National Seniors Australia (NSA) chief Ian Henschke claims that Australia’s rigid aged pension system discourages older Australians from working, thereby contributes to labour shortages:
“These labour shortages could be filled by pensioners and those about to reach pension age if we only encouraged them and didn’t penalise them for working beyond one day a week,” Mr Henschke said.
“The present system discourages older workers from remaining in the workforce past pension age. Once you earn more than $240 a week (effectively one day’s work) you lose 50c in the dollar from your pension and pay tax.