Retirees warn of hit to their incomes worth tens of billions of dollars

13 June 2020

Sydney Morning Herald

Shane Wright – Senior economics correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Retirees are facing a massive hit to more than $100 billion worth of vital income streams as the coronavirus pandemic crushes their superannuation, personal savings and share dividends.

Older Australians say the retirement system is in crisis and leaving them financially vulnerable, forcing them to call on the Morrison government to consider changes in areas such as the age pension, deeming rates and access to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

The Alliance for a Fairer Retirement System, representing millions of retirees and older investors, has written to key finance and welfare ministers urging reforms including to measures previously introduced to take pressure off the federal budget.

In the letter, obtained by The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age, the alliance says the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically hit retirees dependent on investment income to such an extent it now put the nation’s economic recovery at risk.

“Retiree spending, and willingness to spend, will have critical impacts on the economy in any post-stimulus recovery phase,” the alliance said.

“However, under the current market conditions, there is a risk older Australians will further withdraw from the economy, slowing the recovery. Retirees are unlikely to have the confidence to spend if they continue to face significant impacts on their income.”

Retirees are facing a string of inter-related hits to their finances. Company dividends are being slashed by many listed firms in a development that JPMorgan estimates will cut income to investors by $68 billion in 2020.

Falling interest rates, while beneficial to those with mortgages, are leaving people dependent on their savings cash-strapped.

Interest rates on savings and term deposits continue to fall. In the past week, the average rate on a five-year term deposit edged down to a fresh record low of 1.09 per cent.

On a one-year term deposit, the average interest rate fell a quarter of a percentage point last week to a record low of 1.2 per cent.

Income from rental properties have also collapsed with many tenants unable to cover their rent.

The alliance said it all meant many retired Australians’ incomes were being stripped away by the impact of the coronavirus and the situation “could extend for years”.

The government has already reduced the deeming rates – the assumed rate of return made on investments that affects the pension income test – due to the fall in global interest rates caused by central banks trying to protect their economies from the pandemic.

But the alliance wants the government to go further, starting with another cut in the deeming rate.

It also wants an automatic revaluation of assets used by Centrelink to determine the pension accessibility for retirees, arguing the last revaluation was done at the peak of the share market before the start of the pandemic.

The alliance has also called for the government to re-think the taper rate changes it introduced in 2017 that helped save billions in pension payments. The alliance says those changes now mean that couples who may have almost $900,000 in assets are up to $1000 a month worse off in income compared to a couple with $450,000 in assets.

While people of retirement age are entitled to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card if they have an income of less than $55,808, the alliance argues many self-funded retirees are unaware of their eligibility to the scheme. It wants all retirees to have access to the card and for the government to promote its availability.

The federal government is nearing the end of a review of the retirement income system, prompted by a Productivity Commission review of the superannuation sector, although its reporting date has been pushed back to July 24 due to the pandemic’s impact on agencies.