A green paper commissioned by the Actuaries Institute has concluded that if reform doesn’t happen, more retirees will enter retirement as renters or not having paid off their family home, Aged Care Guide notes.
The green paper, Options for an Improved and Integrated System of Retirement, authors, Dr David Knox, Dr Anthony Asher and Michael Rice, stated that the Australian system has obvious shortcomings, due to its complex, intrusive system, which has anomalies, produce perverse incentives and is sometimes unfair.
The paper states, “And, as an increasing proportion of the population move from the accumulation to the pension phase, problems that beset the system will become more apparent.”
Any structural reform will provide overall fairer retirement for all retirees, says the green paper.
The superannuation organisations believe some of the options for review should be around universal benefits, means tests, treatment of the family home, and an end to tax concessions for large super fund balances.
Elayne Grace, Chief Executive at the Actuaries Institute, says, “The best system would take an integrated view across all sources of income and expenses for retirees. This includes the Age Pension, superannuation, the family home, aged care and health costs. The current system, though world-leading in some respects, falls well short of that.”
The Actuaries Institute has also released a White Paper, For Richer For Poorer, that it says is the first in Australia to analyse a cross-section of age, gender, income and marital status inputs to build an intergenerational profile of the superannuation and retirement incomes system.
FULL STORY
Urgent reform needed in retirement system, says Actuaries Institute (Aged Care Guide)
For richer, for poorer – Retirement incomes (Actuaries.com.au)