Avoiding austerity - caring for our aged

To further ameliorate the stress faced by pensioners simply trying to survive and maintain some basic quality of life, more generous subsidies could also be provided for water and energy.

Health care, meanwhile, should be made available to pensioners with genuine need with no effective discrimination on the basis of wealth and class. As such, the Pharmaceutical Benefits scheme should be strengthened such as to improve affordability for aged and disability pensioners.

Housing stress and social engagement

According to Charmaine Crowe, more than 500,000 age and disability support pensioners “rent in the private market”. Many of these are suffering “housing stress”. In some cases, Ms Crowe has “spoken to pensioners paying 70 per cent of their income on rent”.

Furthermore, according to the Department of Health and Ageing, in 2008 “close to 6,000 people aged 65 years or more are homeless.”

With Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promising $6.6 billion on 20,000 units of “social housing”, surely much of this should go to the most vulnerable in our community.

Then there are other - generally under-appreciated issues - that are also central in maintaining quality of life. For some, educational grants could be provided. This could include anything from Higher Education, to “Neighbourhood House” programs.

For some this could provide a means of re-entering the labour market. But the aspect of social engagement, or even simply the motive of human development, is more than enough to justify such measures.

In a similar vein, “community circles” should be fostered to help prevent elderly citizens “withdrawing” from social life.

And a modern program to eliminate poverty must also consider the need for social activity, and inclusion in a digital age - in pace with ever advancing standards and means of communication. Fast internet access is today a central need for most Australians, pensioners included. Calculation of such costs needs to be factored into any attempt at setting a benchmark against poverty.

Finally, for those who are capable or interested, gentle fitness activities should be encouraged - and provided free-of-charge, for example, water aerobics.

A broader crisis - not only the aged pension

Of course, there is a crisis faced by all manner of pensioners - not only aged pension recipients. Areas of concern include: the aged pension, disability support pension, single parents pension, carer’s allowance, Newstart and Austudy.

As Australia is drawn into the global fiscal crisis, and the resultant recession, the most vulnerable should not be made to pay the price through austerity. Formulae need to be developed to provide for the needs of pensioners “across the board”.

If need be, taxes should be raised: to provide decent and just pension rates, tax rebates and supplements for low income earners, and the construction of major infrastructure projects that will drive quality of life and productivity into the future.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s many had to line up at soup kitchens. Desperate battles were fought against evictions, and unemployed workers were exploited for a miserable and threadbare sustenance. But now, in 2009, we need not make the most vulnerable pay for a crisis brought on by greed, systemic failure and the ill-informed ideology of neo-liberalism.

Austerity for vulnerable pensioners must not be an option. Yes, there will be need for sacrifice. But assuming real social solidarity, despite the depth of the crisis, the kind of human misery of the 1930s need not be repeated.