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| ELECTIONS |
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AUSTRALIA voted and, in a way, gave a vote of no confidence to both of the major political parties. Labor suffered a swing to the Greens and, to a lesser extent, the Coalition who did not get the numbers to govern in their own right.
Th
(more)| SENIORS |
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IN an election campaign that largely focused on a debate about having a debate, major policy decisions like an ageing population were sidelined.
Both the major parties sought to appeal to the so-called ‘grey vote’, but it se
(more)| CONSUMER AFFAIRS |
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THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is undertaking a review of Telstra’s price controls. The Australia Institute has made a submission to the ACCC suggesting that price controls on Telstra should be strengthened to addr
(more)| TELEPHONY |
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ARE you frustrated by calls from telemarketers trying spruik goods or services?
The Do Not Call Register was established to prevent most telemarketers calling private phone numbers that are on the register. You can list both your fixed l
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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MINISTER FOR Ageing Justine Elliot came under fire just before Christmas 2008 for her announcement on the state of the country’s nursing homes for the last financial year.
Minister Elliot said that Australia’s nursing homes provide ‘world class c
(more)| DRIVING |
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WE WOULD like to bring to your attention that Community Legal Centres and The Older Persons Legal Service can also advise elderly drivers of their rights if they have had their licence cancelled by the RTA (Letter from Bob Jay Dec/Jan issue).
The
(more)| PENSIONS |
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THE COLLAPSE of superannuation and retirement earnings caused by the global financial crisis has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people claiming the Age Pension.
Towards the end of 2008, the number of people being granted the Age Pens
(more)| HOSPITALS |
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HOSPITALS in NSW are at breaking point and the health system needs a massive overhaul according to the Garling report commissioned to examine why the health care system in NSW has failed so many.
The report calls for a huge shift within the syst
(more)| AGED CARE |
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THE AGED CARE sector continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In December, sanctions were imposed on an Adelaide nursing home following the death of a resident.
The death that took place at Charles Young Residential Care Cen
(more)| AGED CARE |
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DESPITE MANY private for-profit nursing homes crying poor in the recent past, commentators have listed nursing homes and the aged care sector as a safe bet for investment, according to research conducted by IBISWorld.
It may be no surprise that d
(more)| WATER |
|---|
HUNTER WATER Corporation has happily proposed increasing water bills by a 57 percent to fund capital works.
A hefty increase indeed, but it’s much worse if you’re a pensioner.
What Hunter Water failed to point out was that pensioner bills wi
(more)| DENTAL CARE |
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THE RUDD GOVERNMENT, which has so far stalled on its election promise to introduce a dental scheme for low income Australians, is facing calls to abolish private health insurance rebates that go to private dentistry.
The Public Health Association
(more)| SAME SEX COUPLES |
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THE RUDD Government concluded its first year in office by honouring an election promise to remove discrimination against same-sex couples from a wide range of federal laws.
The law amendments affect areas such as social security, superannuation,
(more)| REVERSE MORTGAGES |
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A STRONGER information service will allow older Australian make better informed choices on reverse mortgages and other ‘equity release’ products.
The National Information Centre on Retirement Investments (NICRI) has begun providing comprehensive
(more)| TRANSPORT |
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PENSIONERS AND seniors in rural and regional NSW can now enjoy similar discounted travel enjoyed by city and metropolitan pensioners and seniors after the NSW Government announced a $2.50 all day, multi-use bus ticket.
Minister for Transport Davi
(more)| PUBLIC HOUSING |
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IN A BOOST to the public housing sector, the NSW Government has ordered 10 years' worth of renovations and upgrades to public housing to be conducted over the next two years.
Premier Rees has announced a ‘renovation rescue’ package worth $220 mil
(more)| AFFORDABLE HOUSING |
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Middle income earners could find more affordable housing under a new scheme agreed to in Parliament before Christmas.
The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAF) aims to provide 50,000 new rental dwellings over the next four years.
The sc
(more)| NURSING HOME BONDS |
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HIGH CARE BONDS are back on the aged care agenda with providers coming out and insisting that nursing homes are underfunded.
Catholic Health Australia (CHA), one of the biggest providers of aged care services in Australia want the removal of the
(more)| PBS |
|---|
IN JANUARY 2005, the co-payment for medication covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) rose by 24 percent to $4.70.
Since then, it has increased gradually, and now pensioners pay $5 per script.
This dramatic price increase s
(more)| CARERS |
|---|
CARERS AUSTRALIA in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank’s Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFP) launched a major study into the financial well-being of carers in the community.
The CFP’s Women Carers Report examined the lifetime financial well
(more)| DENTAL CARE |
|---|
DESPITE THE GOVERNMENT’S attempts to downplay the value of Medicare dental for the chronically ill, the scheme is still available.
There has been much confusion as to whether it’s possible to receive dental treatment under Medicare for people wit
(more)| AWARDS |
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CPSA’S SENIOR’S Moments Awards were announced, recognising the good and the bad in policy and the media for pensioners and older Australians.
It also recognised lifetime achievement, with the top honour of Long Hauler Award going to Don Morgan of
(more)| EMISSIONS TRADING |
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WHILE CPSA Conference attendees received a ‘Consumers Guide to Climate Change’ from guest speaker Christopher Zinn of Choice Magazine, the rest of Australia had to wait for Treasury’s announcement to find out the possible impact emissions trading wil
(more)| FREE TRANSPORT |
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NEXT TIME you fork out money to pay your booking fee on CountryLink services, check if you are entitled to a free Pensioner Excursion Ticket.
Here’s how it works.
If you need to take a train to get to the CountryLink point of departure; the
(more)| FREE TRANSPORT |
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WHILE THE NSW State Government continues to slug pensioners with a booking fee when they choose to use their supposedly ‘free’ CountryLink Travel Vouchers, the Victorian Government has decided to take a different approach and expand free Sunday publi
(more)| DEEMING |
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THE FEDERAL Government lowered income test deeming rates on 17th November as a result of the global financial crisis.
The deeming rate has decreased from four per cent to three percent for amounts below $41,000 (singles), and $68,200 (couple).
(more)
| ATM'S |
|---|
THE RESERVE BANK of Australia (RBA) shall reform the way fees are charged by banks for the use of Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).
Banks charge fees when a customer uses their card at another bank’s ATM.
This fee is generally charged to the
(more)| PUBLIC HOUSING |
|---|
IN 2005, the NSW Government announced a plan for Reshaping Public Housing.
This included changes to eligibility, tenure and initiatives such as the NSW Housing and Human Services Accord.
The Accord is a formal agreement between NSW Governm
(more)| PENSION BONUS |
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CHRISTMAS will arrive early for all pensioners and carers this year with Santa Rudd handing out bonuses that we didn’t believe would be on the Christmas table!
Just a few weeks ago, CPSA was alarmed the Minister for Finance Lindsey Tanner’s ref
(more)| PENSION BONUS |
|---|
CPSA HAS received quite a few calls about the Pension Bonus Scheme.
The Pension Bonus Scheme rewards people of Age Pension age who defer claiming the pension for up to five years.
The scheme is designed to encourage people to work after the a
(more)| FINANCIAL CRISIS |
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THE GLOBAL financial crisis and the explosive nature of the markets seems to have been on the concern list of all these last few weeks.
We’ve witnessed the closure, merger and nationalisation of banks and financial institutions across the world
(more)| RETIREMENT |
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GONE ARE the days of planning to retire at 55, travel the world, and then kick back comfortably in your twilight years.
A new study has found that one in four baby boomers expects to work into their 70s, due to insufficient retirement savings.
(more)
| PUBLIC HOUSING |
|---|
THE NSW Government reports that public housing tenants in NSW are the most water conscious, saving 2.5 billion litres of water each year.
According to Mr David Borger, Minister for Housing, since new measures to boost water efficiency were introd
(more)| AGED CARE |
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WE ARE A little confused here at THE VOICE as to how the Federal Minister for Ageing’s ‘crackdown’ on nursing homes amounts to a crackdown at all.
Minister Elliot announced earlier this month that a ‘record’ 1001 unannounced visits had been made
(more)| HEALTH ISSUES |
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A FEW MONTHS ago 11 people died in the Springwood Nursing Home in the Blue Mountains.
CPSA reported on the deaths and asked the obvious question: how many people have to die in our nursing home before action is taken?
The report into the 11
(more)| AGED CARE |
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THE RUDD Government has introduced legislation to ensure greater protection of the 170,000 Australian nursing home residents by putting into play greater checks on aged care providers.
The Aged Care Amendment Bill 2008 looks to improve the scruti
(more)| RETIREMENT |
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RETIREE couples now need $50,000 a year to retire comfortably.
Data from Westpac and the Association of Super Funds Australia shows that due to the rising cost of living, retirees need more and more dough to not worry about money in retirement
(more)| HOUSING |
|---|
OLDER PERSONS Tenants Service is an activity of CPSA. Recently it was funded for a further three years under the Tenants Advice and Advocacy Program.
Tenants services existed as early as 1910 when the NSW Rent Payers Association acted as ad
(more)| DISABILITY |
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THERE'S been a lot of talk in the media and from politicians recently about how tough life is for Age Pensioners.
Many have wondered during all of this whether people with a disability have been forgotten.
The fact that the wider public is fi
(more)| ELECTIONS |
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EVER WONDERED where your rates actually go?
The democratic process of course!
It’s been revealed that the cost of local government elections has gone through the roof, and as a result, local governments are struggling to pay for other communi
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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NEGLIGENCE and under par services continue to dog aged care facilities this month.
The Patricia Gladwell Aged Care Home in Brunswick, Victoria, faces closure if improvements are not made in six months to clinical care and staff training.
A re
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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IT HAS BEEN reported that a private nursing home in South Australia docked staff wages after patients had died.
The payrolls of 60 members of staff were altered to reduce hours actually worked, until authorities were notified.
The nursing
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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WITH NURSING homes like these, who would want to live in one?
Not many.
The Benevolent Society reports that 75% of people over 50 would only move into a nursing home if they had no other choice.
CEO Richard Spenser said that there was a
(more)| RESIDENTS RIGHTS |
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RETIREMENT village legislation changes are set to give residents greater protection.
Under current legislation, people living in retirement villages can face huge exit fees, pay maintenance fees even after they have left the retirement village,
(more)| PENSIONS |
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THERE’S BEEN a lot of talk in the media about pensions and indexation.
Pensions are indexed in two ways, either by the Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE), or the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Commentators on the pension have claimed th
(more)| TENANTS RIGHTS |
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IT WAS the early 1990s.
Tom was accompanied to the office of the Department of Housing in Sydney’s west by Anil, a tenant advocate.
Tom had just been approved for housing and he’d been asked to come to the office to sign a residential tenan
(more)| DENTAL CARE |
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RESEARCH done at the University of Bristol found that poor dental hygiene can increase the chance of heart disease or stroke.
It's been well known for a long time that poor dental health can increase your chances of suffering from a number of heal
(more)| DISABILITY |
|---|
COMEDIAN Wendy Harmer says that community awareness of the needs of people with disabilities and their carers needs a “kick up the …” well, you know what.
Harmer, who was born with a double cleft palate, says that public perceptions of people wi
(more)| FINANCIAL COMPLAINTS |
|---|
THERE IS a new body to deal with complaints for consumers about their investments.
It’s called the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
It deals with most consumer complaints about financial services and covers the vast majority of retail fina
(more)| PENSION, HOME |
|---|
Federal Government: Sell now, starve later!
EVERY PENSIONER who owns their home should be worried.
The same government that’s been telling you they understand that ‘pensioners are doing it tough’ funded research that says pensioners have t
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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10 PEOPLE have died following two gastroenteritis outbreaks at the Endeavour Nursing Home in the Blue Mountains.
A total of 83 residents were affected by the outbreaks that occurred in mid and late June.
Residents came down with diarrhoea a
(more)| CLIMATE CHANGE |
|---|
THE Garnaut report is out.
Economics Professor Ross Garnaut calls for an emissions trading scheme for Australia without delay to cut greenhouse gases.
But he also calls for compensation for low-income households. This, of course, includes pensi
(more)| CLIMATE CHANGE |
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THE Federal Government is forging ahead with its plan to dramatically boost renewable energy.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today released a paper on how to reach the controversial target to have 20 per cent of electricity generated from ren
(more)| DRIVER TESTING |
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IF you are 85, over-85 or turning 85, you’re in luck.
Sort of.
From 1 July 2008 older driver testing (medical and on-road) will be done every two years instead of every year.
The on-road test itself will not change for a while yet.
THE V
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
FEDERAL Ageing Minister Justine Elliot has come out swinging.
In the coming months, Commonwealth Nursing Officers will visit nursing homes to examine all relevant information about a resident’s care needs and consider the care plans that detail ho
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
SHORTLY after the Minister had publicised the fact that more than one in three of the nation’s 2870 nursing homes had over-claimed federal government funds in the nine months to 31 March, the Aged Care Association of Australia (the nursing home drama
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
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THE Australian Government will require nursing home services to report any case of missing residents – a measure to further protect and enhance safety for residents, particularly those with a diagnosis of dementia.
Under the plan, approved provid
(more)| PENSION |
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ON 3 July, the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Nick Sherry addressed a conference for superannuation researchers.
Here are some of the things he said.
Australia has a three pillar retirement income system. The most important
(more)| REVERSE MORTGAGES |
|---|
IN an important development for the way reverse mortgages are regulated, the Federal Government’s plan will take over all state-based consumer credit laws.
This will weed out dubious home loan brokers, Australia’s mortgage industry says.
Supe
(more)| RETIREMENT VILLAGES |
|---|
RETIREMENT villages are becoming an increasingly popular housing option. Hundreds of village operators in New South Wales currently provide accommodation for tens of thousands of retirees.
With the ageing of our population, unquestionably the reti
(more)| RESIDENTIAL PARKS |
|---|
IN the Letters section of THE VOICE July 2008, an anonymous reader outlined the problems and hardships associated with living in a residential park.
One of those hardships is the ever-present danger that the park owner will decide to sell the par
(more)| SUPERANNUATION |
|---|
THE Benevolent Society, Australia’s oldest charity, has plans for a new form of housing, care and support for older people.
It aims to put the model into practice in Ocean Street, Bondi in Sydney’s east.
Over the last fifteen years the Humanita
(more)| SUPERANNUATION |
|---|
ACTU President, Sharan Burrow, made strong calls for Australian super funds to support and invest in the emerging private sector shared equity market.
A shared equity loan allows people to buy a percentage of a house or apartment, with an investor
(more)| HEALTH COMPLAINTS |
|---|
EVERYONE has the right to receive appropriate health care. If you are concerned about the health services that were provided to you, discuss your concerns with the doctor or hospital to see whether they can work with you to resolve your concerns.
(more)
| DEMENTIA |
|---|
ALZHEIMER’s Australia has recommended annual funding for dementia research be increased three-fold to $36 million in response to the growing economic and social impact of the dementia epidemic.
By 2030, the total cost to the health care system o
(more)| BOWEL CANCER |
|---|
A SURVEY has found more than a third of people at risk of bowel cancer have never heard of the government-funded test to help detect it early.
New research shows knowledge of bowel cancer is alarmingly low among 50- to 75-year-olds.
A screen
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
IT’S now just over a year since five residents of the Broughton Hall nursing home in Melbourne died as a result of food poisoning.
A coronial inquest is yet to take place.
Usually a disaster with such loss of life gives cause for
(more)| CHARITY |
|---|
OVER the past few weeks Channel 7’s Today Tonight program has been running a series of stories on pensioner poverty.
As part of that series, Today Tonight developed a website where donors of services and pensioners wanting assistance can register
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
FOLLOWING an invitation, CPSA met with the Minister for Family, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, to talk about the pension.
CPSA is one of the seniors’ organisations to be represented in a reference group for the
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
CHANNEL Nine’s Sunday program, presented by veteran journalist Laurie Oakes, recently interviewed Pensions Minister Jenny Macklin. Here’s a transcript of what the Minister had to say on pensions.
Oakes: Did the pensioner anger over the Budget surp
(more)| WEALTH |
|---|
SOME readers have expressed confusion about the use in THE VOICE of the terms ‘poor’, ‘modest’, ‘low-income’, ‘comfortable’, ‘rich’, ‘pensioner’, ‘superannuant’, ‘self-funded’ and ‘retiree’.
So here are some definitions used by THE VOICE. They ma
(more)| DISABILITY |
|---|
FOLLOWING the presentation in May this year of the Federal Budget, CPSA received a lot of calls from angry disability support pensioners.
They all made the point that in the uproar about there not being anything for pensioners in the budget, ever
(more)| PENSION INDEXATION |
|---|
WHAT’S sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, but that’s not how it works in New South Wales.
Last year, in New South Wales superannuation pensions for politicians were indexed at 6.8 per cent.
But the superannuation (define
(more)| CARBON TAX |
|---|
CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong has warned Australians to prepare for a hit to household budgets as the Federal Government introduces an emissions trading scheme.
At a Centre for Economic Development of Australia conference, Ms Wong said that
(more)| ACCOMMODATION |
|---|
COMMENTATORS in the housing industry have reported that the Commonwealth’s National Housing Affordability Rental Scheme will do little to help renters, buyers or investors.
The news is all bad.
Instead, such a scheme, in combination with the
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
NICOLA Roxon has announced a review of the delivery of health care services that will consider employing nurses and other health professionals to deliver services normally provided by a GP.
The already high demand placed on GPs and hospitals
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
CPSA has started a campaign to remove an anomaly from the way the Pharmaceutical Allowance works.
The Pharmaceutical Allowance is the same whether you’re a single pensioner or a couple.
It’s $5.80 per household.
This is odd, because you’d t
(more)| PLANNING |
|---|
A POWER of attorney is a document you can sign to appoint another person (called your attorney) to act on your behalf in relation to your financial affairs.
The document states what the attorney is author
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
NEW measures to prevent people with dementia going missing from nursing homes have caused alarm.
The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot has proposed several options to ‘protect’ people with dementia from going missing from aged care facilities.
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
Social workers are pressured to push people into unsuitable aged care facilities, an inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Hospitals has found.
In order to free up beds, social workers are urged to place elderly patients requiring further car
(more)| YOUR SAY |
|---|
IT WAS with utter dismay that we heard the budget speech as it once again showed that pensioners and carers are a forgotten race.
Perhaps their long term plan is that if pensioners and carers are ignor
(more)| GM FOOD |
|---|
IT’S TRUE that lots of older people would welcome a magic fix which would rejuvenate them and revert back to their youth,
But, no one wants to run the risk of becoming a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" by unwittingly eating or drinking geneticall
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
IT TOOK the Rudd Government suspiciously long to do it, but they got there in the end.
There was always going to be a review of the tax and welfare system. But after the outcry, the Rudd Government decided to spin the announcement of this revie
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
IN the May issue of THE VOICE we asked the question: ‘Will we love you Swanny?’
There wouldn’t be many low-income retirees who would answer that question in the affirmative.
THE VOICE May issue predicted that there would be nothing in the way
(more)| HEALTH RENOVATIONS |
|---|
THE new National Health and Hospitals Reform
Commission’s job is to come up with a long-term health reform plan. The Commission has handed its interim report to Health Minister Nicola Roxon.
“The commission in their report describes [the heal
(more)| HEALTH INSURANCE |
|---|
PRIVATE health funds will pay more for members admitted to public hospitals under a federal government shake-up of hospital funding.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon has confirmed the government will push for a new deal between public and private ho
(more)| LONGEVITY |
|---|
THERE’S NO doubt that Australians are living longer. Healthier lifestyles and improvements in medicine have contributed to Australia’s increasing longevity. By 2047, it is estimated that 2.7 million Australians will be over the age of 65.
Whil
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
PEOPLE with dementia are set to have improved access to support services in New South Wales as a result of $11.86 million in funding from the Federal and New South Wales State Government.
Nine new dementia day-care centres will be created throug
(more)| CARER INQUIRY |
|---|
CARERS will be the focus of a Parliamentary Inquiry that will assess how to best address the needs of carers of people with a disability, chronic illness or who are elderly.
The ABS 2003 inquiry into carers found that there are 2.5 million carer
(more)| SOCIAL JUSTICE |
|---|
FOR years human rights activists have been campaigning to achieve equal status under the law for same-sex relationships as for male-female relationships.
Legislation has now been introduced that will go a long way to achieving that.
The ove
(more)| GROCERIES |
|---|
THE United Nations has found that global food prices have risen by about 60 per cent.
Whilst Third World countries are bearing the brunt of such a rise, it is also impacting on developed nations, including Australia.
Woolworths has just rep
(more)| CPET |
|---|
WHEN least expected, the Country Pensioner Excursion Ticket (CPET) has become a valuable concession.
The CPET is the country cousin of the Pensioner Excursion Ticket , which can be used in the greater Sydney area to catch trains, buses and fer
(more)| CANCER TREATMENT |
|---|
SIDE effects from traditional cancer treatments could soon be a thing of the past thanks to the work of a group of Brisbane scientists.
Doctor Nick Saunders from the University of Queensland says it should soon be possible to treat cancer patient
(more)| ARTHRITIS |
|---|
DOES glucosamine help relieve the pain of osteoarthritis?
The latest research casts some doubt on whether glucosamine relieves the pain of osteoarthritis. It might be that you’re more likely to benefit from losing weight and doing regular exercise
(more)| YOUR SAY |
|---|
WE NOW know. The Rudd Government has broken all Labor traditions and has turned its back on pensioners.
The budget addresses poverty throughout this nation, yet fails to address poverty among pen
(more)| SOCIAL JUSTICE |
|---|
THERE is a persistent rumour going round that refugees receive three times as high a pension as Australian Pensioners.
This rumour is false.
Refugees can enter Australia on a number of different visas.
Generally, if they are eligible for
(more)| OLDER DRIVER TEST |
|---|
ROADS Minister Eric Roozendaal has given in to the ranters and road-ragers who want older drivers off the road.
The Minister knows very well that the policy measures he has announced will not improve road safety. He also knows that these me
(more)| OLDER DRIVER TEST |
|---|
THE NRMA has endorsed the reforms announced by the Roads Minister.
Without question this is a major u-turn. The NRMA has gone from opposing medical and on-road testing to supporting it. But not only that. Its driving school franchises will be
(more)| NEW APPOINTMENT |
|---|
Australia’s new Ambassador for the Ageing, actress Noeline Brown, will promote “positive ageing”.
The problem with the post of Ambassador for the Ageing is likely to be that the occupant will focus on the feel-good part of ageing policy an
(more)| BANK FEES |
|---|
ON 19 March 2008, the Senate referred the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Fair Bank and Credit Card Fees) Amendment Bill 2008 to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics.
This draft legislation introduced by Senator Fielding
(more)| BUDGET 2088 |
|---|
FEDERAL Treasurer Wayne Swan has been huffing about inflation and puffing about global crunches for weeks now. What it all means is that he has been softening us up for Budget night on 14 May.
Is there going to be good news in the Budget for pens
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
BACK in October last year, the NSW Government held its Ageing 2030: Creating the Future conference.
CPSA said at the time that it couldn’t understand why we were planning to avoid future crises when those crises were already there.
Dental heal
(more)| MEDICINES |
|---|
THE Pharmaceutical Allowance is $5.80 a fortnight for singles but $2.90 a fortnight for each member of a couple. It is paid regardless of whether recipients need to buy medicines or not.
It is indexed every six months in line with CPI, but only by
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
THE Federal Government has pledged to crack down on abuses in aged care following a damning report into the sector.
The report by the Office of Aged Care Quality and Compliance shows an alarming rise in cases of abuse and mistreatment in aged
(more)| GROCERIES |
|---|
IT is rumoured that Woolies and Coles have a sneaky way of making a lot of money on their fruit and veg.
Woolies and Coles buy their fruit and veg through a company whose only job it is to buy fruit and veg. So this company does not itself pro
(more)| YOUR SAY |
|---|
ALMOST daily we’re being reminded how difficult it is for aged and other pensioners to subsist on the pension as it now is.
Costs of food, travel, accommodation and medical care are rising regularly and pens
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
ON 20 MARCH 2008, the Senate Inquiry into Cost of Living Pressures published its report.
The review is a bit wishy-washy, even for a Senate report.
A review of the base pension levels, particularly for singles, adequate indexation, a review of
(more)| CONCESSIONS AND BENEFITS |
|---|
AMONG all the to-do about carer and pensioner bonuses last month, a few things stand out.
These bonuses were one-offs and were not means-tested.
They weren’t given to Disability Support Pensioners, but they were given to self-funded retirees o
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
CENTRELINK assumes all cash investments, bank account balances, shares and bonds earn certain rates of return. These are the deeming rates.
Pensions are reduced according to deemed income, rather than actual income.
Generally speaking, a
(more)| ECONOMY |
|---|
LAST month’s interest rate rise of one quarter of a per cent had the media buzzing.
Usually you read that retirees benefit from a rate rise. There is this stereotype of the retiree with loads of money in the bank.
There are approximately 2.5
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
LIBERAL Senator Gary Humphries is a confused chap.
He put out a press release last month rubbishing the idea of indexing the pension according to a pensioner Living Cost Index (LCI) if the LCI had increased by more than both the CPI and the Male
(more)| TIPS FOR TENANTS |
|---|
CPSA runs the Older Persons Tenants’ Service (OPTS). If you are having problems with your landlord or real estate agent, why not ring OPTS? That’s what the people did whose stories are published here.
Helen (68) thinks she deserves a little bi
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
ENCOURAGING news.
Federal Ageing Minister Justine Elliot says she’ll toughen up loopholes in nursing home regulations.
The Minister said that the agency overseeing government-subsidised nursing homes told her it was not an offence for a
(more)| PUBLIC DENTISTRY |
|---|
KEVIN Rudd is serious about his election commitments, even when he risks not being taken seriously for implementing them.
No one in their right mind would oppose the re-instatement of the Government Dental Programme so cruelly abolished by the pr
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
THE number of new reverse mortgages in 2007 was down 10 per cent on the previous year, according to actuarial and advisory firm Trowbridge Deloitte.
Here’s what Kieren Dell, executive director of the Senior Australians Equity Release Association
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
ASTRONOMICAL food price rises now prevent many pensioners from sticking to a normal, healthy diet.
THE VOICE hastens to add that it has no statistics on how many pensioners are affected.
But those worst affected are those on a full pensi
(more)| POWER |
|---|
CPSA made a submission to the committee headed up by Mr Barry Unsworth, which will look into the issues that may complicate privatisation of electricity assets in NSW.
CPSA believes that pensioners are already disadvantaged because of their low in
(more)| POWER |
|---|
IN February, NSW pensioners received a mass mail-out letter from Premier Morris Iemma.
In it he gave “an iron-clad guarantee” that pensioners wouldn’t lose their energy rebate following privatisation of the electricity industry.
Apparently thi
(more)| TRANSPORT |
|---|
THE NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell has made a very early election promise.
THE VOICE sincerely hopes that he doesn’t have to keep it if he does become the next Premier and that older driver testing will be a thing of the past well before M
(more)| RETIREMENT INCOME |
|---|
SEQUAL, the club of reverse mortgage providers, has put out a report, It’s on the house, about consumer attitudes and perceptions of reverse mortgages.
The report is an attempt to inform the media and public opinion about reverse mortgages and st
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
QUITE a few members have mentioned that a class action might be the way to go to resurrect the National Welfare Fund or get compensation for those who contributed to it.
Oscar Bem, law student at the University of Western Sydney has investigated
(more)| WILLS |
|---|
LAWYERS profiting from the misery of families fighting over wills will have their fees capped after a string of cases where the bill has exceeded the final inheritance.
In one case where the total legal bill was more than $600,000, the plaintiffs
(more)| PUBLIC MONUMENTS |
|---|
NSW PARLIAMENT has passed the War Memorial Legislation Amendment (Increased Penalties) Bill 2007.
The purpose of this Bill is to double the current maximum fines a court can impose for defacing any Memorial Building within NSW.
(more)
| TRANSPORT |
|---|
CPSA has written to the NSW Transport Minister about the cancellation fee for travel covered by Pensioner Travel Vouchers.
As all VOICE readers know, free CountryLink travel attracts a booking fee of 15 per cent of the full fare.
But what some
(more)| READERS' VIEWS |
|---|
I THINK that I have found the right car sign for older drivers. Rather than putting an “S” on seniors’ cars, I think we should put up a sign saying MAD, standing for Mature Age Driver.
That way everyone would know wh
(more)| FUNERALS |
|---|
ANY box used to bury the dead in is a coffin.
A rectangular burial box with a split lid used for viewing the deceased is called a casket.
The thing to remember is that caskets are much more expensive than coffins, but do the
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
WONDERING why your Pharmaceutical Allowance has not gone up for six years? Wondering why the PBS co-contribution has almost doubled during that time? Wondering why the public hospitals seem to be falling apart?
A report has revealed government sp
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
A NEW report calls for a radical overhaul of Australia’s health funding that would provide housing for the mentally ill.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) study says this would improve their health and reduce the intolerable burden on hospital
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
CPSA has written to the new Health Minister Nicola Roxon about the unsatisfactory access to MRI-machines for people on low incomes, including pensioners.
There is no shortage overall of MRI-machines in Australia. The issue is that those machines
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
THE full extent of the ageing population is contained in the 2008 Year Book published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
It details the likely population make-up of Australia in the coming decades based on current trends.
It reveals
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
THE Cancer Council has called for an overhaul of the various patient travel and accommodation schemes run by the states and territories.
Like most things in rural health service delivery, these schemes are grossly inadequate.
Professor I
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
MACULAR Degeneration (MD) is the leading cause of blindness in Australia.
The macula is the central part of the retina, which is the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The retina processes all visual images and is responsible for t
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
People who exercise regularly appear to be biologically younger than people who have a sedentary lifestyle, scientists have found.
A study of twins found there was a difference of about nine years of ageing between those who exercised regular
(more)| BUDGET 2008 |
|---|
THE new Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has called on “families, individuals, business and community groups” to submit their ideas for the Rudd Government’s first Budget.
Note the political buzz word “families”. It’s hard to imagine families making budget
(more)| READERS' VIEWS |
|---|
I AM annoyed that the NRMA has weakened its stance on older driver testing, but it’s clear that the Government’s hinted policy would offer financial gain to the NRMA in attracting the 85-year-olds to its
(more)| ENERGY |
|---|
This is the NSW Government’s story on electricity privatisation.
Electricity consumption in NSW is forecast to increase by 13 per cent by 2013, with only one-tenth of that 13 per cent increase to be covered by renewable energy.
The rest
(more)| CONCESSIONS AND BENEFITS |
|---|
SCRIPTS for PBS drugs have gone up from $4.90 to $5.00.
The PBS safety net, which used to apply after 56 scripts, now applies after 58 scripts.
Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Allowance has not gone up a penny – it is still $2.90 per week.
(more)| SENIORS HOUSING |
|---|
THE Older Persons Tenants’ Service (OPTS) was contacted by a Tenancy Advice and Advocacy Service in June 2007 for advice when an elderly Chinese couple living in an aged care facility were issued with a notice of termination.
The notice of term
(more)| YOUR SAY |
|---|
Weekend work has highlighted for
(more)| EQUITY RELEASE |
|---|
“I’VE BEEN in business all my live and never had to budget. I might have to budget now.”
Those were the words of a retired man in his 70s after he spent - in two and a half years - more than $135,000 obtained through a reverse mortgage.
An
(more)| RETIREMENT PLANNING |
|---|
WESTPAC’S wealth management subsidiary BT increased revenue by 44 per cent in the past 12 months. NAB’s subsidiary, MLC, increased cash earnings of its investment division by 42.5 per cent, with investment sales up 67 per cent.
It seems that the
(more)| ELECTION 2007 |
|---|
Here are the main commitments by the newly elected Labor Government has made as they affect pensioners.
Basis of pension indexation to be the greater of Living Cost Index for Aged Pensioner Households published by
(more)| MEMBER NEWS |
|---|
THE CPSA’s 76th Annual Conference on 30 and 31 October 2007 proved to be a great success.
There was hard work in grinding through pages and pages of policy and constitutional motions, but as usual, there was plenty of time for catching up w
(more)| MIXED NEWS |
|---|
THE FINAL year result for the NSW Government’s 2006-07 budget has improved by $140 million to give a surplus of $584 million.
Treasurer Michael Costa says this is more evidence of the government’s strong management of the state’s fi
(more)| FEDERAL ELECTION |
|---|
WE CAN’T tell you how to vote, but we can tell you that, at the moment of writing, John Howard is offering an $8 per week increase and a promise to use a specific pensioner cost of living index when adjusting the pension in March and September. Howar
(more)| OPINION |
|---|
I HAVE been reading your online magazine with great interest.
As an aged-care nurse I find your approach to lobbying for better services very disjointed. I would suggest to you that it would be far more benefici
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
OLI STEELE sounds like a nice guy. He’s the brand manager for APHS.
APHS claims to “service 7,000 Aged Care beds in Queensland and undertake over 8,000 Medication Management Reviews annually” and its media release goes on to spruik the company
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
BELVEDERE (Italian for ‘beautiful view’), a 30-bed Melbourne nursing home has been ordered to close after a four-day audit by the Aged Care Standards Accreditation Agency (ACSAA) found that the ‘facility’ did not comply with 42 out of the 44 aged car
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
TOM WIEGOLD, Vice-President of Budgewoi CPSA, is one of the many people who wrote to his local member to find out what NSW Treasurer Michael Costa was on when he said that pensioner concessions were costing the Government far too much and that, by im
(more)| YOUR VIEW |
|---|
WHEN I came to Australia in 1954, we were told our taxes would help build Australia. We didn’t get anything back (no first home owner’s grant, no baby bonus, no family benefit A or B).
Only in very execeptio
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
IS ASSISTANT treasurer Peter Dutton the human face of simplified super?
Mr Dutton announced that terminally ill people under-60 would be able to access their super tax-free. Up to now,
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
IT’S A GOOD question, because in spite of all the announcements there’s a lot that Mr Rudd and his health spokesperson Nicola Roxon simply haven’t talked about.
What will Labor do with Medicare, apart from keeping the safety net?What about
(more)| GOODS AND SERVICES |
|---|
LAST month the NSW Government released the report of the Owen Inquiry into Electricity Supply in NSW. Prof. Owen has recommended five things:
First, NSW should build a new baseload (as opposed to peak) generator by 2014.
<
(more)| FRONT PAGE |
|---|
Jean Webster dishes out soup for the needy and homeless she feeds at the First Presbyterian Church in Atlantic City, N.J. A former casino chef, Webster, 63, found her calling when she saw a man rummaging through a garbage can in search of food. Now s
(more)| FEDERAL ELECTION |
|---|
CPSA has written to the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Family and Community Services and their Opposition Shadows to petition them to right the wrong that sees approximately one mil
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
HEALTH Minister Tony Abbott says the Government will use an ailing Tasmanian public hospital earmarked for a downgrade as a “test case”.
"At the moment we're only planning to do it in one place, but let's see h
(more)| FREEDOM OF INFORMATION |
|---|
AND not just CPSA applications either, but let’s talk about CPSA’s recent application under Freedom of Information (FOI) to RailCorp about the CountryLink pensioner booking fee.<
(more)| GOODS & SERVICES |
|---|
CPSA was contacted by a widow in her late seventies on just the pension. She mentioned that twice a year she would get help from the Salvation Army, which gave her food vouchers.
That, in Australia tod
(more)| LETTERS |
|---|
PENSIONERS. No-one else will take up the cause.
Sometimes it seems like most of the people in the community have a benefactor fighting for them but who gives a damn about pensioners? All we are told is t
(more)
I AM A DISABILITY Support Pensioner, 58 years old, and have been advised by Centrelink that we (my spouse and I) will not receive the Federal Government's promised utilites payment.
I have already raised t
(more)| ELECTION |
|---|
THE CPSA Federal Election issues survey asked participants to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how important each of a list of about twenty issues were to them personally.
The list of issues was based on issues that people talk about to CPS
(more)| AGE DISCRIMINATION |
|---|
THE ROADS and Traffic Authority (RTA) has proposed tougher licence restrictions for elderly drivers, it said in the media.
That’s not actually true.
The two main changes the RTA proposes is (1
(more)| ELECTION 2007 |
|---|
ON SATURDAY 6 December 1997, that rarest of Saturday sitting days when the House of Representatives considered the Native Title legislation returned from the Senate with significant amendments, I said:
“For most of the past 2 days I have watch
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
STAFF of a Melbourne nursing home (where five elderly people died in a gastroenteritis outbreak,) did not have access to key infection control guidelines, an audit has found.
The audit,
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
VARIOUS groups have condemned the 6.7 per cent pay rise which Federal politicians are due to vote themselves after the Remuneration Tribunal announced its review of salaries.
Labor MP Gr
(more)| STANDARD OF LIVING |
|---|
OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd has shown off his sporting prowess by defeating a pair of Canberra pensioners at doubles table tennis.
Mr Rudd visited the Woden Senior Citizens Club to announce Labor’s commitment to fixing the cost of living pre
(more)| STANDARD OF LIVING |
|---|
POLITICIANS seem to have the notion that it’s OK for 2 million Australians to skimp and save, while the rest enjoy the spoils of fifteen years.
Often they say that the ‘older generation’ is able to do so much more with their money. Se
(more)| CONCESSIONS |
|---|
IT DIDN’T take long. The day after delivering his budget and three months after the Iemma Government was returned to office, Treasurer Michael Costello identified rail fare concessions, the car rego exemption scheme and utility rebates as things that
(more)| BANK SCAM |
|---|
A PROPOSAL by the Australian Government to reduce the things financial planners have to tell their customers will reduce consumer protection
At the moment, there are lots of things a bank has to tell you if they recommend a financial product base
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
AS REVERSE mortgages grow increasingly popular with older Australians, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has conducted a review and urged the promoters of revers
(more)| ACCOMMODATION |
|---|
AS A RESULT of the recent action by Village Life Ltd to terminate the Residential Tenancy Agreements and take possession of Tenants’ premises at four Village Life projects in New South Wa
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
THE FEDERAL opposition has said they will introduce free dental care for all Australians earning less than $55 660 a year and will also provide funding to help deal with the backlog of people who need
(more)| NURSING HOMES |
|---|
THE LIVES of residents in 131 nursing homes could be at risk because their facilities have not complied with federal fire safety regulations, says the Department of Health and Ageing.
The deadline
(more)| READERS' VIEWS |
|---|
BOTH MY wife and I were pleased to receive $500 from the last budget but were surprised it was only a one off payment which will need to last us four years ($2.60 a week)
When GST was brought in us pensioners
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
THE BUDGET supposedly has something for just about everyone, but Prime Minister John Howard, taking talkback calls on Southern Cross radio in Melbourne, encountered Peter, a 47-year-old Disability Support Pension recipient.
Peter told the Prime
(more)| GRASSROOTS |
|---|
I WISH to correct a number of factual errors in the article Aged Care Improvements Neutered by Industry in the May 2007 issue of THE VOICE and the eVOICE (http://www.cpsa.org.au/evoice.html).
Y
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
| HEALTH ROUND-UP |
|---|
THERE’S NEW hope for the bald. Researchers in the US have identified a gene that’s essential for normal hair development.
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the skin of wounded animals can n
(more)| RURAL HEALTH |
|---|
THE FIRST national survey of country doctors provides a disturbing snapshot of a rural health system in crisis, a doctors group says.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said its survey was a clear indication to Australian governments that s
(more)| TENANCY |
|---|
VILLAGE Life, the company that loves seniors, last month gave notice of its intention to terminate leases over ‘retirement villages’ it owns in Ballarat, Bathurst, Dubbo, Launceston, Mandurah,
(more)| AGE PENSION |
|---|
THE VAST majority of Australian retirees receive the Government Age Pension and the associated benefits and concessions.
There are about 300,000 retirees who are entirely self-funded and about 1.9 million retirees who receive the government A
(more)| BATTLERS |
|---|
When you earn what sort of income can you no longer say that you are struggling financially?
According to Kevin Rudd, federal Labor’s leader, families on $200,000 could still be struggling.
But Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Associatio
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
THE FEDERAL government may be wasting $3 billion a year on a scheme to push Australians onto private health insurance that is doing little to reduce public hospital use, a new report suggests.
Scrapping the 30 per cent private health insurance r
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
THE FIRST national survey of country doctors provides a disturbing snapshot of a rural health system in crisis, a doctors group says.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said its survey was a clear indication to Australian governments th
(more)| HEALTH |
|---|
A NEW report has found a large number of hospital admissions in Australia are avoidable if management of primary health care is improved.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found nearly nine per cent of admissions in 2001 and 2
(more)| FUNDRAISING |
|---|
A CONGA line of 477 senior citizens at Dubbo, in central NSW, trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.
The line of identically dressed seniors today snaked its way through a rose garden to mark the 18th birthday of Australia's
(more)| MEDICAL RESEARCH |
|---|
WOMEN in their 70s can delay the onset of arthritis for years by exercising as little as 75 minutes a week, Queensland researchers have found.
Doctors Kristi Heesch and Yvette Miller, and Professor Wendy Brown from the University of Queensland,
(more)| MEDICAL RESEARCH |
|---|
THE ELIXIR of youth may ultimately be hidden in a poorly-understood gene that not only fosters longevity but enhances quality of life, according to a landmark US study.
In a series of experiments on earthworms, a team of scientists at the Sal
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
Most coffee drinkers will not give up a cup a week to boost the value of their superannuation by thousands of dollars according to a Newspoll survey.
Such a sacrifice would net more than three thousand dollars in 10 years and over 22 thousand
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
PETER Costello has ruled out telling superannuation funds how to invest their members' contributions.
The treasurer was responding to questions about whether the funds should be making ethical decisions on matters like greenhouse gas emission
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
MANY women are falling through a social and financial gap that leaves them to retire with only a quarter of the average man's superannuation, despite their longer lifespans.
Max Super chief executive Andrew Barlow said women generally had two
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd has promised he will not change the government's new superannuation laws if elected to power later this year because he wants Australians to have certainty when they retire.
From July 1 Australians aged 60 or over wi
(more)| PLANNING |
|---|
A FREE Understanding Money handbook containing loads of information to help you make your money work harder is available now.
It has information and tips on budgeting, saving, investing, being in charge of your debt, superannuation, protecting y
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
WITH THE LARGE number of Australian superannuants taking advantage of the tax benefits arising from the Federal Government’s Simpler Super changes, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) offers some tips to consumers planning to
(more)| SUPER |
|---|
THE TAX man is coming after employers who cheat their workers out of superannuation entitlements following a bipartisan appeal from a federal parliamentary committee today.
Australia's tax commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo sent a warning to super c
(more)| CENTRELINK |
|---|
IT BEATS waiting in a queue. Centrelink has internet and phone self service options to check information such as your personal details. It also offers a facility to update Family Income Estimates.
To use Centrelink’s self service options, clients
(more)| CENTRELINK |
|---|
IF YOUR JOB requires you to know about Centrelink and Social Security or to help someone with a Social Security problem then help is now available.
The online edition of the Independent Social Security Handbook is now available free for community
(more)| TELEMARKETING |
|---|
IF YOU are sick of people ringing you up trying to get you to change power company, here’s good news.
Australians fed up with phone calls from telemarketers can now add their phone numbers to a Federal Government register to stop unwanted call
(more)| SEA CHANGE |
|---|
THE DRIFT of baby boomers to Queensland's tropical north coast continues, with buyers snapping up $7 million of residential land near Mackay recently released by a resort group.
Developer Consolidated Properties said that after the first week
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
NEW figures show there is still a serious shortage of aged care beds in Australia, Labor says.
Opposition spokeswoman for ageing Jan McLucas said federal Government figures for December 2006 showed a national shortfall of 2,735 beds.
(more)
| TRAMS & BUSES |
|---|
THE DUTCH newspaper Het Parool reports that Amsterdam will make public transport free for everyone over 65, whether they are retired or not.
A three-month $5 million pilot program will start on 1 January 2008. Initially, the initiative was to bene
(more)| BONE SCAM |
|---|
INDIAN police discovered a human ‘bones factory’ in an eastern state on Monday and arrested six people for illegally trading in skeletons, a senior officer said.
The arrested men told police the bones were sold to medical students and used in tra
(more)| LOVE |
|---|
A LOVE-STRUCK pensioner has come up trumps in a poetry contest with a difference: the poems had to be written in "text speak".
British grandmother Eileen Bridge, 68, won 350 pounds in the "txt laureate" competition, after she took second plac
(more)| LETTERS |
|---|
PUBLIC hospitals in NSW are abolishing segregated wards in favour of mixed-sex wards and shared toilets.
I had a number of admissions to the Mater hospital in Newcastle with a women’s health problem and
(more)| REPORTS |
|---|
Mr Costello recently released a five-year update on his intergenerational report of 2002, which considered the challenges faced by Australia as the population aged and the nation had a smaller proportion of workers to meet the cost burden.
A lot
(more)| SUPERANNUATION |
|---|
THE TAX office says the popularity of self-managed super funds is on the rise .. as people sell assets to take advantage of new tax breaks before the mid-year deadline.
Applications to the ATO for self-managed superannuation funds have risen by
(more)| SUPERANNUATION |
|---|
MANY low income earners are missing out on superannuation because the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is failing to collect unpaid employer contributions.
Many employers deceive employees by showing nine per cent employer contributions on paysl
(more)| REVERSE MORTGAGES |
|---|
THE VALUE of Australia’s reverse mortgage settlements grew almost two thirds last year as retirees tapped home equity to supplement income, a study showed.
Settlements of new loans grew to $520 million as of December 31 compared with $315 millio
(more)| HOUSING |
|---|
THERE are some frightening statistics that define housing unaffordability in Australia today.
Someone on $30,000 a year in 1986 was trying to buy an $80,000 house. Their house cost just over two-and-a-half times their annual pay.
Today that pe
(more)| HOUSING |
|---|
MANY older tenants have contacted the Older Persons Tenants’ Service that their real estate agent is demanding they change the way they pay their rent.
Some real estate agents are adopting a new system to pay rent called RentPay, touted to these
(more)| HOUSING ISSUES |
|---|
FOUR-HUNDRED elderly residents were facing eviction from their homes after the takeover of 10 retirement villages across the country. However, in a deal worked out between all parties, the NSW Government has secured the continued tenancy for NSW resi
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
WHEN Senator Santoro resigned as Ageing Minister there was a cloud over his record and questions over how far his inappropriate behaviour extended.
Well, one review later and very little has changed. The review, conducted by new Minister for Agein
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
MANDATORY reporting and a brand spanking new aged care complaints investigation scheme have now passed into law. They’re real!
Is this a cause for celebration?
No, not really.
As foreshadowed
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
NOTHING describes better the apparent shoddiness of care at Broughton Hall nursing home than the reports of the experience of the son of the fifth and latest resident to die. David Dunstan says he went to Broughton Hall on Sunday 14 March, to visit h
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
IN MAY 1995, five nursing home residents died while the only member of staff on duty was a 20-year-old chef.
In 1998, forty-one Victorian institutions failed to meet basic standards of care. Elderly residents often had to endure sitting in thei
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
THE BROUGTHON Hall nursing home disaster is the most telling of all disasters that have rocked Australian nursing homes in recent years, not just because five people have died, but because it is the result of a massive failure in residential aged car
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
JUNE Gabriel and I represent CPSA at the Quality Aged Care Action Group that meets bi-monthly at the NSW Nurses’ Association. These meetings bring up lots of issues that are of concern to all who are ageing and may need a nursing home placement down
(more)| AFFORDABLE HOUSING |
|---|
THE FINANCIAL Review (8/3/07) reported that Industry Funds Management (IMF), which manages $10 billion worth of assets, is set to put half a billion dollars into affordable housing projects. IMF stresses that it doesn’t regard the availability of aff
(more)| DENTAL CARE |
|---|
The report, Australia’s dental generations: the National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004-06, by the the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare provides a detailed snapshot of adult dental health.
The report shows that members of the fluoride
(more)| DENTAL CARE |
|---|
FOR YEARS CPSA and fellow travellers have been calling for dental care with Medicare.
It seems that the rest of Australia may be starting to catch up. The Health Services Union recently made the same call and Labor has pledged to introduce a fed
(more)| FALLS |
|---|
AS YOU get older you are more likely to injure yourself in a fall.
But there are a number of things you can do to limit the risk.
The NSW Ambulance Service says to see your doctor and ask about health problems that make falls more likely.
N
(more)| RESIDENTIAL CARE |
|---|
THE now former federal Minister for Ageing, former Senator Santo Santoro’s response to a Dorothy Dixer (26 February 2007) about aged care has an OK-it’s-fixed-now-no-more-whingeing-please! air about it:
“Today, I can honestly claim—and there woul
(more)| ELECTIONS |
|---|
The Liberal/National coalition fell well short of the swing of more than 12 per cent it required to win office, but Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said they had managed the first swing away from Labor since 1988.
Mr Debnam now faces a possibl
(more)| ELECTION |
|---|
NSW PREMIER Morris Iemma pulling off Labor’s twenty-first consecutive victory in state and territory elections leaves federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd poised to paint the whole of Australia one political colour for only the second time in history.
(more)
| ELECTIONS |
|---|
The Liberal/National coalition fell well short of the swing of more than 12 per cent it required to win office, but Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said they had managed the first swing away from Labor since 1988.
Mr Debnam now faces a possibl
(more)| RENTING |
|---|
WHEN a landlord or an agent wants to put the rent up on a property, there are procedures they have to follow. If you’re given a rent increase that you think is unfair you are able to challenge it.
If you’re the fixed term of your lease has expir
(more)| ELECTIONS |
|---|
FOUR elections on the trot, but is the fifth going to sink him? Although John Howard has consistently warned the members of his Government against complacency and arrogance, it looks as though he has fallen victim to those feelings himself in not han
(more)| LETTERS |
|---|
RECENTLY I underwent the RTA age test. I failed. I was absolutely stunned. I’ve been driving for 57 years with a 100 per cent clean record. I drove trucks for 30 years all up without a single accident. The o
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
IF you wanted to buy a new car and went to a Toyota dealership and asked the salesman his honest opinion and independent advice on what make of car would be most suitable for you, would you expect his response to be anything else but: Toyota?
Bu
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
THERE is a lot of attention in the media for anything to do with babyboomers. Everybody seems to be worried about them. It’s a pity that age pensioners, particularly the ones who are doing it tough on just the pension, don’t share in this attention.
(more)| MONEY |
|---|
A NEW study about the financial effects on babyboomers by David de Vaus, professor of sociology at La Trobe University shows that the primary role of sociologists is to tell us what we already know.
Basically the study finds that people aged 55
(more)| ALZHEIMERS |
|---|
HEAR the word ‘memory’ and your first thought might be… “mine’s not as good as it used to be!” Not to worry: this is quite normal.
So what exactly is normal ageing? We know all too well that our skin isn’t as taut as it once was and our hair ha
(more)| AGED CARE |
|---|
AS was to be expected, the aged care industry is pretty happy about the $1.5 billion increase in funding over five years. Should nursing home residents be happy, too?
Yes and no.
Yes, because the industry genuinely needed more money to run
(more)| COUNCIL RATES |
|---|
PUBLIC policy is a complicated thing. Do one thing without considering another and somewhere down the track things get very messy.
Sometimes no one could have foreseen the mess, but more often the mess was predictable at the time.
A good exa
(more)| PENSIONS |
|---|
LATELY there has been some concern that the NSW Valuer-General’s enthusiastic program of doubling or tripling property valuations from one year to the next is going to affect pensioners paid under the Centrelink asset test.
To put everyone’s min
(more)| PUBLIC HOUSING |
|---|
THE Reshaping Public Housing reforms are the most comprehensive public housing reforms in the history of NSW.
But the reforms do nothing to increase the overall supply of publicly owned housing stock.
This is at a time when NSW is inexorably
(more)| RENTING |
|---|
MOST tenants are covered by the Residential Tenancies Act 1987, but there is other tenancy legislation covering a distinct group of tenants that many people are not aware of, even if they are covered by it.
The Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act
(more)| ELECTIONS |
|---|
NOT many things in life are certain, but one thing is.
Six months out from an election the Opposition commits to submitting its policies to the Treasury Department for costing.
Two months out from the election the Opposition breaks this commi
(more)| LETTERS |
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IN the previous VOICE, you suggest that readers can cut out the yellow letters printed on the back page and send them off to the Premier and Leader of the Opposition.
Not only did I do that I actually retyped them
(more)| RENTING |
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Tips for tenants
THE OLDER Persons Tenants Service (OPTS) has been contacted about breaking Fixed Term Residential Tenancy Agreements early.
No-one can force you to stay in a tenancy but, if you leave before the end of a fixed-term agree
(more)| RESIDENTIAL PARKS |
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RECENT changes to the law have improved the situation for residents of parks and villages. Residents can now individually contest an invalid or unreasonable park rule. There are tougher provisions before a park owner can issue a notice of termination
(more)| MONEY |
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EACH quarter, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research publishes an update on the Henderson poverty line. This is a formal measure of poverty created in 1973.
At the end of June 2006, total income of a single full rate Pen
(more)| MONEY |
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WANT the good news first?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) produces a set of four cost-of-living indices to cover 90 per cent of Australian households from June 1998. Employees, Age Pensioners, welfare recipients and self-funded retiree
(more)| PENSIONS |
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THE AUSTRALIAN Tax Office recently made a ruling which adds, by stealth, $11.20 to the annual energy bills of pensioners. It does this by changing the way the Pensioner Energy Rebate is taxed.
This rebate gives you an annual $112 discount on you
(more)| AGED CARE |
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CPSA MEMBERS will be dismayed to learn that nursing home bonds requiring residents needing high level care are back on the Federal Government’s agenda.
If the Government brings in residential aged care bonds, it would effectively be legislating
(more)| HEALTH INSURANCE |
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THE Save Medibank Alliance is calling for an open, public enquiry into the sale of Medibank Private.
The Government should stop playing games and come clean about their real plans.
It would be reckless for politicians to vote on enabling legi
(more)| PODIATRY |
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SOME people underestimate how important podiatry services are. They believe that they are less necessary than other forms of health care and that people don’t have a right to receive basic care from podiatr
(more)| SURVEY |
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FEET, teeth, trains , buses and let’s not forget access to doctors and medical specialists, home care and hospital waiting lists!
Where do you start to describe the appalling lack of services for low income retirees in New South Wales?
CPSA co
(more)| AGED CARE |
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THE FEDERAL Government has finally announced the overhaul of safeguards to protect people from sexual abuse and serious assaults in nursing homes. The changes were covered in the previous issue of THE VOICE.
The $90 million package includes compu
(more)| PENSIONS |
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THE HORNSBY Shire Seniors’ Advisory Committee wrote to CPSA expressing its concern over the adequacy of the Age Pension and the concessions and benefits that go with it. The Committee notes that indexation of the Age Pension doesn’t mean that concess
(more)| TAX |
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SHOULD retired couples be taxed jointly.
There are arguments for and against taxing couples jointly. These arguments are usually about how fair or unfair it is that, of a single-income family, only the working partner should be taxed.
After a
(more)| INTEREST RATES |
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IF YOU make something more expensive, people will buy less of it. The early August interest rate hike makes borrowing more expensive, so it is reasonable to expect that people will start to borrow less.
(more)| ELDER ABUSE |
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Recent allegations of physical and sexual abuse of some of Australia’s most vulnerable elderly people have created a media frenzy.
Elder abuse was acknowledged as a serious social problem back in the 1990s. Over a year ago a Senate Committee m
(more)| COMMUNITY TRANSPORT |
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Community transport enables many frail older people and people with a disability to attend medical appointments, social outings and to visit family and friends.
The recent expansion of eligibility criteria for community transport is good new
(more)| CIVIL LIBERTY |
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“Where the bloody hell are you?”, I heard the missus shout.
It could have been her third attempt, or fourth, or thereabout.
It wasn’t domestic deafness, which she says I suffer from,
Which tries her patience till she goes off like an atom b
(more)| FLU SHOTS |
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If history is anything to go by, we are due our next influenza pandemic some time in the next 10 years. A pandemic is an outbreak that spreads across the world. During the twentieth century there were three influenza pandemics, in 1918, 1957 and1968.
(more)| PHARMACEUTICALS |
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(more)
| GLASSES |
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Most readers of The Voice would be familiar with the NSW Government Spectacle Program, also know as Visioncare NSW. One free set of specs every two years, subject to a means test.
If you didn’t know about it (and need glasses), ring 1800 806 8
(more)| SCAMS |
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Have you got a small parcel of shares? The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is warning seniors about the activities of David Tweed.
David Tweed writes to shareholders offering to buy their shares for far less than their v
(more)| INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS |
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There has been, from the outset, widespread community concern that Work Choices would lead to lower wages in real terms.
The Federal Government has denied this.
But it seems logical, that, if businesses are given the opportunity to pa
(more)| ECONOMY |
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We are told what good economic managers our Governments have been. Since the Australian population was made aware of a new world order, the ‘global economy’, politicians of all persuasions have beguiled us with the view that all will be wonderful un
(more)| EQUITY RELEASE |
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It’s known as a reverse mortgage. You borrow money from a bank against your house, usually up to 40 per cent of the value of your house. There are no repayments. The bank gets its money back when you sell or when you die.
Sounds good, but don’
(more)Would it really make a difference to Australia Post’s bottom line?
Australia Post has introduced fees for pensioners who need their mail held or redirected.
The concern is that low-income pensioners will decide not to pay for mail redir
(more)| PUBLIC PHONES |
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When Telstra puts out a press release saying it is “considering” the removal of up to 5000 public payphones, you can pretty much put your house on it that Telstra is absolutely dead-set determined to rip these phones from their brackets.
Par
(more)| PHARMACEUTICALS |
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Let’s do a drug deal
Prof David Jackson
Jackwat Consulting Services
According to Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott, we have the best health system in the world.
This may be so if you live in a big city, receive a parliamenta
(more)| TRAINS |
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If you think paying for a free train ticket sounds like twisted logic, you would not make a good NSW Government Transport Minister.
From 1 March 2006, the NSW Government is charging pensioners a “booking fee” of 15 per cent (or a minimum of
(more)| EQUITY RELEASE |
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The Voice has warned against reverse mortgages. It’s pleasing to see that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) agrees.
ASIC is a staid institution, careful in the way it says things. So when it says that it “will continue
(more)| PENSION & SUPER |
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