‘My pension covers the basics but I wouldn’t call it living’

At 63, I thought I would still be working but, at 54, ill health put an end to my working life, and an income. Since my marriage ended way back in 1993, I’d lived alone and supported myself comfortably enough. Now, I had to resort to Centrelink for assistance (an exercise in frustration and stress) and gratefully, I was granted a Disability Support Pension.

I could no longer afford to continue to rent my two-bedroom unit so had to relocate to something I could afford and now live in a small, one-bedroom, relocatable home. My rent is currently $235 a week, my power and gas about $25 per week, telephone/internet/mobile is about $25 a week, food about $70 a week … Is my pension enough to live on? Maybe. However, if asked if this was enough to have a ‘life’, I would have to honestly say no!

I can’t afford health insurance (or insurance of any kind); I can’t afford to own a car, and without drawing down, fortnightly, from my very little ‘pension fund’, I might as well be dead!

Therefore, it was with some interest I read the recent reports that there are calls to increase the earning capacity of pensioners, like me, to $10,000 a year. I could only work from home (and would love to do so) but many of us ‘pensioners’ are still able to work and supplement their pensions. They should be able to do so in order to have a ‘life’ rather than just existing.

The majority of those receiving a pension don’t have a $500,000 home, investment portfolio or a Mercedes-Benz parked in the garage. They’ve been hard-working people who have raised a family, who have paid taxes all their lives and deserve a comfortable standard of living.

If I’d been a politician and resigned (or had even been voted out), I could be living on a very comfortable pension for the rest of my life, but I wasn’t and neither are the majority of those living on a pension!

Are you on the pension finding it hard to make ends meet? Do you think the Work Bonus limit will make a difference to your circumstance?

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