In a year marred by ongoing COVID-19 infections, record floods, increasing inflation, cost of living pressures and critical workforce shortages, we could be forgiven for being pessimistic about 2022.  

The truth is, when it comes to our collective efforts to improve the lives of older Australians, there is much to celebrate.  

While there will always be more to do and room for improvement, our successes this year are a taste of more to come.  

National Seniors Australia, together with our valued members and supporters, have helped to bring about real change. Together we have helped to create a better and fairer future for older Australians.  

We are profoundly grateful for your contribution and support throughout 2022, without which we would not have the wins we have had.  

These wins include:

The year kicked off with the announcement that the interest rate on the government’s “reverse mortgage” scheme would fall. This scheme enables homeowners to draw on the equity in their home to boost income in retirement to fund a higher standard of living at low cost and risk.

During the election, Labor and the Coalition agreed to extend eligibility for the CSHC. This enables more than 44,000 more self-funded retirees to receive access to concessions, including cheaper prescription medicines.

A two-year freeze on deeming rates was announced during the election so that pensioners will not see a fall in their payments, even if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cash rate climbs – as it has.

Another election promise was to reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme price of medicines by $10 to a maximum of $32.50. This enables older (and younger) Australians who do not have access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listed medicines at concession rates.

Much work has been done this year to find ways to address workforce shortages, culminating in the Jobs and Skills Summit and the ongoing Employment White Paper process.  

National Seniors has played a part through our Let Pensioners Work campaign.  

What began in late 2021 as a call to address shortages in aged care (particularly home care), an area of core concern to older Australians and their families, has broadened out to a call to address inequalities in the pension and broader welfare system.  

You can read more in our white paper submission here.  

Our Let Pensioners Work campaign has been successful in several ways:  

• We gained widespread political, industry and community support sector, with Independent MPs, The National Farmers Federation and Council of Small Business and the 2022 Senior Australian of the Year publicly endorsing our campaign.  
• We received consistent national media coverage on prime-time television, talkback radio and print media, keeping the campaign in the spotlight and public arena.  
• We gained prominence for our call to the Jobs and Skills Summit, with CEO John McCallum one of only 146 invited participants.  

As a direct result of these actions, the federal government announced that the Work Bonus limit would increase by $4000 (from $7,800 to $11,800) until July 2023 at the Jobs and Skills Summit.  

We successfully had this end date extended to December 2023 with the help of the Greens and other crossbench independents.  

This change enables pensioners, veterans, disability support pensioners and recipients of the carer payment over the pension age to earn an additional $4,000 before their pension reduces.

We will continue to work with the government, opposition, and crossbench parties and MPs in 2023. We will push for further reforms to the pension and welfare system to make changes to help those on low incomes earn more.