Advocacy Wins
National Seniors has had a number of significant advocacy wins. With your help, we can achieve even more!
Energy Rebate
The Federal Government has provided a one-off $300 energy rebate in the 2024 budget for all households. In Queensland, the total rebate will be $1000 (on top of the existing $372 Energy Rebate for seniors).
Freeze on deeming
A 12 month freeze on deeming rates has been provided in the 2024 Budget until 30 June 2025 ensuring pension payments do not reduce as inflation rises. This extends the initial two-year freeze that was ending on 30 June 2024.
Rent assistance
10% increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance
A 10% increase to the maximum rate of CRA was announced in the 2024 Federal Budget. This increase will begin from September 2024 and is on top of the 15% increase provided in the 2023 Budget to assist renters with rising housing costs.
Permanent $4,000 increase in Work Bonus limit
In our submission to the Employment White Paper in November 2022, National Seniors Australia called on the government to adopt policies that support greater workforce participation. As part of the Employment White Paper’s release in September 2023, the government announced it will permanently increase the Work Bonus limit by $4,000. The Work Bonus was increased from $7,800 to $11,800 in 2022 so older people can work more without losing 50c in the dollar from their pension. This was a temporary measure until the end of 2023, but this change will now be permanent from 1 January 2024. We continue to call for further changes to boost workforce participation in the care and support economy.
More retirees to get access to concessions
During the 2022 federal election, the Coalition and then Labor announced changes to income test rules for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). This has since been legislated meaning some 44,000 low income self-funded retirees now get access to valuable concessions, such as cheaper medicines through the PBS and state and territory-based cost of living concessions.
Home Equity Access Scheme wins
The Home Equity Access Scheme was extended to everyone of pension age from 1 July 2019. This included an increase in the allowable income to 150% of the Age Pension. We also called for a lowering of the Home Equity Access Scheme interest rate. On 1 January 2020, it fell from 5.25% to 4.5% per annum. On 15 December 2021, it was announced that the interest rate would drop from 4.5% to 3.95% per annum from 1 January 2022 - a reward for our strong and consistent campaigning.
Pension stays at 67
We campaigned against plans to increase the pension age from 67 to 70 and were pleased when Prime Minister Scott Morrison backed away from the unpopular idea. The decision reverses a policy announced in the 2014 Budget and is a win for common sense.
Ending the Medicare Freeze
We continue to pressure governments and industry to put the brakes on rising health-care costs. Doctors blamed out-of-pocket costs on governments limiting the rebates they received for seeing Medicare patients. The cost was passed on to patients. It was a big win when this was acknowledged and the freeze ended.
A regulated price for electricity
After considering submissions to the inquiry into electricity pricing in 2017, including National Seniors' own submission, the ACCC recommended a default offer with a regulated price and basic consumer protections be created. A default market offer (DMO) with regulated price was created by the federal government on 1 July 2019. This was a huge win for older consumers unable to shop around for a better deal on energy.
Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
One of the biggest announcements in 2018 was the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. National Seniors has highlighted the problems in aged care for many years and welcomed the establishment of the commission. We have been actively engaged, providing submissions, attending hearings and communicating the experiences and views of members through the media.
Extra home care packages
NSA has been at the forefront of efforts to secure more home care packages to meet rising demand and arrest wait times for services. Most recently, we supported efforts to call for the immediate release of new packages, leading to the announcement that the Federal Government will bring forward the release of 20,000 new packages, ahead of the 1 November 2025 start date of the new Support at Home Programme.
National elder abuse plan
In 2016, we made a range of recommendations for action on elder abuse. A new national plan to tackle elder abuse was released in 2019. We continue to promote reforms to improve protections for older people including a national register for Enduring Powers of Attorney.
Better Housing
National Seniors has lobbied hard to make housing more accessible as part of our Better Housing campaign. On 30 April 2021, Ministers attending the building ministers’ meeting agreed to adopt mandatory accessibility standards in the National Construction Code (NCC). This means all new homes and apartments will have to meet 7 minimum accessibility standards to accommodate people with limited mobility or a disability. This includes: a step free entrance door, wider internal doorways to allow wheelchairs and a toilet at entry level.
Donate
National Seniors is the leading not-for-profit organisation fighting for a fair go for older Australians.
We rely on people like you to donate so we can continue to tackle issues such as age discrimination, accessible housing, pension poverty, health costs, aged care, improve retirement income and provide more home care places so that older Australians can live safely and make ends meet.
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