Major pensions back down Get-Up

Dear NEVILLE,

It’s the back down that just put much needed funds back in pensioners’ pockets.

Recently, our movement united with Australia’s largest digital retirement community, YourLifeChoices, to protect the age pension from indexation cuts amounting to a loss of $80 per week over the next decade for many pensioners.¹

It was a devastating kick in the guts for the seniors who helped create decades of Australian prosperity for all of us. But together, we let the Government know that it simply wasn’t on. And yesterday, Social Services Minister Scott Morrison announced the news to scrap the cuts.²

At the same time, the Government announced changes to the asset test and taper rates for the part pension, meaning some pensioners with higher assets will no longer get the part pension and some will get less. Unlike the now defeated cuts to indexation of the pension, at least this won’t hurt the most vulnerable.

Still, the Government chose this path while leaving untouched the wasteful superannuation tax concessions to the wealthiest group of Australians – those who don’t, and never would need, the pension. That’s money that could be used to reverse the Abbott Government’s $50 billion cut to our hospitals – which are vitally needed to provide care for ageing Australians now, and into the future. So now that we’ve got their attention, it’s time to drive the point home.

Click here to tell the Government to end wasteful superannuation handouts for the wealthy so we can fund a health and retirement system for all Australians.

Research by YourLifeChoices confirms that cuts to overly generous superannuation taxation concessions are favoured by a significant 85 per cent majority of 50-75 year olds, rather than reductions in the age pension.³ And it’s no wonder, when the vast majority of super tax concessions are poorly targeted to the wealthiest Australians — $12 billion per year to the top 10% — while low and middle income earners miss out.⁴

That money could be used to put more into the super of everyday Australians and reverse the Government’s cuts to our schools and hospitals, which provide a future for our children and care for our seniors, rather than inflating the bank accounts of the very wealthy.

We face a choice now. Get complacent because we’ve stopped the worst from happening, or press forward to build a brighter future for Australians young and old. With the Government listening and the next budget battle beginning with the release of the federal Budget next week, now is the time to act.

Click here to support super tax concessions reform: https://www.getup.org.au/reform-super

Thanks for all that you do,

Mark, Evan, Daney, Nat & George

References:
[1] “Budget changes mean pensions will be $80 a week less within a decade: Acoss”, The Guardian Australia, 22 May 2014.
[2] “Budget 2015: pensions overhaul will stop payments to 90,000 recipients”, The Guardian, 7 May 2015
[3] YourLifeChoices Budget Wishlist survey, April 2015
[4] “It’s the revenue stupid: Ideas for a brighter budget”, The Australia Institute, May 2015

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and future – and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.

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