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LABOR’S PENSIONER INCOME CREDIT TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Friday, 02 September 2022
The Coalition welcomes the Government’s long overdue announcement of an age and veterans’ pensioner ‘income credit.’ While this policy is too little, too late for many Australians, it at least goes part of the way in adopting Coalition policy.
In June 2022, the Coalition announced our policy to double the amount of income that age pensioners and veteran service pensioners can earn without reducing pension payments. This policy increased the amount that could be earned each fortnight from $300 to $600 for individuals (or $1,200 for couples) without impacting pension payments.
Today’s announcement falls short of the Coalition’s policy, by only providing approximately half the benefit to pensioners and veterans that we have proposed. For example, Labor’s ‘income credit’ will only increase the amount an eligible participant can earn to $453 per fortnight, well short of the
$600 per fortnight proposed by the Coalition.
Following the Coalition’s announcement, we also urged the Government to immediately adopt this policy, to urgently address workforce shortages throughout the economy.
Sadly, Labor has seemingly delayed today’s announcement to coincide with the Prime Minister’s Job Summit vanity project. By doing so, eligible participants have not had the confidence to work during the first quarter of the financial year, a critical time for our economy.
The Coalition also recently introduced The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Workforce Incentive) Bill 2022 as a Private Senator’s Bill, which extends from 12 weeks to two years, the period in which age and disability support pensioners are required to reapply for payments when their employment income exceeds prescribed limits. The Bill also retains access to the Pensioner Concession Card for up to two years in these circumstances.
Accordingly, we also welcome the Government’s full adoption of both of these measures.
If the Government truly wants to ‘expedite’ these changes, we urge them to support our Bill which is already in front of the Parliament, as the fastest way to deliver these benefits to pensioners and veterans.
Ends