Increasing the age pension age

The Budget proposal is to ultimately increase the qualifying age for the age pension to be 70. The age 70 qualifying age will apply to anyone born on or after 1 January 1966.

The qualifying age has previously been modified to equalise the female qualifying age to the male qualifying age of 65. Subsequently both qualifying ages were increased from 65 to 67. The Budget proposes to further increase both qualifying ages to 70.

The increase in qualifying age from 67 will affect anyone born after 1 July 1958 and will be completely implemented for anyone born after 1 January 1966.

If implemented, the qualifying age for an individual is set out in the following table. The shaded portion of the table indicates the currently implemented qualifying ages. The white portion specifies the proposed higher qualifying ages.

Birth date ranges	Males	Females
Before 1 July 1936	65 years	60 years
1 July 1936 to 31 December 1936	65 years	60 years 6 months
1 January 1937 to 30 June 1938	65 years	61 years
1 July 1938 to 31 December 1939	65 years	61 years 6 months
1 January 1940 to 30 June 1941	65 years	62 years
1 July 1941 to 31 December 1942	65 years	62 years 6 months
1 January 1943 to 30 June 1944	65 years	63 years
J July 1944 to 31 December 1945	65 years	63 years 6 months
1 January 1946 to 30 June 1947	65 years	64 years
1 July 1947 to 31 December 1948	65 years	64 years 6 months
1 January 1949 to 30 June 1952	65 years	65 years
1 July 1952 to 31 December 1953	65 year 6 months	65 years 6 months
1 January 1954 to 30 June 1955	66 years	66 years
1 July 1955 to 31 December 1956	66 years 6 months	66 years 6 months
1 January 1957 to 30 June 1958	67 years	67 years
1 July 1958 to 31 December 1959	67 years 6 months	67 years 6 months
1 January 1960 to 30 June 1961	68 years	68 years
1 July 1961 to 31 December 1962	68 years 6 months	68 years 6 months
1 January 1963 to 30 June 1964	69 years	69 years
1 July 1964 to 31 December 1965	69 years 6 months	69 years 6 months
1 January 1966 and following	70 years	70 years

SUPERCentral Comment

Given increased longevity and improved health standards it is hard to argue against increasing the qualifying age for the age pension. The policy challenge for the Government will be to ensure that the increase in the qualifying age for the age pension does not mean that those who now have a higher qualifying age will transfer to the disability support pension (which is more generous than the age pension) or other pensions/allowances until they qualify for the age pension.