Budget 2014: Changes to age pension leave middle-aged job seekers in limbo

Updated

Treasurer Joe Hockey's decision to raise the pension age to 70 is being met with criticism from middle-aged Australians looking for work, who say people in their position may be left in the lurch for decades.

Mr Hockey has confirmed the Coalition wants to raise the pension entitlement age to 70 by 2035.

Middle-aged Australians who are unable to find work, after mid-life redundancies or injury, say they do not support a policy that will leave the next generation searching for work longer.

The electronics technician

Tony Bryant, 60, who was an electronics technician until a back injury finished his career in 2004, says he has been trying for 10 years to find a job that accommodates his condition.

Mr Bryant says he sees little chance his job prospects will improve as he ages, leaving him to rely on the disability pension until he can access the age pension at 65.

By 2035 people in the same position as Mr Bryant will have to work, or look for work, until they can access the age pension at 70.

"Although I am on a disability support pension I don't regard myself as disabled as such. I have been strenuously job-seeking since I became unemployed; I've applied for 20 or 30 jobs a week," he said.

We actually want to work and are capable of doing some work Tony Bryant

Despite completing two qualifications in business administration and financial services accounting, Mr Bryant says he is still being turned down for jobs, as there are no government incentives for companies to hire older workers.

"If the aim is to reduce the number of people who are in my position, being paid benefits for doing nothing when we actually want to work and are capable of doing some work, I think it would help to engineer some system to help people like me," he said.

"Then they would not only not have to pay me benefits but I'm in the work force and earning money [and] I'm then paying them taxes.

"Instead of being a cost I become a contributor to the bottom line of the budget."

The librarian

Marion Cagney is a 52-year-old librarian who was made redundant from a TAFE library in December.

Ms Cagney will have to wait until she is 67 years old to access the age pension, as the minimum age has already been phased up from 65 for people born after 1957.

She is looking for a part-time job so she can support her children and currently relies on her husband, who is a concreter, to support the family.

Ms Cagney says the age pension could soon leave families like hers in the lurch for decades, as her husband is finding his concreting work physically difficult at 50.

Once the changes to the age pension go through workers who are born after 1965 will not be able to access their age pensions until they are 70 years old, regardless of workplace injuries or redundancies.

"I don't see a future for him concreting until he is 70, and I haven't been able to find a job. Rural Victoria is very hard to find a job [in]," she said.

She says has been unable to find work, despite having 25 years of experience, and says the revised pension age does not take the job market into consideration.

"I think in the media there is a lot of focus on youth unemployment and nothing on middle age. I wish the Government would take more notice of us. I don't know how we are expected to work until we are 70 when we can't even get a job," she said.

The not-for-profit worker

Middle-aged Australians who have put themselves back into education to make themselves more marketable to employers are also concerned about their future.

Michelle Pitman, 52, was previously employed as a coordinator at a not-for-profit organisation and now works part-time to put herself through university to upgrade her skills for future jobs.

She will not have access to her age pension until she is 67 years old.

Ms Pitman says she is worried that even with her level of experience and education, employers are less likely to hire an older employee, and she may be left jobless until she reaches pension age.

"I am concerned about the types of roles that will be available, particularly in the regional areas, and whether there will be work there when I finish," she said.

"Depending on what a position is sometimes it's easier to have someone who is fit and young and healthy. I think there is a perception that older people ... [can't] be moulded into the shape of the job because they have their own set ideas."

The former public servant

John Rolfe, a 63-year-old former public servant, says ageism has held him back not only from paid positions, but also the work experience he needs to finish the diploma of social services he is currently studying.

As he was born before 1953, Mr Rolfe will be able to access his age pension at 65 and a half, but he says the raising of the pension age still worries him.

"I can't get a job and I can't even get vocational placement to help me complete the course. It begs the question ... what's going to happen if I've got to try and work on until I'm over 70?" he said.

"I'll end up with a qualification that is absolutely useless to me with a HECS debt that I'll owe the government probably until I die. It's not a very positive outcome."

Mr Rolfe says the prospect of other older workers sharing his experience of years of unemployment is demoralising, even if it affecting the next generation.

"I just can't understand employers because most older workers have a good work ethic," he said.

Topics: aged-care, unemployment, welfare, budget, government-and-politics, australia

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