To start with the retirement age should not be raised, unless krudd's preprared to roll back ALL OF Howard's disability pension changes, so that persons no longer fit for their usual manual occupations don't have to jump through as many hoops to get on a disability pension. The 15 hour threshold needs to be raised to 30, JCA's by mediocre officers on a bonus system to fail claimants need to be reviewed and abolished too, so that only a medical officer can decide if a claimant has work capacity or not.

I agree that the 15 hour limit on work for people on the Disability Pension is a dreadful disincentive for those concerned to even experiment with paid work... It's a poverty trap - and you're right - it should be changed.

Another way of tackling the problem is to think of income support as a whole of life system. As a society we do not want anyone to "fall between the cracks" no matter what their age and we have devised a plethora of programs and systems to meet particular groups needs.

Another way to structure the system is to start with the idea of a "living wage" for all. This is provided tax free to everyone including millionaires and billionaires no questions asked.

Any income available for personal consumption above this, for whatever reason, is subject to tax.

The amount of the basic wage (income support) might vary depending on circumstance such as age - as it does now - but we have a more transparent system and we do not penalise people if they earn extra money.

The big difficulty with the current system where the income support is related to the total income means that disincentives exist that stop people even trying to earn money.

That is, we want a system that encourages people to contribute to society and does not penalise them when they do.

Guaranteeing a basic wage does this as well as separate the taxation system from the social welfare system. One of the reasons for the taxation system being so complex is that we use it implement other social welfare (for both individuals and business) functions. We do this because in the past it has been the only comprehensive system covering all the population. Those days are long gone and technically we no longer need the tax system to do multiple jobs.

Billions of dollars are funneled into a "employment services" system that provides only marginal or mediocre help to people to find jobs, and mainly functions like earlier labor exchanges or 'workhouses' ie to police the behaviour of the unemployed and admonish them for behavioural or moral failure because they do not "try hard enough" or are "too fussy" because they want a decent and liveable wage with a job that is safe [physically, that is]. ACOSS is silent on this waste of money in employment services as its key funders are the job giants who leach off government largesse while not really creating extra jobs as most of the jobs would be there anyway without their feeble effort at doing something useful for the billions thats squandered in that sector.

Tax free businesses touting as charities, exploiting the poor to make a fortune, with FBT exemptions for staff, no council rates, no stamp duty when dealing in property, free motor car rego etc because of a loophole in the Tax Act.

As for my comment about 'safe jobs' this generation and the last realised that OHS violations are common, policing of OHS inadequate, and many jobs will in the long run affect your health because of their physical demands............ever notice that its those of lower socio-economic status working who've had the most illness, disease or injury?