Seniors left out in the cold
With nearly 60 percent of seniors reliant solely on Superannuation, the planned increases in GST and recent reductions in health care will hit particularly hard, Labour Senior Citizens spokesperson Ross Robertson says.
“While the government has claimed that it will compensate seniors for the GST increase this is simply not true. With inflation forecast at nearly 6 percent any compensation that superannuitants receive for the increase to GST will be completely wiped out,” Ross Robertson said.
Ross Robertson will today discuss these and other issues at a Grey Power meeting in the Seniors Centre, Ashburton.
“It is simply unfair that Cabinet Ministers are receiving hundreds of dollars back a week from the tax cuts but seniors get virtually nothing, and by the time GST increases and power price increases are factored in they won’t be better off.
“It’s not fair that after working hard for New Zealand their entire lives seniors aren’t getting the help they need. Every day Labour receives letters from people who have had their home support cut or who have been declined help by organisations like ACC.
“Under this government older New Zealanders have already had cutbacks to home support services, surgeons have said ACC is declining more people for surgery based on their age, safe driver training programmes for the elderly have been axed and ACC has scrapped the falls prevention programmes that aim to keep our senior citizens safe at home.
“Seniors are also being denied access to education, through cuts to student allowances and further reductions in funding for Adult Community Education. It is obvious that the National Government sees seniors as an opportunity to cut costs.
“A study released by Age Concern in March this year said that one in 13 persons over the age of 65 did not have enough money to meet their everyday needs. There are over 500,000 superannuitants in New Zealand and so far the government has completely ignored their needs.
“This government is failing older New Zealanders,” Ross Robertson said.
