{"id":15690,"date":"2025-06-26T07:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T07:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15690\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T07:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T07:25:15","slug":"manual-labourer-unable-to-work-into-retirement-calls-for-differentiated-pension-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15690\/","title":{"rendered":"Manual labourer unable to work into retirement calls for differentiated pension age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross began work as a builder at 15.<\/p>\n

Now at nearly 67, he describes his body as “destroyed”.<\/p>\n

He has been unable to work for the past four years and has been surviving on Centrelink payments and savings.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a real battle and you shouldn’t wish your life away, but I wish a long time ago that I was pension age,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"Construction<\/p>\n

Older tradies may have less superannuation to fall back on. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Australia raised the pension age from 65 to 67 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Ross \u2014 who does not want to give his last name \u2014 believes it should be lowered on a case-by-case basis for people who have spent their lives as manual labourers.<\/p>\n

“It’s really important because all us older guys, our bodies are worn out,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"Couple<\/p>\n

Some want an earlier pension age for tradies, others want a rise in other welfare payments. (freeimages.com: SailorJohn)<\/p>\n

Ross would love to be spending his retirement travelling, trout fishing or pursuing some of his other interests, such as panning for gold or metal detecting.<\/p>\n

But his body and bank balance are simply not up to it.<\/p>\n

“My medical file is 50 millimetres thick,” he said.<\/p>\n

Do you know more? Contact Fiona Blackwood at blackwood.fiona@abc.net.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How does Australia’s pension age compare?<\/p>\n

As life expectancy has increased, so has the age at which governments will fund a pension.<\/p>\n

Our retirement age just went up \u2014 so why aren’t we as angry as the French?<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Saturday, Australians have been required to wait until the age of 67 until they can get the age pension.\u00a0It has happened with little protest \u2014 a stark contrast to the demonstrations and riots that have rocked France,<\/p>\n

Denmark recently passed laws to lift the pension age from 67 to 70 by 2040, the highest in Europe.<\/p>\n

It led to protests from trade unions and concerns that manual labourers would be physically unable to work.<\/p>\n

There were demonstrations and riots when France lifted its pension age<\/a> from 62 to 64 in 2023.<\/p>\n

There has also been a backlash in the UK over a move to raise the pension age to 67 for people born after 1960 and 68 for those born after 1977.<\/p>\n

It led to calls from some politicians for the state pension age to be reduced for those who work in physically demanding jobs.<\/p>\n

China is considering a plan to gradually raise its pension age to 65 years for all citizens.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the 1950s, the retirement age has been set at 60 for men, 55 for women in white-collar jobs and 50 for blue-collar female workers.<\/p>\nCountry<\/strong>Life expectancy<\/strong>Retirement age<\/strong><\/tr>\n\nAustralia<\/td>\n83.1<\/td>\n67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nDenmark<\/td>\n81.18<\/td>\n67 (70 by 2040)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nItaly<\/td>\n82.2<\/td>\n67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFrance<\/td>\n81.92<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nUK<\/td>\n80.10<\/td>\n66 (gradually rising to 67 by end of 2028)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nUSA<\/td>\n76.37<\/td>\n65-67 (depending on year of birth)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nChina<\/td>\n77.62<\/td>\n65 (proposed)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n* Life expectancy figures from the World Health Organization<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Calls for JobSeeker increase<\/p>\n

Ross said living on Centrelink payments had been a struggle.<\/p>\n

He said he narrowly missed out on qualifying for a disability pension, had to wait three years for a knee replacement and was awaiting spinal surgery.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty tough \u2026 I own my own home, that’s the only reason I can survive.”<\/p>\n

Ross said during his working life, tradies were paid much less than now and he had little in the way of superannuation, which was introduced in Australia in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Council on the Ageing Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow said rather than dropping the pension age for manual labourers, the federal government should consider lifting JobSeeker payments for everyone.<\/p>\n

“The government’s own advisory committees proposed that JobSeeker should be set at 90 per cent of the Age Pension,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.\"A<\/p>\n

Patricia Sparrow wants JobSeeker payments lifted. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“We would support those moves to give people better financial support,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said with one in three recruiters not considering anyone over the age of 50, older Australians should be able to access a government-funded career transition program before they begin on JobSeeker payments.<\/p>\n

The basic rate for a single person on the Age Pension in Australia is about $29,800 per year.<\/p>\n

A single person on a JobSeeker payment receives about $20,300 a year.<\/p>\n

Older Australians find it harder to secure work<\/p>\n

In recognition that it is harder for an older person to find employment, those over 55 who have spent nine months on JobSeeker receive an extra $55 a fortnight.<\/p>\n

Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed that it took an average of 20 months for a mature-age worker to find a new job, compared with nine months for 15 to 54-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Grice says there are many reasons a person may not be able to work until retirement age. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

National Seniors Australia chief executive Chris Grice said while life expectancy had increased, it was not just manual labourers struggling to make it to pension age.<\/p>\n

“There are other health concerns \u2026 long COVID, situations where someone has a heart attack, car accidents,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Grice said JobSeeker, the Age Pension and the Disability Support Pension should all be increased to reflect current cost-of-living pressures, particularly for those who rented.<\/p>\n

“We need to make sure that it’s enough to allow people to have a \u2026 modest and comfortable situation in terms of their retirement.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services said the Age Pension age was not adjusted for factors affecting a person’s longevity, “such as employment type, occupational history or other social determinants of health”.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said that rent assistance payments had increased by 45 per cent in the past three years, and the rate of JobSeeker payments had increased by more than 21 per cent.<\/p>\n

The government has no plans to change the Age Pension age.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ross began work as a builder at 15. Now at nearly 67, he describes his body as “destroyed”.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[15718,5997,15721,64,15720,15722,15724,15723,5678,255,15719,15725,3155,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-15690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-15718","9":"tag-age","10":"tag-builder","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-labourer","13":"tag-lower","14":"tag-manual-labour","15":"tag-mature-age","16":"tag-pension","17":"tag-personal-finance","18":"tag-ross","19":"tag-superannuation","20":"tag-tasmania","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114748478198861957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}