Response from the Liberals/Nationals on pension-related matters
Questions from Downsizing.com.au
Do the Liberal/Nationals have any plans to:
- Increase the pension by an amount beyond the incremental changes via the CPI/weekly earnings etc?
- Allow people to benefit from the sale of the family home without this impacting on the pension assets test (this is also supported by property industry groups)?
Response received from a Coalition campaign spokesman on 6 May 2019:
Since the Coalition was elected, pensions have increased by $117.80 per fortnight for singles and by $177.40 per fortnight for couples combined.
In 2015, the Government made a decision to rebalance the Pension Assets Test from 1 January 2017 to make the system better targeted and more sustainable.
Around 90% of pensioners are either better off or have had no change to their pension under the measure.
Around 165,200 pensioners with more modest assets, particularly non-home owners, are receiving an average $25 more pension per fortnight, including around 47,600 part pensioners who qualified for a full pension.
The Coalition has no plans to further review the age pension.
The age pension is indexed twice-yearly to keep up with cost of living and ensure aged pensioners can maintain a certain standard of living.
We are backing self-funded retirees by:
- Guaranteeing no new taxes on superannuation.
- Protecting and expanding access to self-managed super, with a plan to extend the maximum size of self-managed super funds from four to six members – enabling more families to take control of their retirement savings.
- Widening choices in later years through an expanded pension loans scheme, giving around 1.8 million Australians the option to boost their income by drawing down on more of the equity in their own home.
- Allowing contributions to super from the proceeds of downsizing, up to $300,000 for eligible Australians aged 65 and over.
- Continuing to give self-managed super funds the flexibility to borrow on a non-recourse basis to help maximise returns for retirement. In contrast, Labor has promised to ban this practice.
- Stopping Labor’s unfair Retiree Tax. Currently, most retirees who receive share dividends get a (franking credit) refund on the tax they have already paid via the company in which they invest. By abolishing tax refunds on dividends, Labor’s Retiree Tax would reach into the pockets of over 1 million Australians, many being retirees and pensioners, taxing them again.
- Stopping Labor’s unfair Housing Tax. Labor’s plan to abolish negative gearing as we know it will push down home values. An independent report found house prices will fall as much as 16 per cent, or around $100,000, on a typical house in Melbourne.
- Stopping Labor’s plan for four new superannuation taxes, which would hit around 1 million Australians.
You can read more at: https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan-support-retirees
