Tradies slam age pension increase to 67 over concerns it will rise to 70

• Pension age has risen to 67 and could keep rising to 70 
• Tradies say politicians don’t realise toll of physical work 

Tradespeople have lashed out after the pension age was raised to 67 amid concerns it could soon increase by another three years.

The age to qualify for the pension was raised from 66 years and six months to 67 on July 1 with the move impacting any Australian born after December 31, 1956.

Experts predicts the age could rise even further to 70 by the year 2050 with the news sparking backlash among hardworking Aussies.

Tradespeople are concerned their bodies simply won’t be able to cope with the backbreaking work as they age.

One Australian recorded himself holding a sign and hitting out at the proposal to raise the age pension in 2018 with the video resurfacing and going viral in 2023.   

‘Only a bloke who’s worked in an office his whole life would think you can work until you’re 70!’ the sign said. 

Responding to the original post, one woman spoke for many in saying, ‘My body is just tired, as is my husband’s.’

‘We both need to just rest now. We had planned on retiring … Then they changed the goalposts,’ she wrote.

Steve said working as a concreter in his mid-60s was already taking a toll on his body and that the new retirement age was ‘unfair’ on those doing physical labour.

‘Now I’m starting to feel it more in my knees, I’ve got arthritis in my hands, I’ve had two back surgeries,’ he told A Current Affair.

‘It does seem a little bit unfair that you have to work all your life.’

Peter, who cuts down trees in the Gold Coast for a living, compared the raising of the pension age to his job.

‘It’s just like climbing a tree,’ he said. ‘The injuries are just climbing all the time, it’s getting harder, worse, sorer all the time.’

He described what was happening as ‘very scary’.

‘Unfortunately I thought 65 would be a nice time to retire and get on a pension but now we are talking 67,’ he said. 

‘Is it going to go up to 68, 69, 70?’

Macquarie University Professor Hanlin Shang believes the pension age will need to rise to 70 or government spending will spiral out of control. 

He and other researchers estimate that the retirement age will rise to 68 by 2030,  69 in 2036 and 70 by 2050.

‘As Australians live longer than before, it presents a challenge to the government to fund retirees through a pension scheme,’ Professor Shang said.

‘Less people in the working group and more in retirement will make the old age dependency ratio higher.

‘What this means is there are less working people to support elderly people. And with more elderly people in the population, this will create a burden for the government pension system.’

Professor Shang added that ‘raising the pension age is the obvious way to sustain the current pension scheme without collecting more taxes’.

Peter, though, said politicians don’t understand the burden that working physical jobs has on older bodies. 

‘It would be nice to be a politician sitting on a nice comfortable chair all day in an air conditioning room or office,’ he said. 

‘They need to come out and see what it’s like to do some physical work. That would make them change their mind in trying to stretch this pension out to 67, 68, 69, 70.’

Australians are able to access a pension wage at 65 years and 6 months as long as they were born between July 1, 1952 and December 31, 1953.

From July 1, anyone born after January 1, 1957 will not be able to get the age pension until they are 67-years-old.

Anyone born before that date can still retire at 66. 

As well as the pension age rising to 67, there were also some other – more positive – changes affecting older Australians that came in on July 1.

Those aged at least 67 can now earn $204 a fortnight (for single people) or $360 as a couple before losing their full pension.

The amount of money individuals or couples can earn per fortnight before they no longer qualify for any pension payment has also been raised, to $2,332 for singles and $3,568 per for couples.

This means many people who did not previously qualify for any pension payment will not be able to get some money from the government.