Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) have welcomed the Federal Budget, saying it will deliver cost-of-living support for older Victorians and immediate benefits as Australia enters a challenging winter period.
While the Government announced key initiatives to support older people, including a historic $11.3billion investment in aged care, COTA says the big news for older Victorians is the range of support provided to help pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health card holders to reduce cost of living pressures.
“Older Victorians have had to face rising pressures in recent months, including escalating energy prices, COVID cases and inflation,” said COTA Victoria and SRV CEO, Chris Potaris (pictured).
“This is a much-needed budget that will help to alleviate these concerns and issues we are seeing in the community. These are such crucial supports to ensure that older people can age well outside of aged care, capturing the diverse range of issues impacting senior Victorians.”
The announced support includes:
• Energy relief of up to $500 per year,
• $15 a week more rent assistance,
• $20 a week more in JobSeeker payments, with an additional $46 more a week in JobSeeker for those 55+ or battling ageism when looking for a job for more than 9 months, and
• Cheaper medicines, as well as tripling the incentive payment to GPs to increase bulk billing.
“This is a holistic budget that delivers financial relief for older people that can have a real impact on their lives,” Mr Potaris continued.
“For instance, as cost of living pressures have increased over the last year, we’ve seen a significant increase in demand for our elder abuse support services at SRV, Victoria’s only state-wide elder abuse-focused Community Legal Centre. SRV are continuing to see a concerning spike in calls to our Helpline and the waiting times for assistance is blowing out at an alarming rate.
“We are hopeful that these supports can help address some of the factors and issues that are enabling elder abuse to continue in the community. But to do that, we need to make sure these supports reach people – and that is what we believe we can help with.”
Together with partners across the sector, COTA Victoria and SRV will shortly launch a new campaign called ‘Older Not Alone’. It will aim to support awareness of available community resources and supports for older Victorians as we enter a tough winter period. Further details of the initiative will be announced soon, Mr Potaris said.
“We have access to data which highlights that older Victorians continue to face increasing pressures around their finances, healthcare access and housing in the past year.”
“While this federal budget has provided much-needed help, we now need the Victorian Government to make sure its forthcoming state budget builds upon this.
“We know a lot of great state support is already out there, which we welcome, but we cannot rest on our laurels in the current environment. Older Victorians are under pressure, and in many instances, they are suffering,” Mr Potaris said.
In a pre-budget submission for the Victorian State Budget 2023-2024, COTA Victoria and SRV called for increased support to make sure the state is meeting the needs for older Victorians, including increased funding to address elder abuse, developing an older person lived experience engagement framework and funding the creation of an Older Victorian Health and Wellbeing Action Plan.
COTA Victoria says it looks forward to the Victorian state budget on 23 May 2023 and will continue to advocate to protect the interests of older Victorians in the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
