Baby Boomers will be the big winners in the Federal Budget, but young Australian families struggling to cope with the soaring cost of living and housing affordability can expect little relief.
Treasurer Scott Morrison will make older Australians the cornerstone of his third Budget on Tuesday night, announcing a multibillion dollar aged-care package aimed at clawing back support from aggrieved – and abundant – Baby Boomer voters.
The package will fund a further 20,000 new places for home care to help the aged stay in their own homes longer, while increasing the amount aged pensioners may earn without losing part of their pension.
Baby Boomers are set to be the big winners in Tuesday night’s Federal Budget (stock image)
Young Australian families struggling to cope with the soaring cost of living and housing affordability can expect little relief
The pension loans scheme, which allows retirees to borrow against the value of their home, will also be expanded, according to reports.
The scheme previously allowed part-pensioners and retirees who own real estate in Australia to borrow up to 100 per cent of the age pension – about $900 a fortnight.
The Budget is also expected to provide incentives for retirees to begin new businesses, capitalising on $41 billion in legislated budget repair measures.
Meanwhile, young Australians hoping for relief to ease cost of living are set for disappointment.
Treasurer Scott Morrison will make older Australians the cornerstone of his third Budget on Tuesday night
Mr Morrison, who said his Budget would improve opportunities for ‘all Australians’, has given little indication welfare, housing affordability or childcare will be boosted.
That comes as a huge blow to millions of young families hoping to find themselves in better position’s after Tuesday night.
‘My whole salary goes towards paying virtually every single bill in the house, and my wife just works casual and that goes towards food,’ Melbourne father-of-two Angelo Cupellino told SBS ahead of the Budget.
‘So if she loses hours or anything like that, we’ve got to cut back everywhere else. We’ve also got to make sure the credit card is paid off because the kindergarten fees are coming out of that.’
Mr Morrison has given little indication welfare, housing affordability or childcare will be boosted (stock)
Professor Roger Wilkins, from the Melbourne Institute Economic and Social Policy research team, said families like Mr Cupellino’s held high hopes ahead of the Budget.
‘Many families would perceive themselves to be doing it quite tough, particularly in the broader context of wages growth being very slow, household incomes more broadly, have stopped growing,’ he told the broadcaster.
‘For many people, it feels like their living costs are going up, particularly if they are starting a family and having more mouths to feed.’
On Budget-eve, Tony Shepherd, the head of the Coalition’s 2014 National Commission of Audit, said young Australians would inherit a higher tax burden in the future.
The amount aged pensioners may earn without losing part of their pension will increase to $6,500 a year (stock)
‘We’re going to have to pay for it. Some time or another, you’re going to have to pay the piper,’ he told The Sydney Morning Herald last week, pointing to the debt legacy of successive governments.
‘I think it’s a sad reflection on my generation. That’s why we’re all going out there to help our kids with their mortgages. We’re leaving them with a colossal state debt. I think we’re doing it more out of guilt than anything else.’
‘The tradition of previous generations was to be able to say to their children: ‘We’re going to leave this country better for you than what we had’. I’m not sure we can say that now.’