This weeks Federal budget set out to do many things. It was designed to produce a record surplus, tame inflation - and deliver tax cuts to wage earners. Unfortunately it totally ignored the degree of poverty that has overtaken the single pensioner.
Many people are finding that the pension rules discriminate harshly between a pensioner couple - and a single pensioner.
The couple receive a combined pension of $ 919.40 per fortnight. The single pensioner receives $ 552.60 per fortnight - just $ 276.30 per week.
Consider this scenario. A couple are managing on their pension when disaster strikes. One of them dies. The survivor - usually the woman - because women tend to live longer than men - must make do on $ 276.30 a week.
This woman pensioner is left a fully owned family home, a car and a little money in the bank.
The bill at the supermarket and at the butcher's shop will certainly decrease with just one mouth to feed, but the household bills will be no different from when her husband was alive - and they received both pensions.
She will have to cope with council rates, water charges, electricity and gas bills, house insurance, car insurance and green slip cover, the petrol to run the car, the phone bill - and she will dread Christmas and birthdays - and the expense of presents that those will involve.
Initially she will draw from her bank to meet items that exceed her pension, but she will soon realise that can not continue. The ultimate disaster will be a major household appliance breaking down - and needing repair or replacement - or a mechanical malfunction of the car engine.
Soon the car has been discarded and she has abandoned household insurance - and she has taken to wearing an overcoat in the house in winter to avoid heating bills. Entertainment - a trip to the movies or a dinner out is a thing of the past.
It simply is not possible for a single pensioner on $ 276.30 a week to make ends meet and at the same time achieve a decent standard of living.
Any reasonable economist would agree, but the government has chosen to look away and leave this situation uncorrected.
The measure of a good government is the standard they apply right across the spectrum of their citizens. In this country the average citizen is leading the good life - and pensioners generally are being looked after.
The pity is that the single aged pensioner has been allowed to slip through the cracks - and is now being studiously ignored !
No comments:
Post a Comment