I think this is the quote that annoyed terrier56 (and it annoyed me too).
Oldies need to get used to living off their savings and spending down capital. It's patently unfair for them to draw welfare from the taxpayer and maintain hundreds of thousands of savings until after death
Well, yes and no.
These older people were the original mustachians, I know my parents were/are.
Savers, when their peers spent every weekend living the high life from payday to payday, (you know, the types that mustachians today deride for their lavish lifestyle).
Savers, before ordinary people had access to managed funds and the stock market, (so no capital gain unless it was the family home).
They also were taxpayers when the Australian Government increased tax substantially in the 1940s supposedly to fund said old age pension. They lived through the Great Depression, and WWII and knew deprivation. They started work at 13 or 14 and paid taxes in advance they thought, to fund the OAP.
Instead they are bearing the brunt of various governments syphoning off funds earmarked for the OAP, so that it's but a distant memory now and they are accused of living too long or 'drawing welfare from (today's) taxpayer'.
Mark31, I think I heard the other night some finance guru say old age pensioners could earn up to $25k each before they pay tax.
Also Centrelink Financial Information Service apparently is available to all, not just Centrelink recipients. They cannot give financial advice, but they can inform you of your options and their consequences.