‘Slap in the face’ for older workers
A proposed $2,000 a year cap on tax deductions for professional education was a “short sighted slap in the face” for older workers, consumer lobby group for the over 50s, National Seniors Australia, said.
A proposed $2,000 a year cap on tax deductions for professional education was a “short sighted slap in the face” for older workers, consumer lobby group for the over 50s, National Seniors Australia, said.
The move announced in the May budget was also reportedly contrary to the federal government’s own strategy for overcoming barriers to employment for older workers.
National Seniors’ chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said if the legislation comes into force on 1 July 2014, it will impose an additional barrier on people maintaining their skills and could hasten the retirement of experienced skilled professionals.
“This is short sighted and ignores the wealth of knowledge and experience gathered over a lifetime,” O’Neill said.
“Investing in one’s own professional development is simply good practice.
“Older Australians are encouraged by ministers and bureaucratic advisers to maintain the currency of their skills but this proposal quite simply devalues that advice and plays right into the kind of attitudes that result in entrenched discrimination against mature aged workers.”
A survey of Barriers to Employment for Mature Age Australians in 2011-2012 showed that an overwhelming majority (85.7%) of respondents believed there was not only a mismatch of skills and experience with industry demands but also there were barriers to retraining and upskilling.
Mr O’Neill said the research by National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre showed that early retirement had a detrimental effect on the Australian economy.
It not only reduced the size of the labour force, but also meant that employers had to forego the skills and knowledge of mature age people, their substantial contributions to productivity, as well as their capacity to mentor younger workers.
