National Seniors Australia has joined more than 140 influential companies and organisations including the Australian Banking Association, trade unions, Council of Small Business Organisations, and the Committee for Economic Development and Trade, attending the national jobs summit at Parliament House in Canberra.  

Announced before the election, the summit focuses on the shortage of skilled workers, low productivity and wages, with workplace pay and conditions negotiations a key discussion point.

National Seniors CEO, Professor John McCallum, will advocate on behalf of National Seniors members at the summit. He will reinforce that retirees can help solve the depleted national workforce, boost the economy and put dollars back in the pockets of pensioners facing the cost of living pressures.

The Summit is a culmination of a series of roundtable meetings, organised to discuss how to solve the jobs and skills issue facing the country. National Seniors has been actively involved in these meetings, spruiking the benefits of older workers in the economy.

National Senior’s key message to the two-day summit is that government should Let pensioners work! The Commonwealth Government must encourage pensioners to work if they want to fill labour force shortage across the economy.

We are also pushing for dedicated traineeship schemes, which would support mature age jobseekers to get jobs in areas of critical need, such as home care. 

Encouraging older Australians to work is critical if we want to fill labour force shortages. This is especially important in sectors such as health, aged, disability and child care where there are as many as 60,000 job vacancies - there are 480,000 job vacancies across the whole economy.

One of the key barriers to greater workforce participation, are the punitive pension rules.

Currently, a pensioner can only earn up to $245 per week before they start losing the pension by 50 cents in the dollar. This means they generally only work one day a week before getting penalised (depending on their remuneration). For some, this stops them from working more hours that they might. For others the disincentive combined with the hassle of dealing with Centrelink discourages workforce participation altogether.

A recent National Seniors report found that seniors view the income test as one of the main barriers to workforce participation, second only to age discrimination. The research also found as many as 20 per cent of pensioners would consider returning to work. If this is true, a change to pension rules might just create the incentive to encourage pensioners to work or work more.

Ideally, we want government to make changes to the retirement income system that make work more attractive for pensioners. Doing so could potentially mobilise tens of thousands of pensioners to stay in or rejoin the workforce or simply work more hours.

You can show your support by joining the Fairness in Retirement Income campaign or by signing our petition.

Leaders of two influential states, Victoria and NSW, are also supportive. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Treasurer Matt Kean have recently announced they too want the country’s grey army of workers mobilised to help solve the labour crisis.

Mr Kean supports lifting the pension income test levels (to some degree) and offering pensioners an income-tax break or reduced rate at which they get taxed.

National Seniors has been putting its case for change to federal government. In a recent media interview, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, discussed the possibility of reform. Encouragingly, he said they are working through how this might be achieved.

“We have got to weigh up a couple of factors here,” Mr Chalmers said. “Ideally, people would, if they wanted to, work an extra day or two.

“They can currently earn up to 490 bucks a fortnight before their pensions are affected. We've done a lot of analysis of how many people are just working up to that threshold. This will give us a sense of whether or not they want to work more, or not and whether that threshold matters to them.

"We have also got to weigh the cost of doing something like this, which is essentially making the pension available for people working more. That comes with a cost too.

“It's a long way of saying we have had a good look at it. If we could find a way through, we will. But we do have to balance it against all those other considerations, and they are not insignificant.”

Perhaps, leaders of the worker-intensive construction industry may persuade him. Master Builders South Australia CEO, Will Frogley, is reported to want to recruit pensioners and army veterans.

He says many builders are crying out for any labour they can hire, including administration jobs.

Many pensioners have limited savings and would benefit enormously from a few extra years of work to give them a little more income and top up their savings.

Unfortunately, if a pensioner needs to work, they will have to navigate the frustrating complexities of Centrelink. Show your support by joining the Fairness in Retirement Income campaign or by signing our petition. 

For further reading: Let Pensioners Work