RETIREES’ STANDARD OF LIVING BEING ERODED

WITH another cut in interest rates, one wonders what the RBA has against retirees?

For too long now older Australians have done the heavy lifting and borne the burden of RBA cuts. With every 1 per cent drop in the official rate, $40 billion worth of income is taken out of the accounts of people and impacts severely on older folks.

Pensioners need a decent return on their savings in order to live and, in many cases, to survive. No wonder the economy is sluggish.

It’s not only the RBA that is making life for pensioners more difficult.

With the changes made by the former Abbott government, many pensioners have lost their pensions or had them severely reduced. Worse, we lost our health care cards which should be given to every retiree regardless of asset or income tests.

Getting back to the low interest rates, this has also meant not only reduced incomes but it has seen the Australian dollar slide from 76c to 67c, which means that if we do decide to take holidays overseas, this means holidays will be much more expensive and shorter.

When we moved back to Geelong some 30 years ago interest rates were about the 15 per cent mark, and life was less threatening for retirees.

When I started work in the 1960s the social contract was that the government would look after me in retirement and when I did eventually leave the workforce, after having paid taxes all my working life, there would be a pension for me.

But successive governments have slowly whittled away pensioner entitlements.

To the leaders for the pensioner and retiree community I say stand up and shout “Enough is enough”.

It’s high time government stopped reducing retirees’ living standards. For starters every retiree should be encouraged to look after their health and to this end they should all receive a health care card — regardless. Alan Barron, Grovedale