Showing posts with label retirement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retirement. Show all posts

Australian Immigrants Retiring to Home Countries

There was a joke going around in Adelaide in the 1960s when I lived there - all these Wogs will probably go home and live off of the Australian pension. Wog was a common term then. It referred to southern Mediterraneans, Greeks and Italians for example. English people were called Poms when immigrants were flooding in.

How a joke can become truth. People who have moved to Australia and indeed spent most of their lives here are going back to their home countries because of favorable exchange rates. Not so much the English. They seem to be staying here.

Between 2007 and 2012 the number of Australians living overseas and drawing the Aussie pension increased by 30 per cent. In the same period the overall number of Australian pensioners went up only 17 per cent. Recent changes in the budget will not affect those currently on the pension. Most will not be here when the pension age goes up to 70 years in 2035.

Most expatriates by far return to Italy and Greece in their twilight years. While the majority of citizens in Greece are doing it tough now, those on Australian pensions have guaranteed income. Others go to Spain and oddly, the Netherlands - there must be something tempting to move to a cold wet country from a hot dry one.

This group of baby boomers, however, will probably be the last ones to enjoy such a bonus. As people retire who have paid superannuation all their working lives it is inevitable that state funded pensions will be phased out. This is seldom admitted but it is the truth. Changes are being made now by government to ultimately benefit government.
Society by Ty Buchanan
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
     Australian Blog                         
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

The Aged Are Not Employed

Developed country are heading toward a crisis of not enough people to do the work. Baby boomers have reached retirement age and with such a large section of society no longer contributing there will be fewer taxpayers to fund economies. Government revenues will fall. Workers can only pay so much tax. Beyond a certain level incentive to work decreases.

Despite the problem, employers still persist in seeking young employees when there are plenty of elderly people who can hold down jobs. Old legislation covering those in public service force retirement on perfectly capable workers. Some Australian states are planning to change this.

The private sector has no restrictions. Many doctors, for example, work into their 80s. This is because they are self-employed, so they can decided when to stop. Fewer retirees are offering their service free in voluntary work. This means their lives just slow down and they spend their time doing very little. Their lives would be more interesting if they were given the opportunity to work.

Life expectancy has improved. There is no rational reason to refuse work to those who want it. The retirement age will be raised to 67, but this is ten years away. Governments are now heading into a funding crises. Australian businesses are bringing in skilled workers from overseas to fill vacancies that are really are not there. Government needs to give real incentives to businesses to encourage them to offer employment to mature workers.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Society
Australian Blog                        

Many Australians Will Continue to Work Despite Superannuation

Despite discrimination by some employers, older Australians are determined to keep on working past the retirement age. They believe that they haven't got enough saved to retire on.

A large survey discovered that 2.6 million Australians over 45 are working full-time and 653,000 said they would never give up work. Another 399,300 said they could see no time when they would be able to retire. A significant 1.6 million were in part-time employment.

Even though superannuation has been compulsory in Australia since 1986 a quarter of the 3.9 million in the study said they would rely fully on the state for a pension. Only half would have sufficient superannuation to live on.

Compulsory superannuation will reduce the present number of 66 per cent of elderly people on the aged pension. But people being what they are, many superannuants intend to go on world tours or travel around Australia to quickly get rid of their capital so they become eligible for the old age pension.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Retirement