Pensioners


Gittins: Pollies pander to grey power

Single age pensioners received a pension increase and concessions on their rent. Is it because they are the most ‘worthy’ pensioners? No. It’s because their votes are critical, writes Ross Gittins.

Dealing with Centrelink is a full-time job for some pensioners

Aged pensioners who supplement their pensions with paid employment, even occasionally, must now report their circumstances to Centrelink every fortnight, writes Ava Hubble.

60 is not the new 40

Age discrimination continues in the workplace, writes Ava Hubble.

2009 budget is oversold and unfair

Yes, there were good bits, but as a social document based on fairness, the 2009 federal budget wasn’t crash hot.

Court of Human Rights’ shock decision on UK pensions

Over 500,000 elderly British expats, about half of them Australia-based, are reeling from the shock news that the European Court of Human Rights has rejected their claim that the UK’s long-standing frozen pensions policy is discriminatory, writes Ava Hubble.

The needy miss out on Santa Kevin’s package

Santa Kevin managed to miss out some of the most needy and give unnecessary money to some people one could call a tetch greedy, writes Eva Cox.

Coalition continues pushing money to rich pensioners

A $30 rise is not enough for the really poor pensioners with no income and is too much for those well off pensioners that Peter Costello stuck on the public tit in his last couple of budgets, writes Eva Cox.

Senate passes payrise for pensioners in its own good time

Getting the pensioners’ payrise through the Senate called on a steady-as-she-goes, good-process policy development much beloved by old-school bureaucrats, writes Bernard Keane.