OZschwitz: Women face extreme risk of poverty in old age

AGEING single women are more likely than men to miss out on the golden years, scrimping along without superannuation and on an unfairly frugal pension, a report to the Senate says.

The Senate's Community Affairs Committee has demanded an overhaul of the age pension, identifying single pensioners, particularly women, as those "at extreme risk of falling into poverty".

Older single women tend to have missed out on compulsory superannuation and must rely on a pension that is low by English-speaking countries' standards.

They receive a pension of $546.80 a fortnight, compared with the $913.60 for couples, even though many fixed costs such as rates, rents and bills vary little between singles and couples.

The meagre payment meant pensioners were often reduced to relying on donations of food from friends and even, according to one inquiry witness, to "raiding dumpsters to retrieve bread, fruit, vegetables … and sometimes meat" discarded by grocery chains. Others told the inquiry of going to bed early to cut heating bills, and forgoing social visits to or from friends because of transport and meal costs.

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Serves them right, the mindless cunts!

OZschwitz: Women face extreme risk of poverty in old age

OZschwitz: Women face extreme risk of poverty in old age

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