Post by Banjo on Jan 11, 2011 7:40:00 GMT 7
THE widening gap between the age and disability pensions and the unemployment benefit or NewStart allowance is disturbing. So, too, is anecdotal evidence of hardship among the older unemployed, such as the former medical receptionist Carmen Blake, who spends 70 per cent of her total, topped-up single person's allowance of $314 a week on her rent.
The gap widened from the mid-1990s after pensions were indexed to average weekly earnings and the unemployment benefit to the inflation index; a long boom with low inflation did the rest, kicked along by a Rudd government budget boost for pensioners in 2009. A single pensioner now gets $130 a week more than someone on the basic single NewStart rate of $234 - which is, relatively, the lowest unemployment benefit in the 30 advanced countries of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Gillard government continues to resist calls by welfare agencies and some economists for the rates to be brought more into line. While not quite telling the unemployed to ''get on yer bike'', as famously did a minister in the British government of Margaret Thatcher, Labor ministers have suggested that a raise in NewStart would discourage recipients from seeking work.
But is that likely? The OECD recently reported the rate was so low as to ''raise issues about its effectiveness'' in encouraging people towards work or retraining. Instead, there was an incentive for the unemployed to make the most of any health problems and get redefined as disabled. About a third of NewStart recipients move to the disability pension, on which they stay until they die or qualify for the age pension.
The situation is particularly anguishing for older people like Blake who have worked continuously their adult life, then find employers knocking them back as they get near 60. They face a bleak few years until support gets significantly better at the pension age - but even this goalpost is being moved further away. There are more than 44,000 others aged between 60 and 64 on this supposed ''NewStart''.
The federal Employment Minister, Chris Evans, suggests mature-age Australians look at the $43.3 million ''Productive Ageing'' scheme of training and support for older people who want to stay working. We would like to hear how successful it has actually been, putting older people back in jobs. And if age discrimination is the problem, why not more investigation and exposure of the discriminators? We are, after all, constantly being told that older workers are a resource we must deploy in an ageing population that has eschewed a ''Big Australia''.
www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/guns-and-rages-in-america-20110110-19l2f.html
The gap widened from the mid-1990s after pensions were indexed to average weekly earnings and the unemployment benefit to the inflation index; a long boom with low inflation did the rest, kicked along by a Rudd government budget boost for pensioners in 2009. A single pensioner now gets $130 a week more than someone on the basic single NewStart rate of $234 - which is, relatively, the lowest unemployment benefit in the 30 advanced countries of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Gillard government continues to resist calls by welfare agencies and some economists for the rates to be brought more into line. While not quite telling the unemployed to ''get on yer bike'', as famously did a minister in the British government of Margaret Thatcher, Labor ministers have suggested that a raise in NewStart would discourage recipients from seeking work.
But is that likely? The OECD recently reported the rate was so low as to ''raise issues about its effectiveness'' in encouraging people towards work or retraining. Instead, there was an incentive for the unemployed to make the most of any health problems and get redefined as disabled. About a third of NewStart recipients move to the disability pension, on which they stay until they die or qualify for the age pension.
The situation is particularly anguishing for older people like Blake who have worked continuously their adult life, then find employers knocking them back as they get near 60. They face a bleak few years until support gets significantly better at the pension age - but even this goalpost is being moved further away. There are more than 44,000 others aged between 60 and 64 on this supposed ''NewStart''.
The federal Employment Minister, Chris Evans, suggests mature-age Australians look at the $43.3 million ''Productive Ageing'' scheme of training and support for older people who want to stay working. We would like to hear how successful it has actually been, putting older people back in jobs. And if age discrimination is the problem, why not more investigation and exposure of the discriminators? We are, after all, constantly being told that older workers are a resource we must deploy in an ageing population that has eschewed a ''Big Australia''.
www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/guns-and-rages-in-america-20110110-19l2f.html