The Australian Government's denials that Age Pensioners would not be forced onto the Cashless Welfare/Debit Card have proven to be untrue. Age Pensioners in the Cape York area can now be forced onto the Card and probably will be. This sets an alarming precedent for Age Pensioners throughout Australia.
Free to nursing homes, free to residents, but medication reviews for new residents are only conducted twenty per cent of the time.
The federal Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, let rip during Question Time recently, suggesting Robodebt was back, with a focus on age pensioners. Perhaps it's not quite that bad, but Automation of Income Streams reviews are not for the faint-hearted.
Looking for people with vivid memories of Waterloo in the 1960 and 1970s.
Recently, the NSW regulator introduced new rules about what pricing information funeral directors must publish online and display in their office. The requirement is for extensive pricing information as well as the price of the cheapest funeral package they offer. Funeral directors in Broken Hill, Bathurst, Tamworth, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga are dragging the chain, and those are towns we checked.
Single older women without children face economic insecurity, University of Sydney Business School research has found.
Giving power of attorney to anyone means that you deeply trust that person. Queensland and Victoria ban paid carers from having power of attorney over the person they care for.
What to make of a retirement income review that was touted as the mother of all retirement income reviews but then its final reports does not contain any recommendations?
It is now beyond ideology that the Commonwealth Rent Assistance is so low that even doubling it would do little to help low-income renters out of poverty. What does help?
A spokesperson for the Minister for Social Services has said there is "no plan" to force Age Pensioners onto the cashless debit card and that "any organisation spreading information to the contrary is simply fearmongering". The facts say different, and just so that you are absolutely clear, CPSA is not fearmongering.
The NSW Budget promised one hundred dollars' worth of vouchers on your smart phone to spend at hospitality venues, but it seems the Minister for Customer Services has not yet worked out how to give these vouchers to people who haven't got a smart phone.
The NSW Treasurer thinks he has found a painless way of replacing stamp duty with a land tax. Here's how it works and a few pitfalls for pensioners.
The NSW 2020-21 Budget papers seemed to suggest that the Government was adding another year to the Regional Seniors Travel Card program. On inquiry, this was confirmed by NSW Treasury, but this confirmation has turned out to be incorrect.
The NSW COVID-19 Budget brings a lot less social housing to the state than needed, but there are some good things as well.
The NSW Customer Services Minister put out a media release on QR codes which said that effectively smart phones would be mandatory if you wanted to go for a coffee somewhere. When that was reported, the media release changed!
The University of Technology is doing research on how Age Pensioners cope with energy costs and is asking age pensioners to make themselves available for interview.
The NSW COVID-19 Budget brings a lot less social housing to the state than needed, but there are some good things as well.
Will the pension go up in March next year or won't it? Difficult to say, but looking at inflation and cost-of-living numbers for the September 2020 quarter, it might.
Would it be it right for the Australian Government to be fast tracking personal income and corporate tax cuts costing $50 billion while increasing GST and introducing land tax for all? Yes, says the International Monetary Fund.
Insurance is for unlikely or rare mishaps, and insurance companies make money because most people who insure themselves will never claim. But everyone will need a funeral eventually, so how can funeral insurance be big business in Australia?