Federal Member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, has welcomed the introduction of legislation into Parliament to help support older Australians.
The legislation, introduced by the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, aims to help older Australians on the age pension to stay connected to the workforce through a new, more generous Work Bonus.
“This delivers on our election commitment to help age pensioners who work, to earn more before their pension is affected,” Justine said.
The new Work Bonus is due to begin on July 1 and will encourage older Australians to continue contributing their skills and knowledge by remaining in the workforce.
Under the new rules, age pensioners will be able to earn up to $250 a fortnight without it being assessed as income under the income test. Pensioners will also be able to build up any unused amount of their $250 fortnightly bonus in an ‘income bank’ to a total of $6500.
The ‘income bank’ can be used to exempt future earnings from the pension income test, so that a pensioner could earn up to $6500 a year extra without it affecting their pension. This could be from regular work each fortnight or, for example, over a six-week period before Christmas.
Any unused amount of the income bank can be carried forward across years. The new Work Bonus is a win for senior Australians, who will get more incentive to work; it is a win for business, which will find it easier to tap into the skills of older workers; and it is a win for the Australian economy.
Ms Elliot said the changes further improve the existing Work Bonus, which was introduced as part of the Australian Government’s Secure and Sustainable Pension Reforms on September 20, 2009.
As part of the historic pension reforms in September 2009, the Government delivered significant pension increases and improved indexation. For pensioners on the maximum rate, these reforms have delivered increases of $115 a fortnight for singles and $97 a fortnight for couples combined.
