WORKING families are smiling after Treasurer Wayne Swan’s budget announcements on Tuesday night, but single age pensioners, hoping for a reprieve from spiralling living costs, are disappointed.
Despite a Senate Inquiry into the cost of living for older Australians, which earlier this year recommended an urgent review of the age pension, the Rudd Government’s first budget did not increase the base pension rate.
Eligible senior Australians will, however, receive a one-off payment of $500 by June 30; the higher Utilities Allowance of $500, up from $107.20, will continue; indexation of the age pension will be enhanced; and self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card will receive a higher Seniors Concession Allowance of $500 per year, up from $218.
National Seniors Association (NSA) chief executive officer Michael O’Neill said the continuation of one-off allowances and bonuses introduced by the previous government was welcome but said it would “not provide short term relief or the basis for a sustainable pension long term”.
Mr O’Neill said older people entirely dependent on the age pension – often women with no superannuation due to their circumstances – represented Australia’s most vulnerable seniors.
“These people who live off $273 a week while grappling with significant food, fuel and health cost increases are now starting to feel excluded under the Rudd Government’s ‘Working Families’ mantra,” Mr O’Neill said.
Mr O’Neill said while NSA was pleased the Rudd Government would honour its pre-election promise of fixing an anomaly in interstate seniors’ travel concessions, an immediate rise in the single age pension – currently at 59 per cent of the couples age pension – to two-thirds of the latter was required.