Article: Struggling pensioner calls for extra cash

[ozbob]

This is an interesting article as there is mention of a national transport concession.  Will try to follow that up, sounds like great news to me ie. the concession.

From Queensland Times click here!

Struggling pensioner calls for extra cash

11.02.2008
By YVONNE GARDINER

AGED pensioner Doug Moses has added up the figures and he's convinced that pensions should go up.

Mr Moses, of East Ipswich, has been on an aged pension since September.

He's asking why a pensioner couple should be given $400 more a fortnight than a single pensioner.

Mr Moses says a married couple on the full pension receives $970, while a single pensioner collects $570 a fortnight.

"I end up with $148 per week left over (after expenses), but a married couple ends up with $335," Mr Moses said.

"It doesn't cost $187 a week to feed an extra person." Mr Moses isn't suggesting that married couples' pensions should be cut.

"To me, pensions should go up at least to $1200 a fortnight for a married couple and $700 to $800 for a single person," he said.

Mr Moses calculates his main expenses as insurance, rates, electricity, car registration and house maintenance. He owns his home.

Federal Member for Blair Shayne Neuman said a Senate inquiry into pensioners' living expenses was under way.

He said the government had a policy to increase pensioners' phone allowance this year and also the utilities allowance to $500, which would help with rates and electricity.

"We're bringing in a national transport concession," Mr Neuman said.

"Pensioners have done it tough for quite some time.

"We want to help them as much as we can."

Goodna pensioner Vera Somerwil, the National Seniors Queensland (NSQ) State Policy Group chairwoman, says the single pension is inadequate.

"(NSQ) is going for two-thirds of the married pension; currently it's about 60 per cent," she said.

"(Expenses are) the same for a single person, but they get less money to live on.

"The cost of living's going up all the time.

"In a country of great prosperity, single pensioners shouldn't be in dire straits.

"We do believe that it's time to better the lot of seniors who are doing it hard."