22,594 age pensioners in the Shortland electorate will be worse off under the Morrison Government after they admitted the Pension will not be indexed until at least March 2021.
This is the first time this has happened since 1997.
At yesterday’s Senate COVID-19 Committee hearing, the Government confirmed several other payments will not be indexed either including the Disability Support Pension which will impact 6,083 Shortland residents.
This is an absolute disgrace.
Pensioners have been struggling with rises to health, energy and food expenses for years and it is unacceptable that they go 12 months without their payment being indexed.
Scott Morrison’s decision to cut bulk billing has meant that a lot of pensioners can no longer afford to go to the doctor.
The scheduled increase to the pension would have been welcome relief for all.
The Coalition has got it in for pensioners.
They have tried to cut the pension or increase the pension age to 70 in every single budget, and they have cut $1 billion from pensioner concessions.
The pension is reviewed bilaterally so it will be looked at again in the next six months, but the Government won’t confirm that there will be a rise in March 2021.
The timing could not be worse for Scott Morrison to be putting the squeeze on the household budgets of seniors and the most vulnerable.