Older Australians growing poorer
New research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals that older Australians became poorer in the ten years to 2005, compared with their counterparts in other developed countries.
The OECD report, Growing Unequal shows that over 65s in Australia had the fourth highest relative income poverty rate, with an increase of 4.6 percentage points since the 1990s.
For single Australians over the age of 65, the income poverty rate was 50%, the third highest in the OECD.
By contrast, poverty rates for seniors declined significantly in most other OECD nations over the same period.
Australia generally, with the exception of seniors, recorded an overall improvement in the level of income inequality, with a sharp fall in the level of absolute poverty.
