Seniors demand action on six election priorities
Don’t be a bystander – demand our politicians act on these important issues.
Key Points
- This is a critical opportunity to push for policies that improve the lives of older Australians.
- NSA’s priorities cover deeming rates, work for pensioners, private health, home care, banking, and super.
- We’re asking you to share our message with friends and family.
The federal election has been called for 3 May. It is a Saturday, as usual, and for residents of Queensland and the Northern Territory, election day falls on a long weekend.
The election campaign is a critical opportunity to push for policies that improve the lives of older Australians.
Since the last election, you have told us what is important to you, and we are telling politicians and candidates that if they want the support of older Australians and National Seniors Australia (NSA), then they need to commit to six key policy demands.
We are seeking your help to promote these policies to the wider community. You can do this by sharing with friends and family in a several ways:
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Share our election webpage via social media by clicking on these links - Facebook, X/Twitter or LinkedIn.
Our six key election priorities are summarised below.
The rising cost of living, and price rises, are a concern for everyone, but there are two policies that could help.
1. Retain the deeming rate freeze until a fair method is devised.
Deeming rates are used as part of the Age Pension income test; to determine eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, and to determine co-contributions for aged care services. Over recent years, governments have decided to not raise deeming rates in line with rising interest rates.
If deeming rates go up on 1 July, part-pensioners will lose some of their pension income, some self-funded retirees will lose their concessions, and aged care recipients will pay more.
NSA wants the freeze to continue until the next government creates a fairer and more transparent method for calculating deeming rates in the future.
2. Assist pensioners who want to work by exempting employment income from the pension income test.
Current pension rules discourage older people from remaining in the workforce. Age Pensioners lose 50 cents in the dollar from their pension if they work more than the rules allow. This discourages some people from working past pension age, undermining the retention of mature and skilled workers at a time of workforce shortages.
Age Pension rules are complex and confusing and cause many to not work or to work in the black economy to avoid impacting their pension.
Our solution is simple: unwind the complexity by letting pensioners work without impacting the Age Pension income test.
The health and wellbeing of older Australians is being diminished. The rising cost of private health insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs; and the lack of home care packages all need urgent attention.
3. Review the private health system to reduce premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
Older Australians are frustrated that health costs seem to be rising much faster than other costs at a time that they rely more heavily on the health sector.
Understanding what is causing price inflation is the first step in developing solutions.
The Productivity Commission is best placed to undertake an inquiry into the private health care system with a particular focus on the:
Growth of private health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses
Value and scope of product offerings covered by private health insurance
Reforms needed to minimise premiums and out-of-pocket costs
Reforms needed to suppress price inflation in the private health care sector.
4. More home care packages are needed to reduce the wait list to three months.
Approximately 80,000 older people are waiting for a home care package to help them with much needed care and support. About 50,000 additional packages need to be released to bring down wait times to a reasonable level.
We acknowledge that even with these additional packages, wait times for home care services will be impacted by staffing issues.
However, it is important to address the wait list as a first step as this will send a signal to providers to increase capacity.
Older people are among the most affected by changes sweeping the finance sector and are heavily reliant on savings and superannuation to ensure a decent standard of living in later life. NSA has two key priorities to support financial security for seniors.
5. Create an Australia Post bank for regional and rural Australia.
While post offices, especially in regional towns, supply some banking services, it is not enough to meet people’s needs.
Face-to-face banking is being withdrawn, replaced by online banking. Cash is no longer king, as many merchants move to electronic transactions.
The next government should use the proposed banking levy to support Australia Post to obtain an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence to provide more banking services.
Australia Post will be able to leverage its existing branch network (one of the largest retail footprints in Australia) to provide face-to-face banking services and access to cash in regional, rural, and remote areas.
6. Protect your hard-earned super by retaining choice and control.
Older people value the flexibility and choice offered by our retirement income system and need savings to meet living costs, including health and ageing costs, as they get older.
However, superannuation is often subject to policy changes and debates, including what appears to be the shaming of retirees for not spending enough of their super.
NSA believes:
While we support the compulsory nature of superannuation in the accumulation phase, older people should retain choice and control over their super during the pension phase.
People value being able to use super to generate regular income streams, while others value having access to lump sums to fund planned activities and expenses in later life or to pass on to charities or future generations.
With older people facing rising out-of-pocket health and aged care costs, it is vital superannuation is protected and available to them to meet their ageing needs.
To protect choice and control, we are calling for:
A moratorium on substantive changes to superannuation rules, with future changes subject to rigorous and independent analysis.
Amend the legislated Objective of Superannuation to rebalance its focus on the retirement income phase.
Resist the imposition of noticeably bad inheritance taxes.
Increase Age Pension gifting limits to provide an incentive for pensioners to donate to charity and gift to younger generations.
You can download and read the full details of our six federal election priorities in our federal election priorities document here.
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