With Australia's rapidly ageing population. According to the Governments AIHW there were 3.8 million Australians aged 65 and over in 2017, 15% of the population. It is projected that by 2057 this figure will increase to 8.8 million, or 22% of the population. Aged Pensions are expected to cost the taxpayer $50 billion in 2018/19. Under the present conditions this figure is expected to balloon to $72 billion by 2025/26. At the same time Carer Payments will blowout from $7 billion in 2014/15, to $18 billion by 2025/26.

Aged pensioners also enjoy heavenly subsidised fringe benefits in health, transport, state and federal subsidises for rent, power, water and council rates and other government charges. Would it be a prudent budgetary measure if the overall Aged Pension benefit was pegged at $50 billion, with a similar cap on carer and nursing home expenditure. A tightening of the over generous assets and incomes tests would also be welcomed by some, as would be a change in the age requirements.

Some believe the Aged Pension should be nothing more than a safety net, keeping it at existing levels, or lowering it if the budget requires prudent fiscal management. Some want limited allowances for assets and income, and certainly no overly generous fringe benefit subsidises. The age requirement could be progressively lifted to accommodate the growing elderly population, keeping it at 15% of the total. With superannuation and older work capabilities, is this a possibility?

Hi Paul,

I certainly don't begrudge people my age the pension but, as physical work becomes less common, many more people will go their entire working lives without raising a sweat, and reach their senior years in comparatively good condition and expecting to live ten or twenty years longer than their parents did.

So it's inevitable that governments of all persuasions will slowly move the pension age up, maybe one year every decade. I expect my kids not to be eligible until they're seventy, and maybe by 2100, the pension age il be up around seventy five.

Of course, pretty soon, most workers will be retiring with the full benefits of forty five or fifty years of compulsory super, so they will be cushioned from having to rely on the pension. And of course, as work becomes less physical, many older people will be happy to work a bit longer and kick up their super benefits when they do eventually retire.

So maybe their situation will not be so dire after all.

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Paul,

Here's a link that explains why cutting Australia's
migrant intake would do more harm than good,
at least for the next decade:

http://theconversation.com/why-cutting-australias-migrant-intake-would-do-more-harm-than-good-at-least-for-the-next-decade-108748

For once I can, as a pensioner, agree with you completely Paul. The age pension is unsustainable, & will have to be reduced at some time in the near future.

However at the same time the rest of the welfare state must be similarly cut. First to go must be "Gillard's Revenge", the NDIS & Gonski. They must go completely.

Secondly tertiary education must become full cost recovery. Bright kids must continue to be able to get the education they need/want, but only through recoverable interest free student loans. Universities must of course be cut by half or more, with subjects like nursing being put back to an in hospital apprentiship style.

School education must have it's feather bed removed, as must all incompetent teachers. Teachers did a better job when they had 40 in their classes, & we should increase classes to this at least. Teachers who can't handle this should be gone. Teachers may need a reintroduction of the cane to handle difficult kids. Kids who don't get adequate passes must not be allowed into senior high school.

Public housing must be done away with. If we expect pensioners to cater to their own needs, so should younger folk. No one should be advantaged with cheep housing, paid for by others.

The dole seems about right, but must start reducing after 6 months, & come down to zero after about 18 months.

Bureaucracies must be cut by at least half, & wages set to match responsibilities. Thus Tasmanian bureaucrats should receive about a third of NSW & Victorians pay rates. Perhaps their pay rats should reflect their results. South Australians should be required to pay the public for their catastrophes. All quangos must go.

Public transport should be eliminated, or at least become full cost recovery, after paying a suitable return to motorists for using the roads.

So that is a start Paul, & I'm sure you will agree that it has a lot further to go, if we are to reduce the cost of the aged on the public purse in an equitable manner.

"Some believe the Aged Pension should be nothing more than a safety net .... ".

It is a safety net! People living solely on the Age Pension are not exactly luxuriating on clover.

I suspect that as the population ages so will the number of aged voters (not rocket science). Politically it will not be beneficial to upset a large group of voters. Hasbeen is right that we spend far to much on health and education. These are sacred cows and bad value at the end of the day. The warmist thieves have also raised the cost of electricity many times over. The more we have spent on education the dumber the population has become. The Marxist who have idolised Venezuela for so long are still putrifying the minds of the dumb at universities. Its hard to see it all ending well although no wonder could possibly of believed how good Trump has been for America. More jobs, lower taxes and ditching the Paris agreement that the leaches rely on. Interesting times.