Proposed changes to the Age Pension will “blow fairness off the table”, according to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).
AIST chief executive, Tom Garcia, said the planned changes to the Age Pension would see wealthy self-funded retirees receive more than double the level of government support given to most middle income Australians.
Garcia said the AIST-Mercer Super Tracker, which assigns Australia’s retirement income system a ‘fairness’ score based on the cost of government support for Super Guarantee tax concessions and the Age Pension, would fall from 3.3 out of 10 to 0.3, if the changes were to be implemented.
Garcia warned that the changes, if implemented in isolation from superannuation, posed serious concerns for the nation’s retirement income system, and would create further intra and inter-generational inequity.
“It’s well recognised by bodies such as the OECD that fairness — both within and across generations — is a vital component of a sustainable retirement income system,” he said.
“Super and the Age Pension are intrinsically linked. How can there be a meaningful review of retirement incomes if super is ignored and changes to the Age Pension have already been decided?”
