Housing costs force Queensland's age pensioners into poverty

Queensland couples who rely on the age pension and rent in the private market are at the greatest risk of living in poverty compared to other seniors, according to a new report.

The Queensland Council of Social Service’s (QCOSS) latest Cost of Living Report painted a bleak picture of life for Queensland’s senior citizens, some of whom have found themselves with as little as $8 left over every week and living in fear of being being evicted from their rental home.

It also found age pensioner couples renting privately in Brisbane earn, on average, nearly $32 per week less than what is needed to afford a basic standard of living and are most likely to be experiencing housing stress, which means they spend more than a third of their income on housing costs.

“What’s heartbreaking is the range of circumstances that have led to these seniors leading such stressful lives,” said QCOSS CEO Mr Mark Henley.

“Some of them have been lifetime renters, unable to ever break into the housing market. A lot of older people are asset rich but cash poor, so they are forced to sell their homes to free up some money to live on.

“In many situations there has been a marriage breakdown and we have a lot of older women who spent a long time out of the workforce, raising children, who don’t have super and are now having to rent because the family home has been sold and they can’t afford to buy their own.”

Mr Henley also pointed out the rising number of Queensland women living on the edge because they’ve spent all their money trying to help their children.

“A lot are helping their grown children who may have divorced or never been able to afford a house of their home by stretching themselves to buy a bigger home to help them out so they all fit … but once they eventually move out they’re left with a big house they can’t actually afford and the pressure is huge,” he said.

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Those seniors who do own a home are also taking longer to pay them off. The 2016 ABS Census data showed that the proportion of Queensland people aged 65 years and over who are paying off a mortgage has increased from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to 10.5 per cent in 2016.

Mr Henley said with the number of Queenslanders aged 65 to 84 expected to more than double by 2050, these situations are likely to become far more widespread and common.

“We’ve got older people who feel so stuck and helpless – they can barely afford to live after paying their rent and while some of them would like to move further out to cheaper housing, they don’t have the money required for moving costs,” he said.

“As our population ages, this problem is only going to get worse.”

QCOSS and Council of the Ageing are calling on all levels of government to address the dire situation of our age pensioners by addressing access to affordable housing and reforming concessions to make sure they are doing their job.

“One of our members summed up how living under this cost-of-living pressure felt, ‘It’s overwhelmingly stressful – how much do I have? How long will I live?’ and that is not pressure we want anyone to have to live with,” Mr Henley said.

“Our seniors have lived their whole lives in a community that they’ve helped build, now they’re being squeezed out because they can’t afford it and forced into areas with no amenities where they don’t have their community … it’s a big issue.”