Calls to increase age pension age

government/

3 October 2008
| By By Sara Rich |

The Institute of Actuaries of Australia has called for an increase to the age pension age as part of a submission to the Government that seeks to rationalise existing access and eligibility rules while encouraging older Australians to support themselves financially for longer.

Responding to an invitation from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs for the public to participate in its Pension Review, the institute has highlighted that the age pension (for males) has not changed in 100 years.

“Now, as life expectancies and general health and capacity to work at older ages increases, and the workforce ages, it is time for Australia to adopt a more dynamic approach which links pension age, life expectancy, health and capacity to work,” the 40-page submission stated.

“The first step in such a change could be for Australia to gradually raise the age pension age from 65 to 67 between 2025 and 2032.

“An early announcement of this change would minimise the impact on Australians already nearing retirement.” The institute suggested Australia was lagging behind the rest of the world in this area, with the US, UK, Germany and Denmark already moving their age pension age to 67 or 68.

The benefits of such a reform, according to the institute, would be to erode preconceptions about when workers are ‘too old’ to work, increase workers’ superannuation savings for retirement and improve the long-term sustainability of the Australian retirement income system.

The institute has also suggested the Government consider introducing the option of a deferred age pension and extend the asset test exemption to include home equity release schemes that meet retirement and health costs.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

5 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

5 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

7 months 1 week ago

The FSCP has issued a written direction to an adviser who charged clients “extraordinary fees” for inappropriate and conflicted advice, as well as encouraged them to swit...

1 week 6 days ago

ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager. ...

3 weeks 2 days ago

ASIC has confirmed the industry funding levy for the 2024–25 financial year, and how much licensees can expect to pay....

3 days 21 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
2
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
95.46 3 y p.a(%)
5