ABC NEWS
21 Jan 2014
The Federal Government says the age pension will be excluded from a wide-ranging review of the welfare system.
The review into the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and the Newstart allowance is due to be handed to the Government in February and is likely to recommend making it tougher for people to qualify for the payments.
Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews says a new report shows income support payments are now costing the Government $70 billion a year and he is concerned they are becoming unsustainable.
Mr Andrews says one in five Australians is receiving an income support payment.
But he has ruled out touching the age pension.
“At this stage we are looking at other income support payments, but not the age pension,” he said.
The man who will lead the review has previously recommended a universal welfare payment, with extra loadings depending on individual circumstances but the Government has indicated that is unlikely in the short term.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten had raised concerns the Government would target the age pension in the crackdown.
Mr Shorten based his claim about the age pension on an interview Mr Andrews gave to ABC’s NewsRadio in which he highlighted the inconsistency of the unemployment benefit rate being indexed at a different rate to the DSP.
Labor sources believe that because the disability pension is indexed the same as the age pension, Australia’s 2 million pensioners should be worried.
Mr Shorten says people on the age pension do not “deserve to be on the chopping block”.
“I think all Australians understand that people on the age pension have paid taxes their whole life,” he said.
The number of people receiving Newstart has fluctuated over the 10 years to 2012, with a decline to 399,401 recipients in 2008, down from more than 500,000 in 2002.
However, that figure jumped after the global financial crisis and was just shy of 550,000 people in 2012.
