Half Australia’s elderly living in poverty

More than half of Australia’s elderly are living below the poverty line with two thirds of them relying solely on the single age pension of just $273 a week.

The Melbourne Institute’s statistical report of household, labour, and income dynamics in Australia shows that between 2001 and 2005 more than 50% of elderly men and women were living on less than half of the median
national disposable income.

In 2005 the poverty line was drawn at $13,340 with the maximum payment for single pensioners at that time being $12,700. The Federal Opposition is now pushing for the base rate of the single age pension to be lifted
from $273 a week to $303 a week.

Melbourne Institute researcher Bruce Headey said that “it’s just unreasonable, to my mind, that a single pension is only half a couple pension. It’s not practical to suggest that they can go back to work”.

The figures also show that it is elderly single women who are suffering most. From 2001 to 2005 between 58.5% and 52.5% were living below the poverty line.

For men it was 53.1% in 2001 and 48.1% in 2005. National Seniors Australia chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said the figures “challenge us for the future about the kind of value that we attach to our older citizens”.