By Helen Reynolds
Dear Prime Minister,
I write to you not as a politician, a lobbyist or a protestor – but as an ordinary Australian pensioner. I am one of more than two and a half million older Australians who have worked, raised families, paid taxes, and contributed to the very society we all call home. And now, in our later years, many of us are struggling simply to survive.
Prime Minister, the age pension in Australia is now well below the poverty line. Every fortnight, we are expected to stretch a modest payment across rent, electricity, groceries, medications, and basic living costs. But things have changed. Rent has skyrocketed. Power bills are up. The cost of food has soared. And the truth is: our pension hasn’t kept up.
I have friends who are skipping meals so they can afford medication. Others avoid turning on the heater even in the coldest weeks of winter, afraid of what the next electricity bill will bring. Some pensioners are living in their cars or couch surfing, because they simply can’t afford rent.
This isn’t the Australia we were promised – and it isn’t the Australia we helped build.
We are not asking for luxury. We are not asking for handouts. We are asking for dignity. We are asking to be able to live out our final years with some measure of comfort, safety, and self-respect. Is that too much to ask?
I urge you – please consider raising the rate of the age pension above the poverty line. We can’t wait for another committee, another review, another promise. We need action. And we need it now.
I thank you for your time, and for listening to a voice that is often forgotten in the noise of national politics.
Sincerely,
Helen Reynolds
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Ditto the unemployment rate. In a so-called lucky, wealthy country, why are some in our society, treated like they don’t matter? When investers can claim so much, when we gift $14.6 billion p.a. in subsidies and grants to fossil fuel companies, some Australians are being looked after similarly to the way Israel is gifting aid to Palestinians.
I remember decades ago how pensioners cut their meds in half so that they’d go further. It seems that we’re now back to ‘the good old days’ with pensioners going to bed at 6pm to try to keep warm for fear of their electricity bill. Clearly the Cost of Living Crisis has hit pensioners (and unemployed) the hardest but the smug, condescending response is almost always “Ok Boomer”, complete with eyeroll.
Australians living at or below the poverty line desperately need assistance for the basic requirements to live with dignity. The social wealth divide is destroying the “fair go” philosophy of what it once meant to be an “Aussie”. Making an $800m periodic payment towards a total spend of $380b on submarines that won’t appear for decades, if ever, is just economic mis-management that ignores the social and community needs of those who are unable to meet modest means for living. Instead of meeting the “needs” of the military industrial complex and billionaire investors in USA our Government should be meeting the needs of Australian citizens that exist NOW!
It seems all pensions in Australia, including those from ComSuper for ex public servants and Defence personnel, only increase by this thing called a CPI. This CPI is generally around half or less than the inflation rate which effectively means with every passing year our money gets us less than the previous year. When you look at things like rates, utility bills, etc that increase at rates far greater than inflation the situation for anyone on a pension becomes more dire.
I don’t know who came up with this idea of a thing called a CPI or why it is conveniently significantly less than inflation but I think it is way past time to come up with a new formula because this CPI thing is not working and is completely irrelevant to modern living.
And the unemployment benefit. And disability support.
The real people who need to read this are the multi nationals who pay little to no tax.
The one thing this Labor gov should do. Is raise or make eligible the wife of us on the single married pension. My wife is 12 yrs younger than me and get nothing. Can no longer hack working at 62. Single married is well below a eligible couple rate. We manage just, no super fund. Or assets, only the roof over our head. We are at least $200 a fortnight below a couples pension.
I just wanna echo the statements of all the above ,being inthe trenches of poverty my self , i stand in solidarity .
One thing worth Noting in the ( 2002 / 2003 period ) there was a Inquiry into Poverty that looked at POverty in all its forms in Australia , Both sides of Goverment had a Commitee and they went to every State to listen to all catergory of Poverty on welfare –
The panal / committee concluded this after about 3 month , Then 6 months later , A ginat book came out called – ( Poverty In Australia 2002/2003 ) Its NOw gathering Cob Webs in the SEnate Library at Parliment HOuse !! , At the end of the book, there was over 70 Reccomendations across the board for all forms of welfare Recipients …..
To this very day , some 28 years Later , Nothing has been followed up or acted Upon in relation to those 70 recommendations,,
For those who wish to read it , try Canberra Parliment Library ,albeit the senate or common parliment library .Please blow off the dust when you find it ,,,
P.S . One Reform that would scare the living be jesus out of Politicians from Federal, State and Local , Make Government Pension amounts – Uniform to the Age pension , (serving in parliment ought to be a Privalige – Not a Luxury ! ) Its just a job like every one of us , End Government Pension Rorts and make it a Common pension for Politicians , in recognition of their services give them some kind of bonuses and free travel and private health ,,But thats IT .. !!!!…. A Social CitiZens Out Cry and a wake up call to Ongoing Poverty and Inequality in the supposed – Fair Go Country ! … Strike Me Rome !!!….
Just standing in solidarity with Helen and im in the same trenches of poverty along with millions ..
Just to Add , IN 2002/ 2003 period of Government some 28 years ago , The Feraral Government of the day launched an Enquiry into poverty in Australia , The task was to go to every state and into the regions to see how this affects all catergories of welfare people , this task took around 4 months,and around 6 months later a big book , Entiltled , ( Enquiry into Poverty 2002/ 2003 ) I had a copy and diligently read till the end , At the conclusion of it .There were over 70 reccomendations across the board on all catergories of welfare people .But sadly ,,28 years later ,right here and now ..These 70 reccomendations are still gavering Cobwebs in the parliment Libray in Canberra ..
Nothing has been followed up ..what a waste of tax payers money !! ,those reccomendations could be bearing fruit by now ..sadly . 28 years on , Poverty is swept under the carpet , she’ll be right mate ,,we’ll get around to it !!..
whats it take .. Citizens Out cry , like Helen , is all to familar ,
Struggle Street Versus the social elite ..
P.S – Final Suggestions , why not scare the living Be- Jesus out of these free wheeling Politicians- And demand CHANGE on Government Pensions !!
Make all Government Pensions , Federal , State , local , UNIFORM to the Age pension ! ..(Serving in GOvernment is not a Luxury, its a Privalege ) Make all Government Pensions UNIFORM in line with Age pensions, THis would Save a shit load !! ,They are No different to us !!! – ….
War ON Poverty-must start in the Politicians own back yard of Rorts and Entitlements , GO figure ! ………..
The article and the comments are spot on, and yes, I fall into OAP and struggling with rent which is $1300.00 pcm – more than the 55% ratio recommended in legislation, in addition to utilities and the rest.
I have also been a keen observer of politics all my life and the fact is that the system as it is now is for the top 10%, the rest can bugger off and keep funding their necessities. Until we have a real living standard which is not influenced and marginalised by ’models’ we are never going to get equality or parity https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/roundtable-warning-when-they-say-modelling-grab-your-bulldust-detector-20250727-p5mi3t.html
No point in appealing to any POLITICIAN or government as they have no conscience or emotional intelligence, they are narcissists plain and simple.
When a fat bloated public servant tells other people how to live and what they should be doing, that’s the first alarm bell, and quite frankly it’s now become a shrill siren.
https://www.google.com/search?q=enquiry+into+poverty+2002%2F2003+australian+senate&rlz=1C1CHBF_enAU1088AU1088&oq=enquiry+into+poverty++2002%2F2003++australian+senate+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigATIJCAQQIRgKGKAB0gEJMzYyNDdqMGo5qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#:~:text=Filters%20and%20topics,mistakes.%20Learn%20more
Thanks for bringing this ‘crisis’ to the forefront!
@Jano from the Gong: You should at least do a basic search to check about Federal Government Pensions, after much public complaint, Howard changed government pensions to a Superannuation scheme. Twenty odd years later there are few ministers left on the old scheme, the rest get superannuation, like all other workers. Although 11% on over $270k/pa is still a good contribution.
I have written elsewhere about social security payments but I think it needs restating.
Aged & Disability pensions need to be raised by at least $100/fn and Jobseeker needs to be raised by $200/fn immediately.
Rental assistance should be raised by $150/fn immediately.
Tapering for earnings needs to be changed. Increase the income free (no effect) threshold by $100/fn and redo the taper rates so the next $100/fn is at 30c in the dollar, the next $100/fn to 40c/$ and then a max after that of 50c/$.
This reduces the gross “taxation” effect whereby the recipient can have a reduction of 40%, 50% or even 60% on the pension as well as tax on income over a certain level. For the unemployed the loss can be up around 75%. How do we encourage working, and supporting those who want to go back to work, when an effective tax rate of 75% is being applied. Their net pay is effectively $6.50 an hour. Not enough to pay for fares and cleaning cloths and a meal.
Once upon a time, rent assistance was maybe 30% of the rent, but these days it is only about 15% of the rent and the reality is rents now exceed the entire Newstart (unemployment) payment. Apart from the shortage of housing, unemployed people would have to share and most agents don’t want this.
And, for decency’s sake, reign in the private job network providers who can be difficult to deal with and mostly inflexible and unhelpful. better still, return the process to in-house government provision.
I say this with some experience on both sides of the ledger as someone who was on unemployment benefits for 3.5 years then worked in a Centrelink call centre till retirement.
I agree, Lee.
https://theaimn.net/100-a-week-boost-for-australias-poorest-a-game-changer-funded-by-the-wealthy/
In the end, we get back to the old story of neolib wealth and power slanting government. Modern duopoly imposes a vaccuum from which no escape seems possible.
Labor has always done far better than the Tories on social infrastructue but has been infected with a corporatist ideology that sees all of worth and dross alike crashed and crushed in the never,rapacious craving for bigger and bigger profits regardless of at whose expense these come.
…
BTW, if folk think pensioners are hard done by, spare a moment for the lost generation burger flipping if they are lucky, unemployed and no where in the system for them.
Just reading Carol Taylor, fair enough within is own confines, but once again, I’d draw attention to the system itself as to community idiotisation.
Neoliberalism is the real culprit. But, I suppose, we must look at (engineered or mere self interested) complicity, as we have seen in the Middle East exemplar, from soial anthropogical lens.
The Ape lives in its new jungle called the city and there is no real understanding of the dynamics of the system and human nature.
“I have friends who are skipping meals so they can afford medication.”
I’ve read this before and it surprises me as the Albanese government last year reduced the costs of most prescriptions for regular medications, for pensioners with a concession card, which means that you can now obtain a two-month supply under the PBS for $7.70 – i.e. the same price as a one-month script previously cost, effectively halving the cost of these prescriptions to $3.85 a month.
You may need to check up with your GP, you may need a new script.
Terry, in Canberra, clinics that bulk-bill are practically non-existent, even for pensioners. I’ll never know for sure, but in this case going without the medication could be because of being unable to afford the doctor.
Ten years ago in Canberra a consultation would cost me $125, of which I’d get a $45 Medicare rebate. I was employed, but it was still a hefty hit to the wallet.