Happy to do the heavy lifting, but not without some support

Dear Fellow Members,

Firstly, let me begin with a big thankyou for your comments, remarks and suggestions following the Federal Budget.

You highlighted that no-one knows the importance of balancing a Budget better than a FiftyUp, and that Australia has been living beyond its means for long enough.

The question with this Budget was always how to spread the pain fairly, and we think older Australians are being asked to do more than their fair share.

The reality is some of us may never see the grand visions we’re being asked to help fund.

Treasurer Joe Hockey called it a “heavy lifting” Budget.  So please allow me to put my tongue in my cheek and look at it this way.

I know that after I have done the heavy lifting I will get a double hernia. And I know it will cost me more to get to the doctor, with the price of petrol going up.

I also know the visit to the doctor will cost $7 more, and I know I will have to pay up to an extra $5 for my medication.

What I don’t know is whether, if I get better, a potential employer will use the Government’s $10,000 incentive to hire me.

Businesses will get $3000 for hiring workers over 50 who’ve been out of work for six months. They’ll get another $3000 if they keep them on for at least 12 months, and then another $2000 at 18 months.

We applaud the initiative, but we think it’s only the beginning and we have plenty of questions.

How much of that money would go toward training and education?

How many employers will take up the offer, given it’s not a huge amount?

How will the government measure its success?

As Age Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Ryan, puts it, “Of itself, this incentive will not shift the entrenched cultural attitudes and structural barriers that exclude older workers from the workforce”.

She is 100% right when she says targeting training and development of older workers is essential if older workers are to have any chance at all of working until they are 70.

And that brings me to the decision to link the aged care pension to inflation from September 2017, rather than 27.7% share of the average total male weekly earnings  - which will cut the real value of the aged care pension by as much as $80 a week a decade from now, according to the Council on the Ageing Australia.

Now that really is some heavy lifting for those of us with bones older than 50!

Until next week,

My Warmest Regards,

John