New research has revealed that many aged pensioners would be prepared to go back to work, with 16 per cent of those surveyed having already returned to the workforce.

The survey conducted by National Seniors Australia of 4000 older Australians revealed 20 per cent of pensioners would consider re-entering paid work after retirement.

National Seniors’ CEO and Director of Research, Professor John McCallum, said encouraging older Australians to re-enter the workforce would “provide a big shot in the arm for the Australian economy”.

“Many seniors are struggling to make ends meet on the pension but the pension rules are a strong disincentive to do paid work. This traps pensioners at low quality of life including too many in poverty,” he said.

National Seniors Australia have proposed changes to age pension and urged the Federal Government to exempt employment income from the Age Pension means test to let pensioners work.

Under current legislation, Australians receiving the age pension are only able to work a certain amount before their payments are reduced.

National Seniors Australia Chief Advocate Ian Henschke recently told Today the proposed changes are “a sensible policy that will fix the budget, that will help Australia get out of its labour shortage at the moment.”

“When (seniors) work they pay income tax, super contributions tax, etc,” he said.

“Now we have all of the problems with labour shortages, and the solution from government is to bring in hundreds of thousands of people from overseas who can’t come here in many cases because their countries won’t let them go.”