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The Forum > Article Comments > Pension without politics > Comments

Pension without politics : Comments

By Everald Compton, published 12/12/2016

They most certainly should not have such a low pension that they have to choose between food and medicine which so many do today.

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Aged Pension for a single person = $794.80
New start allowance for single person = $537.50

I suggest anybody on an aged pension who isn't doing okay should talk to someone on unemployment benefits for some tips.
Posted by Cobber the hound, Monday, 12 December 2016 8:38:51 AM
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It is quite possible to live comfortably on the Age Pension, and most pensioners do so. If you go into retirement with debt of any sort, you will have problems. If you think you can live high on the hog, you will have problems. If you think you don't have to be thrifty, you will have problems. Too many people never think of themselves in old age, and they pay the price when it hits them.
Posted by ttbn, Monday, 12 December 2016 9:19:58 AM
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I'm Sorry Everald, but I agree with young taxpayers! Why should they support the likes of you or me?

Particularly when a .22 pill costs just a few cents? Which if used judiciously, would probably produce some affordable housing currently occupied by useless old farts?

Not all that long ago we oldies owned a bank a telco an airline or two and several energy companies. Whose combined dividend return would in today's dollars, be more than capable of funding much more generous age pensions!

And sold down the river, by short sighted myopically focused conservatives, just like the folks, who sacrificed more than just income to pay for/build these income earning entities!

No wonder Menzies wept when told Chiefly had died. Given when the last of this nation's true visionaries died, the light on the hill died with him!
I've seen numbers which could indicate true tax avoidance could be somewhere north of 60 billion a year and that virtually unnecessary state governments cost this nation 70 billions plus per for their existence, replete with the most generous pensions and gold plated entitlements. And before you factor in a single service provision or amenity.

Given everything done by the state could be done by a combination of direct funding and or some combination of the federal government and councils, without ever increasing the cost, size and power of the aforementioned!? We could return some 70 billions plus to consolidated revenue.

And if we just had the moral fibre to shut down all tax avoidance, and with reform that would also end the need for tax compliance and any associated tax compliance costs, we could do a number of things.

Among which, would be a vastly reduced tax burden on current taxpayers, and far more generous and affordable pensions; plus a new plethora of income earning power and water instruments etc, to help pay for future pensions or super!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Monday, 12 December 2016 11:37:37 AM
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Cobber, actually the full pension is $877 if you include the pension supplement. And for people like me in really remote areas there is Remote Area Allowance, so I actually get $902/ fortnight.
Whilst I cannot afford luxuries like holidays and eating out, I can certainly live comfortably on that amount.
I fail to understand how any aged pensioner cannot live on the pension. Regardless of the circumstances,,whether you own your own home, or rent or live in public housing, the pension amount is totally enough to live on, even if you have to rent out a bedroom or two to help pay your rates and insurance.
Perhaps pensioners should focus more on what they do have, rather than what they don't.
Posted by Big Nana, Monday, 12 December 2016 11:45:50 AM
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A very apt article, which makes many appropriate inclusions why some pensioners struggle, while many do not. And in its attempt at brevity, excludes many good reasons for the variation in outcomes.
The expectation to fairness of the pension across society, becomes less than amusing, entrusting personal outcomes of pensioners to politicians; but I have no answer to the alternative.

There appears enough anecdotal evidence suggesting a large disparity in housing standards as a cause of hardship.
With an increasing reliance on rental accommodation among the younger generation due mainly to housing affordability as the issue, disparity in pension groups is set to escalate, as they retire from the work force, paying rent into their future retirement.

Currently though, many pensioners have become comically known as grey nomads.
On the surface, this sounds like a choice, but scratch that surface and another reality is not very deep.

Some ethnic groups traditionally support their old and infirm in family groups.
But as the culture of the west takes precedence over more traditional norms, this will become watered down and less reliable.

Medically, pensioners are a high use group. User pay principles are not at all compatible with this reality. Visiting a North shore GP will normally cost around $100 just to get through the door. A GP is usually the gate keeper to much more expensive specialist treatments, and often require multiple specialities for the ageing . This puts a hole in any budget.

Quite frankly, the example of pensions reflect the overall population problem of never enough money, but squeezing pensioners as a mass is ignorant, and why, as this article highlights, politicians should be excluded from deciisons concerning the future of pensioners entitlement as much as possible!
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 12 December 2016 1:15:55 PM
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Speaking of pensions in general, the Australian government funds polygomy. Even though Morrison says that polygomy is a 100% wrong and against our law, he says that it is cheaper to give money to mulitiple "wives" than to these females individually. He probably calls that pragmatism; I call it illegal, and a prime example of our crap politicians allowing one section of the community do what others would be prosecuted for.
Posted by ttbn, Monday, 12 December 2016 3:32:59 PM
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