[quote author=hawil link=1269931527/0#0 date=1269931526] Australian retirees are only second to Ireland as far as age poverty is concerned, because every retiree can only have a certain amount of assets or income before the means test cuts in, and then there is a 50% loss of Centrelink pension for every extra dollar income, therefore unless a person is above the Centrelink pension rate they can often lose $0.815 of every dollar extra income.[/quote]

I can assure you that if you structure your assets sensibly, it is possible to live very comfortably on Centrelink's age pension, even allowing for partial loss of it because of the means test. You can ask for a Centrelink financial advisor to show you how. I can afford a vehicle to drive, a TV to watch, computer to play with, boy to mow my lawn,  food in abundance and an overseas holiday every year. Does anybody believe Centrelink should pay me more? Means testing of welfare is something I entirely agree with... it enables the government to help people who need welfare support without wasting money (from other people's taxes) by giving it to people who don't need it. People who are on the borderline for needing welfare support are still given limited support after the means test, which also seems entirely fair and reasonable to me.

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Yeah the economic structure is absurd.
Fair enough that people shouldn't be biting off more than can chew by getting themselves into unreasonable debt, but to purchase a below average house these days, the interest alone requires an almost insurmountable effort to maintain for a low income earner.
Young people, especially young couples with kids, need to be at the higher end of the earning scale even when they may have only recently graduated and are also paying off a HECS debt. It doesn't often occur that they will enter the workforce on a high income.

I think that there needs to be an option for young homebuyers to channel employer paid super into personal equity, and not just the worldwide sharemarket. Of course this would be at the expense of the old bloke or gal to an extent, but who gives a crap about them if you need to come up with mortgage payments right now?