New ABS Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index
The first Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI) (cat. no. 6467.0) from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was released on last week.
The PBLCI shows a 0.1% increase in prices compared with the 0.5% increase reported in the CPI for the June quarter 2009. The PBLCI showed a 0.9% increase for the March quarter 2009, compared with 0.1% increase for the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The PBLCI will provide an alternate measure of price change to better reflect changes in living costs as they affect pensioners and other households receiving income from the government.
Further information is available in the Information Paper: Introduction of the Pensioner Cost Living Index (PBLCI) (cat. no 6466.0.0), which can be found on the ABS website www.abs.gov.au
Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA), Jenny Macklin, said the PBLCI will better reflect price increases in goods commonly purchased by pensioners.
As part of the Australian Government’s Secure and Sustainable Pension Reform, the base pension rate will be adjusted twice each year, in March and September, by whichever is the greater of the CPI or the PBLCI in the preceding six months. To keep pension rates in line with community living standards, they will also be benchmarked against wages as measured by Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE).
As part of these reforms, the effective benchmark for single pensioners will increase from 25 to 27.7% of MTAWE.
She said the new pension rates will be released soon, and will reflect the improved indexation process and the specific pension increases announced in the May Budget.
