Thread: Pension and super around the World

Of course we can ND, if we have the political will do so.

As a fortunate recipient of a (small) part age pension I was always thankful that the writers of our constitution encouraged our country to take on the responsibility for paying an age pension in its constitution and by 1908 the Commonwealth had amalgamated a mix of state benefits to pay a means-tested age pension to those citizens who needed it.

As it turns out by age 65 I had a super scheme which was able to be supplemented by the age pension. For various health reasons I really needed to cease fulltime work then.

For over 100 years the age pension did commence for men at age 65 and women at 60 and unfortunately this has been mucked around with and it has become a political football over the last 10 years, with the government now paying on the lower of means tested or asset tested pension but at least while we have a constitution it will remain available for those who need it.

Sure, arguments will continue to fly around that our "budget" will not be able to continue to "afford" this type of extravagance but as current affairs demonstrate, budgets in reality are very flexible and in practice bare little resemblance to the usual household income and expenditure budget that some commentators would have us believe.

FYI, that table is ranking our Superannuation, not the Old Age Pension.

The US for example, completely lacks any form of universal Super/pension.


Edit: they have "Social Security" which I'm guessing is like our old age pension, but a New York Times article I read last year indicated that as a result of Australia's super system:

- our pension system isn't bankrupt (Japan's basically is, US too maybe)

- coverage is extensive, meaning nearly everyone has some post-retirement income (suggesting that in the US it isn't)

- amounts are generous (because of how much is compulsorily saved).

But the NYT article was criticising people here spending big on caravans and 4WDs for the big lap when they retire ....

It doesn't mention any qualifications. whether contributory or non-contributory, residential requirements, and so on.