter times than their tougher parents did.

There are certainly older people too young for the age pension needing employment who are discriminated against by employers and the me generation, but saying that many aged pensioners would prefer to be back at work is simply not truthful. It’s a myth, or worse: Ms. Ryan is an ex-politician, remember.


And, the economic benefit of people 5% more of over 55’s working has nothing to do with the Age Pension. Those over 55’s who are not working would be on Newstart, which is, in fact, the dole; and, from the Commissioner herself, we know that there are only 140,000 of them – not a huge burden on the taxpayer when compared with the money wasted by politicians according to their own whims and rubbish ideas.

And, to top it all off, the government has already said it is not going to touch the Age Pension, and there are enough people young people who could work if they were made to, as well as all those iffy disabled pensioners.

No. Ms. Ryan has jumped on the bandwagon to justify her own comfortable little empire. Perhaps Tony Abbott could turn her loose from the public trough in his money-saving efforts.

So true Grim. I was headhunted at 53 to run a manufacturing business, because the main shareholder had seen me in action running another company. Doubt I'd have got an interview in the normal way.

This was very lucky for me, I was at the very end of my physical capacity to run a grazing property. Much of the work was getting too heavy for an older bloke to handle single handed.

I have 2 friends well into their 50s, who have had to close their engineering business, as the physical side became too tough, & another who is having financial difficulties due to being unable to undertake some work on which he previously depended.

But then we get the other side of the coin. To whom should we offer the opportunity, when the available work is limited. In other words, who should we throw on the scrap heap. Where physical effort is involved, you do need to be the boss by about age 50.

Unemployment is very likely to become permanent for a youngster, who spends too much time on a benefit, not gaining a skill & a work ethic. It is all too likely to become a major factor for life.

We current oldies, on the other hand, have been blessed with comparatively good times for most of our lives. There is not much excuse, apart from a few who suffered special misfortune, for us to be on struggle street now.

We were in the position, last centaury, to buy housing for a fraction of todays prices, & a much smaller percentage of our earnings. Employment & training were easy to come by, & many are now reasonably well established. Surely better to pay a reasonable pension for an early retirement, than leave some youngster on the dole queue.

Personally I'd happily go back to work, but I'd not be much use, except sitting on my butt. Hay come to think of it, I'm perfect public servant material, in my clapped out old age.

Oh, to be a Governor General, a Governor, a Parliiamentarian to receive my indexed pension for the rest of my life, I do not have to work, just sit back and enjoy, the plebs will keep me in the lifestyle I have become used to, who cares about them any way,lets keep the plebs on the poverty line, reduce their pension, its time for a complete overhaul of the sickening payouts to the people mentioned, but of course that won't happen.

Hasbeen
Ah the old “lump of labour” fallacy. The number of jobs is not in fixed, if more people are willing and able to work, there will be more income and more demand and more jobs. Older workers don’t necessarily displace the young. Also, the kinds of work that a 70 year old is likely to do are different to the kind of work an 18 year old will do.

I agree than many industries and occupations are not suitable for older workers; but some are. Not all older people want to work; but some do. Surely the thing is to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach which either forces people to work if they can’t, or stops them from working when they want to

Indeed, older people want to contribute to society, but it doesn't mean that they want to obey the orders of a boss or to compromise on the ethics of what they do because they worry about paying their bills. They are capable and motivated to contribute on their own terms, knowing that the income side will never be a hindrance.

I have seen a 60 year old lady made to litter the mailboxes of her neighbours with supermarket junk-pamphlets. She knew it was unethical, but had no choice because her stack of unpaid bills was growing. Paying her to stay at home would be a relief to everyone in her suburb, and being at home she could and, knowing her, would, make wonderful informal contributions to everyone around her.