Those receiving the age pension today did not have the benefits of superannuation, many stayed at home to raise children, grew up with the belief that a portion of taxes were paid into a fund to support them in retirement.

I am not sure why there is such a lack of compassion for the way the elderly and other pensioners such as the disabled and carers are treated in this country. We have become quite ruthless in our perceptions of who is deserving of a share of the the public purse and why.

We need to wake up to ourselves that it is people that make up a community and how we treat the most vulnerable is a measure of civilisation.

Governments waste many more dollars on 'spin' projects and the bottomless pit of Defence and national security than they will ever spend on the elderly.

Crap - I pushed new post and don't know if I shut it down there will be a empty message from me.

Umm... a local residentail park full of oldies had a rent increase of $13.00 - $18.00 a week the day the budget said our elders would get more. A lot say it means they have to miss a meal a week.

I personally found it offensive so at a personal level I am going to go there and hand the first old person I find some cash, might even start doing it regularly. I lie - I am lazy, I will send one of my kids.

Or vouchers for a local Restaurant? I never think things through - how would you all do it?

well $18 increase in rent means "pensioner" [ie lonely mothers brigade also] pay $4.50 and govt pays $13.50

seems quite fair for "real" pensioners but a bit dubious for a woman who has chosen to have a child simply to avoid working, ie the 75% of the welfare budget that Yappie seeks to avoid as he bashes the OAPensioners

"seems quite fair for "real" pensioners but a bit dubious for a woman who has chosen to have a child simply to avoid working, ie the 75% of the welfare budget that Yappie seeks to avoid as he bashes the OAPensioners"

Gosh, you don’t like the mums do you DD. I don’t like the over generalising.

Yabby seems to be well off with no understanding of the great unwashed. We will probably find out he is an MP somewhere. But anyways...

I have a young mum here, 15 year old with a one year old. You don’t even want to know why that happened but I can tell you she did not do it to avoid working, school or because she was lonely.

But what will spew you is this (I also think it is wrong on several levels btw). I will get paid the full allowance to have her and her boy live in my home as my foster children.

She is able to remain on single mothers benefit.

She can claim family assistance for her child while I can claim family assistance for her.

She has to put her child in day care (no she doesn’t want to she wants him here with me during the day) while she attends school. Child care subsidy is 100% for her.

I think we just won the triple dip. This country is crazy, no I am not going to complain and I am too scared to add it up incase it freaks me out too much and the guilt gets me.

*Governments waste many more dollars on 'spin' projects and the bottomless pit of Defence and national security than they will ever spend on the elderly.*

Pelican, it may seem so, but if we look at the actual figures,
21 billion is spent on defence, 111$ billion of welfare. Health
is another 50 billion, 9 billion for prescription subsidies.

So its the sheer volume of people receiving pensions of one kind
or another, which limits the amount that can be spent on each
pensioner.

Its not for me to say which pensioners should receive more, which
nothing, which less. I am simply pointing out the fundamentals
of the problem in terms of the budget. Given the rise in OA
pensioners with the baby boomers joining in, the problem is only
going to become far larger.

I do find your comments to be somewhat myopic *Yabby*

Australia's economy is larger than a lot of our neighbours economies put together.

We have very few people relative to many of our neighbours and my view is that population needs to be linked to Human Rights - ie when the country can no longer afford to pay pensioners a minimum "australian" standard then you simply ban breeding, and therafter have a lucky dip when breeding can re-commence.

If not, u can end up with a country full of thieves, beggars and people ho'ing themselves.

The problem in australia is not that pensioners are paid too much. They're not by half. The problem is that business charges too much and government, public servants and consultants (that includes lawyers and drs) are all paid too much.

I agree with *Pelican* we would do well to remember that amongst the pensioner sub group are those who played a not insignificant price in sweat and blood buliding and defending this country and the least we can do is make sure that they all have:

"Economic Security and a decent standard of living."