Seniors may be pleasantly surprised and Mr. Rudd come good with a Christmas Bonus. We can hope anyway. If he does not I feel he has lost the next election as that would be downright mean and yes Seniors have a brain and a vote.

..............



I think Single Pensioners will come out of the pay rise in September o.k. and not quite what you are thinkinhg is going to happen! but couples were "ripped off" so to speak. and will remember. I think couples were "slighted" to be honest but Mr. Rudd wil pay for it; sadly though the opposition is not very exciting either, so voting will be a very difficult choice next time unless Mr. Rudd does better than he has.

Phyl.

Colonal, where did you get this info as I have been to the Centrelink and also rung them and they do not seem to have any straight answers.

I think you will find that the single aged pension will increase by $30 per fortnight, plus the supplement will increase also. Just to confuse matters, the Government has chosen the same time to implement the payment of all the other Utilities/telephone allowances. I've been told I will receive a letter in September, outlining just what my Pension payment will be. I'll wait til then.

Woops, by $60 per fortnight, not $30!

Yes, we are being conned. I don't know about anyone else, but I believe that by the time the increase is paid in September, we will just be catching up yet again. I don't know about anyone else, but we in the A.C.T. have been hit with increased car registration,and food prices have skyrocketed, and I believe this rise will make litle difference to our current standard of living. In fact we have fallen so far behind in the last few months, we will still be struggling well below the poverty line.



I believe the "bundled" utilities amount to something like $2.39 per week, and that will be added to the $30.00 per week. I also understand from a Centrelink employee who "thought" that we will be paid the full utilities allowance in September, and from then on we will get the additional $2.39 per week in lieu. As a previous poster said, unfortunately we will just have to wait and see, there is precious little we can do about it.

Yes Pommy we ARE far behind already as-- Rates/Rego/Water/Elect /Food --you name it has gone up way over what we will receive and gone well b4 we recieve it.

And married people on pensions are worse off again.

Mr. Rudd has put Seniors against each other re singles and marrieds which is such a shame as divided we all fall in the long run.

Marrieds are not exempt re the costs of everything and going up by the week.



Good on singles getting $60 a pay more! but marrieds should not have been slighted like they were. Marrieds see no help on the horizon at all.



I would love to see married politicians given a lesser wage because they have a partner living with them. All hell would break loose. We all paid single tax..............



I have a married couple stop speaking to a single very good friend, because they are afraid what they will say to her, when she cries about all her bills when they received peanuts and really struggling. Mind you nobody has received any yet have they.



We still need to stick together but hey we probably will not :(

I didn't get the increase yet, but I already lost it due to:



Electricity up between l7-24%

Rates up 18%

Car registration up

Licence fee up

Water up 100 percent

Water access fee (discrimination...?)

Recycling maintenance fee up

Petrol prices are up

Food prices are up



... these are only what I know about, I'm sure Telstra and others will think of something too.



There are countries in this world where married people get two independent pensions - as it should be.

Why do we always have to have the worst possible solution?

I find the Political arguments absolutely amazing. Seniors, by their very category, should have some inkling of how Australian Democracy works, but they don't seem to have a clue. You vote for a local member & expect him or her (Liberal or Labor) to represent you. If the elected member actually had any desire to look after the actual constituants, it would only be for a maximum period of 3 years. This is because, if they don't follow the Party Line, they are disendorsed & therefore out of a job. THEREFORE, they DON'T represent their constituants. Did I hear somebody say, what about Barnaby Joyce? Yes, Barnaby comes out with all the right stuff publicly, then he gets called into the Party Headquarters & when he emerges, he has changed his view to the Party Line.

The Colonel is wrong! The single pensioner, ON FULL PENSION, will get the $30 P/W, plus the $2.39 ON TOP of the existing utility allowances. What they didn't tell you was that any single pensioner receiving more than $71 P/W from superannuation, will have their $30 P/W reduced proportionately. At this stage, the $500 is off the table, but it is under further discussion.

The thing that amazes me most, is that we have not heard an almighty scream from the single pensioners regarding the source of their $30 rise. The Constitution gives one of the major jobs of the Government, to balancing the budget.

This rise is not funded. The cost, this financial year, will be approx., $3 billion, next year, around $4 billion. If I were to offer all you married pensioners, as big a rise as you ask for, on one condition:- the total cost, each & every year will be added up, together with interest, & the bill will be given to your grandchildren to repay, in full; how much would you want?

The ONLY thing that a politician understands, is votes. When the next election comes, 10,000 of you disgruntled seniors will change from Labor to Liberal & 10,000 will change from liberal to Labor. Therefore, making the total Senior vote null & void

At the end of the day, you got the Gov't you voted for & the one you deserve

You're right Innes, we get the government we deserve. We all know we are being conned, you'd need to be blind Freddy not to know, but come election time, the majority of people will vote for who everpromises to give us what we want, regardless of the cost to the nation. We, the Seniors, along with every other disadvantaged group in Australia, will continue to be conned by Governments, because it is too easy for politicians to tell us what we want to hear. We believe it, because we need to hang onto something. Things never change.

Centrelink will pay the last of the utilities allowance pro rata payment in Sept and then it stops.



Yes the GST is already in the base pension and has been since 2000 when Howard brought it in to compensate pensioners. This is being moved they say into the supplements allowance.



But since last time I checked they had not even passed the legislation on these changes - who knows?