Last night’s Federal Budget announcement was packed full of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, but will it be enough to make a meaningful difference to financially stressed older people?
Rent assistance has been increased, as has the JobSeeker rate and relief for winter energy bills is also on the way.
Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers said relieving inflationary pressures on ordinary Australians was his priority for this Budget.
“Our overriding ambition is to help the people who need it most,” Dr Chalmers told the ABC.
“We want to look after people, but we want to do it in a sustainable way.”
But has that quest for economic sustainability come at the expense of making a real difference to Aussies doing it tough, particularly older Aussies.
The experts are a little mixed in their responses.
Looming large over proposed measures to reduce inflation was the government’s insistence on pushing ahead with the controversial Stage 3 tax cuts.
Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), says the tax cuts undermine any relief measures for the vulnerable and render them useless.
“The government is providing an increase of $2.85 a day for people with the least. The Stage 3 tax cuts will deliver $25 a day to people on the highest incomes,” she says.
“We have our priorities wrong.”
Dr Goldie added that unemployed older Australians aged 55 and over will now receive $56.70 per day, which is well below the $76 per day ACOSS recommends.
ACOSS applauded the 15 per cent increase to Rent Assistance, but says this too is not enough to make a real impact.
“The Budget has delivered a 15 per cent increase to Rent Assistance, the first real increase in more than 30 years,” Dr Goldie said.
“This is welcome but will fail to prevent widespread housing stress.”
Personal finance guru Noel Whittaker told YourLifeChoices the rent assistance boost will materially help older Australians, but he was surprised not to see any tinkering with mandatory superannuation drawdown rules and deeming rates in order to counter inflation.
“I was surprised they did not restore the mandatory account-based pension drawdown rules to what they were before COVID,” he says.
“But this may happen before 30 June.”
“They [Budget measures] are all starting quickly, but the problem is that they’re all inflationary, and this may cause interest rates to rise. I’m surprised that deeming rates weren’t increased, but again that could happen by regulation before 30 June.”
Paul Versteege, policy manager for the Combined Pensioner and Superannuants Association (CPSA), told us most older Australians will see a real increase to their spending power after the Budget.
“There’s plenty in the Budget that will have a material and positive cost-of-living impact on the lives of older Australians,” he said.
He praised the increase to the Medicare bulk-billing incentive, but says it still may not be enough to address the root causes of the bulk-billing crisis.
“Health [and] energy are all areas where people spend a lot of money, and the increase in GP bulk-billing incentives, the halving of the price of common medicines and energy rebates will not make anybody rich but will make a difference to the lives of many.
“CPSA welcomes the $3.5 billion set aside to stop the decline in general practitioners’ bulk-billing of patients on low incomes, and children. CPSA is concerned that bulk-billing incentives may not be sufficient to stop this decline, in the face of a GP shortage affecting regional and suburban areas and the opportunity this gives GPs to charge more.”
Mr Versteege echoed the praise for lifting JobSeeker, but confirmed the increase is also below CPSA’s desired amount.
“It’s disappointing to see that Jobseeker has been increased at only $20 a week,” he says.
“Better than nothing, but the increase should have taken Jobseeker to 90 per cent of the Age Pension as per the recommendation of the government-appointed Social Inclusion Committee.”
Mission Australia CEO Sharon Callister also criticised the small increase to JobSeeker and other support payments, but acknowledged that the extra $46 per week in JobSeeker given to those aged 55 and over will encourage more older Australians back into the workforce.
“We also acknowledge the small $20 a week increase to JobSeeker and other payments, and the lowering of the threshold for older long-term unemployed people from 60 to 55 years old,” she said.
“However, the federal government’s ongoing refusal to increase income support payments like JobSeeker to an adequate amount is condemning individuals and families to an ongoing struggle to make ends meet and keep a roof over their head.”
Patricia Sparrow, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia, was a bit more positive about the announcement, especially as it relates to older women.
“The focus on gender equality in this year’s budget is very welcomed and older women in particular will be better off because of it,” she told YourLifeChoices.
“Measures such as the increase to Jobseeker payments and rent assistance as well as energy
relief, cheaper medicines, more GPs bulk billing pensioners and healthcare card holders
without a co-payment will all make a tangible difference to the hip pockets of many older
people.
“We know that older women are disproportionately impacted by unemployment and are
unfortunately the fastest growing group at risk of homelessness, so budget measures that
address those issues are not just welcomed, they’re crucial.”
Do you think the Budget delivered enough for older Australians? What would you like to have seen announced? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Federal Budget May 2023: Treasurer’s speech
How is bulk billing going to help pensioners, my doctor bulk bills pensioners allready and I thought most would do same. Paul
Our clinic used to but not anymore. $25 gap for a standard 15 minute visit
Mine used to bulk bill but since September it costs at least $20 each time I go and I have to attend reasonably regularly due to a health issue. Hopefully they will go back to bulk billing now.
This a complete fallacy – SO many people say ‘oh but pensioners are bulk billed’. COMPLETELY NOT SO! I live in an area with a very high demographic of seniors – my 87yo aunt is in a local aged care facility. I myself have been seeing my own GP for 20 years – she has already saved my life once already, (suspected I had a pulmonary embolism that another doctor said was back strain. She was on leave so I had seen a locum at the same clinic) – had I not gone back to see her I would be dead. So I will not be changing clinics, or GP. Their clinic DID bulk bill some years ago, but we were advised this would cease – for everyone. No patient is bulk billed at that clinic. I pay $98.50 each visit – get back around $38.50.
My aunt used to be bulk billed – that was stopped at the beginning of Covid. There is not one GP in my area that will take new patients for bulk billing – we have tried to find one, none doing it.
I am a bit confused about the reduction to electricty bills. We have solar and are in credit because we use electricity very carefully by instead of putting the heater on, we have blankets. Does that by being in credit we do not gain anything from the budget?
buy an electric heater use the 500 up then go back to blankets next year
No – I am in the same situation. We still get the credit amount (what ever amount that is as it says ‘up to $500’). Who ever gives the ‘bonus’, does not have, or need to know, the balance of your account. All they need to know is that the electricity account is in the name of a pensioner.
Has anyone noticed that he proposed increases exceed the tax free threshold and are taxable ?