Federal Budget 2026 —your voice to government

National Seniors Australia (NSA) protects, defends, and promotes the interests of older people. We are passionate about voicing your concerns and initiatives for a better nation to our political leaders and administrators. Rest assured, through our advocacy and campaigning, we are representing you and your families. 

We seek to influence government, state and federal, and the way they spend our money, by advancing the concerns and ideas of older Australians. When governments begin preparing their annual budgets is the ideal time for us to act, and that’s when we submit well-researched, responsible recommendations.

You can be sure, governments are listening to us, and it is an ongoing conversation that goes beyond posting a yearly submission. Through our regular meetings and conversations across state and federal governments, ministers, politicians, and public servants pay attention to what we say. Because of our advocacy, last year’s Federal Budget delivered higher bulk billing rates, more affordable medicines, and energy bill relief.

In 2026, cost-of-living pressures continue to affect the nation and especially those on fixed and limited incomes, which includes many seniors. We believe the 2026 Budget provides an opportunity to refine government policy to ensure that public spending is targeted to achieve positive outcomes for the country. It also provides an opportunity to leverage the experience, skills, and resources that older people offer to build a better nation.

Government is only as good and responsive as the initiatives, ideas, and pressures brought by the people. Our submission does that—delivering much needed well-considered and researched proposals to improve the financial and physical health of older people, and their families, as well as keeping the reforms to aged care on track and ensuring there is targeted support for older people in need. So, how do our budget initiatives affect you?

We’re making 13 recommendations to the budget process, covering these important topics: 

• Age Pension. 
• Concessions. 
• Housing. 
• Superannuation. 
• Banking and financial services. 
• Health. 
• Aged Care.

There’s a quick-read boxed summary of each recommendation in this article, but we encourage you to delve deeper into why we believe government must act on our recommendations, which express what you—our members and supporters—have told us through our surveys and other engagement activities. Download the full submission here.

• Recommendation: Create a fair and transparent method to set deeming rates, with a measured transition in line with indexation. 

The government uses deeming rules to estimate income from your financial assets. It adds this to your other income and applies the income test to determine your pension payment rate. Rates are reviewed in March and September and adjusted for changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). 

The more income you generate, the less pension you may be eligible for. Also, it is used to determine eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and your co-contributions for aged care services. So, when the government increases deeming rates, it is assuming you are earning higher income from your investments, even if you aren’t. That can mean less pension payment.

• Recommendation: Exempt employment income from the Age Pension income test. 

Australia faces workforce shortages, but government policies penalise a ready labour force of age pensioners, and workers transitioning to the pension, who are ready and willing to contribute. Under current rules, pension payments decline when a pensioner earns more than the rules allow. Pension rules are complex and confusing and cause some pensioners not to work or to work in the black economy and discourage transitioning workers from ongoing employment.

This is while job vacancies in key sectors, health care, and social assistance remain stubbornly high (18.2% of total vacancies). We should be supporting people to work past pension age if they want to. Even a 5% increase in older workers would add $48 billion to the economy. In addition, it would help boost superannuation and address gaps in retirement savings.

• Recommendation: Apply a targeted $150 energy credit to households and small businesses, and ‘catch‑up’ (and ongoing) indexation to the existing Energy Supplement (ES). 

Older people, especially those on limited incomes who cannot afford the latest technologies, regularly tell us that rising energy prices is a key concern. 

Previous government rebates eased pressure on household budgets, helping pensioners, carers, job seekers, and others to meet rising electricity costs. However, indexation of the ES ceased 12 years ago and as such, its value relative to rising energy prices has declined year-on-year.

• Recommendation: Create a Pensioner Extra Concessions Card (PECC) to target additional concessions and supports to pensioners with limited means. 

Commonwealth concession cards are used by all levels of government to provide access to subsidised services and concessions. However, concessions are not targeted to those pensioners who need them the most. 

A dedicated card would give pensioners a better deal as they spend down their savings in later life or if they had limited income or savings when they retire.

• Recommendation: Exempt excess sale proceeds from the Age Pension means test when selling a principal place of residence, to support downsizing into age‑friendly homes. 

You may have decided the family home is too big and expensive to maintain and want to ‘downsize’ into something more manageable and less risky. However, there’s a dilemma that is causing a lot of Age Pensioners from doing this sensible thing. Downsizing means selling the home and that can mean receiving large sale proceeds, which the government counts towards your pension assets test, and that could severely impact your pension payments.

• Recommendation: Increase the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) and tie indexation to changes in the rental component of the CPI. 

The rental crisis in Australia is worsening as rental prices and competition for housing increase. More older people are reliant on the rental market. One-off increases to CRA have not been enough to catch up to big rent cost increases. Whatever gain there has been will disappear if indexation continues to be attached to overall CPI and not specifically tied to the rent component of CPI.

• Recommendation: Ensure people retain control over their superannuation and implement a performance test for retirement products. 

You have told us that access to superannuation lump sums and money to meet irregular costs such as health and aged care is critical in later life. It is a concern not always shared by government, which of late wants retirees to spend their savings. We must ensure any reforms are designed to help superannuants make better choices about their hard-earned money.

• Recommendation: Ensure face‑to‑face banking services remain available to communities through a Community Services Obligation (CSO) funded by a levy increase. 

Bank closures, especially in regional and rural areas, are making it difficult to provide cash and face‑to‑face banking. Alternative banking services, such as Bank@Post, offer only basic transactions. In other sectors of the economy, there are provisions for delivering essential services to vulnerable cohorts through CSO.

• Recommendation: Direct the Productivity Commission to conduct a full review of the private health system. 

Private Health Insurance (PHI) is something seniors love to hate. “Can’t live with it, can’t live without it”, you have told us. As premium costs increase, products are limited and out-of-pocket costs soar. On top of this, out-of-pocket hospital and specialist charges are raging like an out‑of‑control bushfire leaving private sector patients footing bigger bills.

• Recommendation: Create a targeted Seniors Dental Benefits Scheme to provide seniors with assistance to meet dental costs. 

Older people with low socioeconomic status, and those living in residential aged care settings, are more likely to have poor oral health. Those who can’t afford private health care must rely on public dental services and lengthy wait lists.

Poor oral health can: 

• Affect a person’s ability to speak, eat, and socialise 
• Contribute to social isolation, functional impairment, pain and discomfort, ill health, and even death 
• Is linked to other chronic conditions—diabetes, respiratory diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases.

• Recommendation: Reduce the waitlist for Support at Home by releasing new packages and increasing the aged care assessment workforce.

After significant progress in clearing the Home Care Package waitlist, the situation has gone backwards as people wait months for help. 

• Recommendation: Increase transparency by creating a simple aged care provider performance scorecard to assist consumers. 

Aged Care Quality and Safety, along with financial transparency, are paramount to consumers, and will become more so as older people and families contribute more to their care.

This article is featured in National Seniors Australia’s quarterly member magazine, Our Generation. 

Become a member today and receive a yearly subscription to Our Generation digital magazine as part of your membership, along with exclusive discounts, competitions, branch access and more! 

Your membership directly funds our advocacy and research work that benefits older Australians including fixing pension poverty, tackling health care costs, and improving aged care.