Pensioners slam the NSW Government’s pension grab

“Pensioners have slammed the NSW Government’s refusal to permanently freeze their $30 pension increase from public housing rents, as Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory have done,” said CPSA Policy Coordinator Charmaine Crowe.

“When the freeze is lifted in October, rents will jump by about $10 a week because of regular indexation and the pension rise.”

“A single pensioner in public housing pays at least $3,770 in rent per annum. That’s comparable with a pensioner who owns their own home and pays land rates and home maintenance. Yet the pensioner in public housing will have their pension increase cut by 25%, while the home-owning pensioner keeps the entire amount.”

“The NSW Government may have “a great amount of sympathy for those people struggling to make ends meet” (SMH 15/06/2010), but sympathy won’t help pensioners put food on pensioners’ tables.”

“CPSA calls for the NSW Government to permanently exclude the $30 a week pension increase from public housing rents so that pensioners receive the full increase that is rightfully theirs.”

Media contact: 0410 612 182

Charmaine Crowe
Policy Coordinator
Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA)
Level 9, 28 Foveaux Street Surry Hills NSW, 2010
Phone (02) 9281 3588
Mob 0410 612 182
Fax (02) 9281 9716