Pension age increase Australia dates

An image of a hard-working tradie has gone viral as Australia gradually raises the retirement age from 65 to 67, and research suggests it needs to be raised even further.

The tradie holds a sign that reads, “Only a guy who’s worked in an office all his life would think you can work until you’re 70.”

It comes as Australia’s retirement age is set to rise to 67 on July 1 this year, and research suggests it should be raised to 70 by 2050.

But many Aussies have hit back, claiming that an older person’s body can’t handle physically demanding work.

‘My body is just tired, as is my husband, who is 66. We both need to rest now. We planned to retire at age 65. Then they changed the goalpost,” said one Aussie.

‘I worked as a butcher for 43 years. I’m almost 65 years old, I think I’ve done enough, and my body agrees,” added a second.

“Having spent many years in a quarry and coal mine, my body is physically worn out, so I agree 110 percent with his poster,” a third wrote.

“My husband is now 60 in a physically demanding job, his body is saying ‘enough’,” another person said.

“He did his job, started a family, put food on the table, a roof over our heads. He’s earned the right to slow down and enjoy what he wants now.’

Others called on Australian politicians to work as blue-collar workers before making decisions about raising the retirement age.

“The politicians should all get out of their seats and do a traditional job for a week or two, then they’ll know what a bad back is and realize the body won’t let you work until you’re 70,” one person wrote.

A second added: ‘I would like all politicians to work for a week as a bricklayer, boilermaker, plumber or contractor – do what we did at 65, they couldn’t do for a week.’

Currently, Australians can access a pension pay after 65 years and 6 months, as long as they were born between 1 July 1952 and 31 December 1953.

Anyone born after that date can retire from the age of 66.

But from 1 July, everyone born after 1 January 1957 will have to continue working even longer if the retirement age is raised to 67.

Hanlin Shang, a professor of statistics at Macquarie University, claims their research suggests that the retirement age should be raised to 70.

“As Australians are living longer than before, it is a challenge for the government to fund pensioners through a pension scheme,” said Macquarie University statistician Professor Hanlin Shang.

‘Fewer people in the working group and more retirees are causing the dependency ratio of the elderly (OADR) to increase.

‘This means that there are fewer working people to support the elderly. And with more elderly in the population, this will put a strain on the government pension system.

‘Raising the retirement age is the obvious way to maintain the current pension scheme without collecting more taxes.’

The research suggests that a higher retirement age of 70 should not be introduced until 2050, following an increase to 68 in 2030 and 69 in 2036.