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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Oh god, come on Everald, the very last thing we need is yet another QUANGO with commissioners & staff ripping even more millions out of the budget. We could delete 3/4 of these blood sucking things, & use some of the money saved on pensions, & virtually no one would notice.

However I am with Big Nana. The pension is totally adequate, for anyone to live on comfortably, & even afford a few toys. That is of course providing the pensioner doesn't expect to drink, gamble or go gallivanting all over the country/world. If you want those things, you had better make provision for them yourself.

For those still renting, which is really unnecessary for most, copy Big Nana, but you don't have to go remote. Move to one of the many towns, which have lost their relevance as district centres. You will find housing cheap to buy, & even cheaper to rent. No one has a right to expect taxpayers to fund their retirement in their expensive chosen city, simply because they were too slack to prepare for it themselves. Just pick one with a hospital & you'll be sweet.

Retirement on the pension is great, if you just make a few provisions beforehand. I'm having a ball on the pension. So my thanks to you taxpayers for your generosity.

Dan: Why can't other posters be as informed and incisive as you!

Listening to Big Nana, with remote area allowances topping up her pension and the "generous" transferred child endowment? And from the safety and comfort of a freehold home? It's less difficult to make ends meet?

I on the other hand was forced into early retirement, which culminated in a costly divorce, followed by a more costly 8 year campaign to get just half the compensation I was entitled to!

Meaning, after my then current resources and super were exhausted! My post divorce compensation, was insufficient to pay out the current mortgage, which unlike rental assistance, remains an unsubsidised impost on my income.

I was seriously disabled before the stroke, which has forced my medical bills through the roof! Even so, I expect to run out of the year well before I become eligible for end of year, pharmaceutical relief!

Moreover, I'm unable like some pensioners, to ameliorate the food budget with homegrown eggs, fruit, vegetables or even bush tucker!

We have bugger all public transport out here!

Cars don't run on fresh air and routine maintenance becomes costlier with every service! Just getting a "technician" to lift the lid costs as much as $500.00 or more than a week's income.

Moreover, I wouldn't like to live in Sydney, where a single bedsit costs more than the single pension! And something an unnecessarily smug Big Nana should try, before telling other folk, they're getting it too easy!

Perspective is a wonderful thing, isn't it? As are horses for courses.

The pension could be more generous! And that generosity could be made affordable if we just limited welfare to the needy and excluded the greedy!

Negative gearing and capital gains subsidies on residential investments etc! Which also act to exclude young first home owners!
It's about priorities and what some folk are able to make do with setting the upper limits for everybody else!? Eh?
Alan B.

Alan, i would like to say I need a violin to accompany your tale of woe but quite frankly can't be bothered. If you think you are the only person in this country to have suffered problems then you really need to get out more.
How do you think other aged pensioners manage in remote areas without public transport?
How do you think old people or disability pensioners pay off mortgages? They rent out rooms, that's how they do it.
Many of the houses in our town rent out rooms to single working people who can't afford the massive rents here. That's how owners pay their mortgages and how young people can afford to live in an expensive area.
There are generally solutions to people's financial problems if they start thinking outside the square sometimes.

Quote "an Age Pension Tribunal that would be totally independent of political pressures"

That will be the same as seeing a pig fly, will never happen.

AlanB
I glean from your comments above, and previously, your state of physical health is not good.
You are at the point where life is actually seriously out of alignment with easy survival.
But yet, you still come through with a wise outlook on most subjects, which is a credit to you.
Whereas I (and obviously others represented these pages), are better aligned in life, at the least physically, to survive the rigors of life whatever it throws our way!
I don't feel I need to be judgmental of you.
I am on a pension, physically very fit, over seventy, and enjoy all my available time at sea diving solo from my own boat. It seems to be the opposite end to where you are my poor lad.
I am still working when not following my passion for the sea, and engaged in the building industry to a minor degree, which is by design, I'm really over it.
This account is not to be deemed self accolade at all. I simply wish to point out the disparity likely to befall every individual as they age.

I think this disparity as described, is a tale of two cities Al, your city and my city.
And isn't that the life of a pensioner. A life that fits somewhere between our two cities and includes all the little towns in between; all with their own story, and all simply existing in their own way.
To be a pensioner is to wear a coat of many colours. It is this vast disparity which is the problem to be addressed, in order to achieve an egelaterian outcome for all.

trite and oversimplified suggestions which offer silly fixes to complex problems, sound unintelligent to me.
The fact is, many people struggle badly on a pension. They are usually the unlucky in life ones, I have noticed; and not necessarily the group who have designed their life around failure.
We as pensioners, cannot afford to ignore their plight with "I'm alright Jack" statements!

Multiple Specialist medical services are usually required as one ages as previously mentioned; unfortunately most do not accept the health care card. Most GPs do. One opthalmologist charged me just under $500 for the visit and told me to come back in 2 weeks! I did get a small rebate. Most of us resent former politicians especially former PMs living off the public purse, e.g. an office (Rudd's costs $130,000 a year), 40 domestic flights a year, etc. My husband and I were too late to contribute to the mandatory superannuation scheme.