Seniors - This is Your Site!
Seniors, senior citizens, retirees, those about to retire and looking for retirement planning, veterans, pensioners and carers, and baby boomer children of older parents will find our comprehensive listing of information and links extremely valuable. Here are the links of interest for seniors to federal and state government departments, national and state associations, community service groups, aged care and retirement village living, as well as to seniors’ lifestyle interests such as computing, wellbeing, finance, hobbies, sport and travel.
Apart from reading content, visitors to the @boutSeniors website can:
The Site Menu on the left will give you access and easy navigation to all parts of this site. There is, however, such an enormous amount of information that you may find what you are after more quickly by using the site’s advanced search facility. It is immediately below the top banner and it will help you search the entire site for your specific interest.
Our Site Map is also available for navigation. There is a link to it at the bottom of every page.
Budget 2008/9 Seniors summary
Conditional Adjustment Payments
An extra $2 billion will be provided over the next four years through the conditional Adjustment Payment (CAP) for providers of care for elderly Australians. A review of the ongoing need for and level of the CAP will be undertaken by the Department of Health and Ageing.
Transition care places
An additional $293 million to provide for an extra 2000 transition care places for older people no longer needing hospital care, to help them recover and regain independence before deciding about longer term care needs.
Lump sum payments
As promised pre-election, one-off lump sum payments of $500 will be made to eligible senior Australians by June 30, 2008.
Utilities Allowance
Age Pension recipients will receive the higher utilities allowance of $500.
Self-funded retirees
Those self-funded retirees with Commonwealth Seniors Health Cards are now entitled to a higher Seniors Concession Allowance of $500.
Pension levels
Indexation of the Age Pension will be “enhanced”. The base rate will not be increased, despite acknowledgement by the Treasurer and Prime Minister that pensioners are “doing it tough”. Stay tuned for the much promised review of pension payments…The rate of the Age Pension will be indexed to either the CPI, the average male weekly earnings, or the living cost index for pension households - dependent upon which is the highest.
Carers lump sum bonuses
Those who care for people with disabilities and the frail aged, will receive lump sum bonuses of $1,000 to (recipients of Carer Payment) and $600 to (recipients of Carer Allowance) at a cost of $427 million. Recipients of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance will be eligible for both payments.
Eligibility for the Utilities Allowance to Carer Payment and Disability Support Pension recipients has been increased, as has the Telephone Allowance from $88 to $132 per year for those with an Internet connection.
To read the full detail on the Budget 2008/9 visit the Federal Government website now
To view the comments of Bob Browns - Greens, click here
Ambassador for ageing
Actor Noeline Brown has been appointed as Ambassador for Ageing, to promote positive ageing, a pre-election promise given by the Labor Government.
Noeline turns 70 this October, and is already active in promoting healthy ageing to clubs and volunteer groups throughout Australia.
Some of the functions and responsibilities undertaken by the Ambassador will be:
promoting internationally recognised principles of positive and active ageing
promoting healthy and active ageing messages within the community
leading promotional activities to ensure our communities value and respect older people;
being spokesperson for respecting and recognising the continuing contribution made by older people to our nation;
explaining Government programs and initiatives to the public including assisting older people to be aware of programs and how to access them; and
encouraging older people to plan for the future;
representing the Australian Government at conferences, meetings and media engagements; and
attending meetings with key Commonwealth, State and local government stakeholders on positive ageing issues
For more information on the role to be undertaken by Noeline and information on Noeline herself, click here
Quality of life
On March 20 the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs completed its enquiry into the cost of living pressures on older Australians.
Hundreds of submissions were received from individuals, not-for-profits, and different levels of government, and the final report, entitled A decent quality of life, was released with 15 recommendations.
The Executive Report noted something that most @boutSeniors subscribers have been saying for a while – that whilst the average wealth of older people in Australia has increased, the research obscures the fact that the distribution of wealth amongst older Australians is unbalance, and a significant minority are suffering increasing financial stress due to cost of living pressures. This stress is so significant they do not enjoy a decent quality of life. The report goes on to say that those most at risk are single pensioners (especially women) who receive the full-rate pension and live in private rental accommodation. With more and more older Australians taking on roles as carers or volunteers or both, participation is high, but this contribution is under recognised.
Need we go on?
Key recommendations included:
· Government review of base pension levels
· Review and standardization of indexation of benefits
· The plight of single older women needs to be addressed
· Review of incentives and initiatives related to superannuation be continued
· The usage and impact of reverse mortgages to be monitored
· The efficacy of indirect benefits to me reviewed
· Government to review range of financial advisory options for older Australians, including retirement planning
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Go here for the full report including executive snapshot and recommendations.
Latest Seniors’ News
The @boutSeniors site is updated daily. In addition we distribute a fortnightly enewsletter full of information and resources of interest to seniors, baby boomers and all those contemplating retirement planning. There’s a lot of fun too, with DVD giveaways, book reviews, recipes, and ongoing travel suggestions and discounts. Subscribe to this free enewsletter at the top of every page or sample a recent issue here.
Thanks for the Compliments…
“Congratulations on the consistently high quality of your newsletter. I often include snippets from @boutSeniors in Signposts, our own monthly electronic newsletter for U3As. Keeping the mind active appears to minimise the possibility of dementia in later life and your wide range of resources provide many opportunities for your readers to do just that.”
Rick Swindell, President U3A Online
