ELECTION 2016
RETIREES set to lose significant part-pension payments from January 2017 cannot expect immediate relief if the Opposition is elected in July.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten told media while on the campaign trail that while Labor had not supported the pension changes, he did not believe they would be in a position to reverse them if they won government.
However he did commit to reviewing pension incomes.
"What we will do is we will review our pensions income because we're not convinced that meddling with part-pensioners is the best way to go for Australians," Mr Shorten said.
About 330,000 part-pensioners will be affected by the changes to the assets test threshold legislated in 2015.
Just under 100,000 people will lose all their part pension entitlements, along with associated rates and utilities discounts that rely on a pension concession card.
On the upside, about 50,000 people currently on a part pension will qualify for a full pension when the assets test free threshold increases from $202,00 to $250,000 for singles and $286,500 to $375,000 for couples.
National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O'Neill said the commitment to a pensions review was positive.
He said the taper rate changes due to take effect in January meant retiree home owners with modest savings would receive a lower annual income than people on a full pension.
"With interest rates at historic lows, the earning assumptions upon which the 2017 policy is based are unrealistic," he said.
"We do not expect the assets test to return to what it was, but we do expect the fundamental policy settings to be correct.
"It simply makes no sense to penalise savers."
He said the Reserve Bank had said in the past month interest rates were likely to remain low for years, meaning a lower return on superannuation investments for self-funded retirees.
The 2017 changes would penalise savers, create incentives to spend assets in order to qualify for a full pension and leave the wealthiest retirees untouched.
