Research // Retirement
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October 2024
Reducing poverty in retirement
Australia has a much higher poverty rate among people aged over 65 than Sweden and Norway. Unlike Australia, Sweden and Norway’s robust public pension systems ensure retirement security. Australia could reduce levels of poverty in retirement by increasing spending on the Age Pension. This could be funded by reducing the inequitable tax concessions on superannuation given to high income earners.
June 2024
Who benefits?
Super tax concessions exacerbate income and gender inequality.
April 2021
Rich Men and Tax Concessions
Modelling from the Centre for Social Research and Methods on income, wealth and gender distribution of negative gearing, CGT discount, super tax concessions and excess franking credits shows that these tax concessions overwhelmingly benefit high-income, high-wealth men.
February 2020
Super expensive
March 2018
Submission: Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. We expect the Royal Commission to be swamped by submissions that relate to specific examples of misconduct. Our submission tries to take a step back and consider the extent to which
September 2017
Wage Suppression a Time Bomb in Superannuation System
The record-slow pace of wage growth in Australia’s economy is not just making it difficult for families to balance their budgets, it also threatens severe long-run damage to Australia’s superannuation retirement system. That’s the finding of new research from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.
April 2017
May 2015
Pensions and superannuation: the need for change
The Abbott Government, as part of its ‘budget repair’ efforts, wanted in the 2014 Budget to increase the pension age to 70 and to restrict pension indexation to the price index, meaning that the pension will fall relative to general community standards. It has now walked away from CPI indexation in the face of overwhelming
September 2014
Boosting retirement incomes the easy way
The Australian government is currently willing to boost the retirement incomes of wealthy Australians by providing low cost ‘reverse mortgages’ through Centrelink. The Pension Loan Scheme (PLS) allows eligible Australians to receive payments equivalent to the full age pension paid into their bank account on a fortnightly basis, borrowed from the government and secured against
April 2014
Sustaining us all in retirement
As Australia’s population ages, government policies that assist retirement will become even more essential. Superannuation tax concessions and the age pension are the two key government policies that assist the ageing, but they are becoming increasingly expensive. Increasing costs have prompted the Treasurer, Mr Joe Hockey to suggest the pension age be increased to 70.
December 2013
August 2013
What’s choice got to do with it?
There is much public debate about the role of ‘choice’ when it comes to women and work in Australia – but structural factors appear to play a stronger role in shaping the labour market experience of women. The persistent gap between male and female remuneration for similar work and the gendered nature of informal care
March 2013
Super for some
Superannuation is unlike any other product in Australia. There is no other product that all employees are forced to spend nine per cent of their income buying. In fact, the proportion of income spent on compulsory superannuation is to rise to 12 per cent by 2020. But it is not just individuals that spend a
Time to get engaged with super?
Australians spend more money each week on superannuation fees than they do on electricity, yet only a small portion of those with superannuation pay close, if any, attention to the decisions made on their behalf by their superannuation ‘trustees’. Similarly, while Australian households now hold nearly $1 trillion in institutional superannuation funds few, if any,
August 2012
Can the taxpayer afford self-funded retirement?
Australian taxpayers contributed $30.2 billion to the private accounts of that portion of the population with superannuation 2011-12. By 2015-16 this sum is projected by Treasury to rise to more than $45 billion by which time it will be, by far, the single largest area of government expenditure. By 2015-16 the taxpayer contribution of $45
September 2009
The case for a universal default superannuation fund
Since 2005, the great majority of Australian workers have been able to choose their own superannuation fund. While some people have taken advantage of greater choice in super, for many people choice is actually a burden. Widespread lack of engagement with superannuation means that competition in this sector is structured around intermediaries (like financial advisers)
February 2009
The great superannuation tax concession rort
Superannuation tax concessions have long been a bone of contention for the welfare sector, which views them as redistributing scarce resources away from low-income earners towards the secure and privileged well-off. This has created a political battleground, with the welfare groups lining up against the super industry represented most notably by ASFA. Reform options are
December 2008
Choosing Not to Choose: Making superannuation work by default
This Discussion Paper reviews the former Government’s ‘Choice of Fund’ policy and proposes a range of improvements to the way default superannuation funds are chosen.
August 2006
March 2004
The benefits of an ageing population
Examines the benefits that an ageing population will bring to many areas of Australian life and concludes that there is a silver lining to the fog of pessimism currently clouding the perceptions of policy makers and governments.