Australia seems to be headed towards an authoritarian form of social security with the Government telling people on a payment what they can buy and where they can buy it. A bit of cash pocket money is all they'll get. And the Minister for Social Services stubbornly refuses to rule out that Age Pensioners will maintain their current exemption.
A quick guide for pensioners and self-funded retirees to the Australian Government's stimulus measures announced in March 2020.
The Age Pension used to be indexed on the basis of wage growth, but wages have stopped growing. Casual employment rules these days and pay rates are miserly.
Aged care available when you need it? Is this is a dream or could it really happen? The Aged Care Royal Commission thinks it should.
PLANS to put out a public tender for aged care assessment services have been binned after pressure from the Royal Commission and state and territory health ministers.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has announced new elder abuse guidelines for GPs.
How do you get an annual return of 4 to 5 per cent on your savings and how do you get 40 per cent of your savings exempted from pension means teasting? Read all about it.
The biggest issue in residential aged care is staffing. Nursing home providers are against mandatory staff ratios, but unions and every right-thinking community group in Australia are in favor. Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is siding with the latter in his recommendations to the Commissioners.
Pensioners are becoming increasingly concerned about the cashless welfare card. It's bad enough for those forced onto it already, but pensioners rightly don't want to have a bar it. Problem is the Government refuses to rule out that pensioners, too, will have to shop with a card that restricts what they can buy and where they can buy it.
If you or someone you know is persisting with term deposits in the face of laughably low interest rates, there may be an alternative that is almost as safe but pays a lot more.
Economists love land tax because of its efficiency but it's hated just as much by those who point out its regressive nature, not unlike the GST. Who is right?
Financial advise is becoming less conflicted but the old problem of finding a good financial adviser or planner remains.
Every March and every September full rate pensioners hang out for their increase in the pension but it's been a disappointment for years and it is likely to disappointment for the foreseeable future.
Participants in the great superannuation guarantee debate forget that the actual money put aside each year to fund retirements exceeds the 12 per cent super funds dream of.
The Australian Government is big on a job being the best form of welfare, but if you're too old to get on an electric bike to deliver for Uber Eats as a casual, the Government doesn't want to know you.
Getting care at home has become a very complicated business and it doesn't stop once you're finally in the system. Some startling stats about home care.
Who pays for the mowing and the whipper-snippering once a cemetery is full? Five years since its creation, the NSW Cemeteries and Crematoria Board has made no headway solving the problem of who will pay for the maintenance of cemeteries once they reach capacity. Will three reviews solve the problem or will we end up just letting the weeds take over?
NURSING homes these days offer top-ups of standard services. Such top-ups vary across facilities and can be anything, such as toiletries, upgraded meal choices, massages and entertainment. Problem is in many cases residents are forced to buy these services and they are charged against their nursing home bonds.
THE home care waiting list continues to be laughably long and reductions are overwhelming due to people dying. Government action achieves marginal improvements only.
THE notion of a reportable assault implies that there assaults which need not be reported. But shouldn't the official report in which reportable assaults are reported report on what may have caused the rate of reportable assaults to skyrocket?