RLC Executive Director Daniel Gannon has been featured across all medias spruiking the community benefit of raising the Age Pension Asset Cap from $315,00 to $550,000 and raising the Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) from $252,000.
The Age Pension Asset Cap penalises seniors who sell the family home to downsize because the cash released impacts their eligibility for the pension.
The CRA limit means those same people can’t use the rental assistance to pay village monthly fees.
Gannon says: “Over a 30-year period from 1994 to 2024, capital city median house prices increased by almost 600 per cent, while allowable assets to receive a full Age Pension increased by less than 180 per cent for a single person.”
“In 1997, the CRA cap covered 55 per cent of the median house price, but today just 26 per cent.”
“If it kept pace, it would be about $550,000 – incidentally the national average price of a two bedroom retirement unit – rather than $252,000.”
He also points out that bringing these policies up to date will encourage an estimated 94,000 people to downsize to a retirement village, which would generate $2.95 billion in State Government stamp duty income.
His conclusion: these policies are no longer ‘the right policies’.
