‘No brainer’: Seniors group call for pension overhaul to combat labor shortage

Excerpt courtesy of 6PR.

A leading seniors group is calling for an urgent overhaul of the aged pension that would allow seniors to return to work without financial punishment.

National Seniors wants employment income to be excluded from the income test for pensioners with limited means.

Chief Advocate Ian Henschke says it’s a “no brainer”.

“One of the big problems we’ve got at the moment is we need tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of workers,” he said on 6PR Breakfast.

“And what happens if you are a pensioner and you work more than one day a week, and that’s only $240 … you lose 50 cents in your pension, and then you pay 19 cents in the dollar tax.

“And that’s why Gina Rinehart, who’s the richest woman in Australia, has come out and said ‘fix it!’ Because it doesn’t make sense.”