The new Federal budget will place more constraints on middle-aged Australians with dependent children and elderly parents, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Higher expenses for education and cuts to financial concessions for pensioners will have a direct impact on the middle aged, said Graeme Hugo from the Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. Their children are likely to live at home for a longer period of time and their parents will be eligible for fewer discounts. Additionally, those born after 1965 will be waiting until the age of 70 to receive the age pension.
Hugo claimed women between 35 and 44 with children and elderly parents – a group already facing considerable responsibilities – are likely to be the worst off. Lyn Craig from the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW agreed. Craig said that message being sent by the budget is that these middle-aged Australians will have heftier responsibilities.
Deborah Cobb-Clark, director at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, stated that while adult children will require more financial support, elderly parents will require more time and care. Cobb-Clark believes that this may have a detrimental impact on the retirement plans of the ‘in-between’ group caught between the young and the old – Australia’s middle aged – who are now living longer than ever.
