The Australian Council of Social Service (ACCOSS) has released interesting data showing the gaping gulf that has opened up between those Australians receiving JobSeeker and those receiving the Aged Pension:
The pension payment rate in Australia has long been linked to average weekly earnings and, more recently, a combination of earnings and price indices. Consequently, the pension grew steadily in real terms over the first two decades of the century (Figure 2).
However, this increase was not sufficient to keep up with the growth in median income in the first years of the 21st Century (Figure 3).
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
