Search the Community

Just read this and am very angry: http://www.theage.com.au/money/ask-an-expert/will-we-lose-our-health-care-card-20170219-guge31.html A reader is asking about losing their entitlement to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card. This person (or couple as the question indicates) has a minimum of $3.2 million in super. They are worried about losing the CSHCC. Diddums. I've been told all my life that my generation is entitled. We expect to be given everything because we were told we were special little snowflakes. But you know what we aren't? We're not worth $3.2 mill (excluding the family home or any other assets this couple has) and ASKING FOR GOVERNMENT BENEFITS. Government benefits are a social safety net, not some sort of cost of living reduction tool to enable rich retirees to retain their wealth. Spend your damn money, pay some GST. Then of course the argument comes back "I paid taxes all my life, I deserve these benefits". You know what? No. You paid taxes AND enjoyed the benefits of those taxes through your life. You drove on roads, used hospitals, government services, watched the ABC, benefited from the criminal justice system, benefited from industry oversight bodies, purchased subsidised medicines and a myriad of other things provided over your life that your taxes funded. You also got free tertiary education. Mine cost me about $32,000 - and I paid mine as I went with a part time job and got a 25% discount. And you got to take advantage of the best and most generous superannuation/pension system in the world, where you could use a TTR/Salary sacrifice strategy to significantly reduce your tax burden and build wealth. There's no way I'll be able to do this when I'm old enough. My preservation age will be 60! - MINIMUM. Age Pension? 67 if it stays as it is now. If I want to retire early, I have to build wealth outside super to do it - which means tax. My parents could freely stick wads of cash into super, roll to pension, pay no tax, and happily access it. One thing this government has done right is trying to correct the massive inequalities in our super system - I can't wait for 1 July. I hope they take the axe to government concessions for the rich as well. So, someone with $3.2 mill (minimum) in assets - ok to get government concession cards? Spare me. And I'm in the entitled generation. PS - Sorry, I could have worded that better. This stuff just makes me really angry, and I somehow managed to meander into speaking in the second person, directed at some imaginary amalgamation of every negative thing a boomer has ever said to me. I work in the super industry and this entitlement attitude is widespread amongst the 55+ demographic - although fortunately not shared by all of them (thank goodness). Some are even happy about the super changes as it means they will pay a little tax where they paid none before. That really ended up being much more of a rant than I intended.