Hot take: Senior Discounts don't make sense anymore!

Just the other day, I was in line at my local coffee shop, struggling to rope $4 together on pay day just to afford a coffee that morning.

While frantically trying to transfer money to the correct account, the lady in front of me pulled out her leather purse from her designer handbag and requested 85 cents off her mocca-frappe-chino monstrosity.

Upon seeing this, I became a little bit annoyed and started to wonder how on earth the Seniors Card Discount works and whether it actually makes any sense in today’s world.

As a mere opinionated 25-year-old male with little to no experience of the real world and its cruel treatment of everybody who lives in it, I can understand if, by reading my intro, you’d want to head to the comments section and tell me how naive and idiotic I am.

To this I say, fair enough, but hear me out.

The NSW Seniors Card Discount began in 1992 and was aimed to support the growing population of people over the age of 60 who are still required to work. On the surface, that makes sense.

I’ve only been working full-time for the past seven years, and there are already times I want to pack my bags and leave my job (please don’t fire me, Region, you pay my rent!), so the thought of extending my work life by another 40 years sounds like life’s biggest con.

In saying all this, there are some facts I’d like to share with you. Beware – there is some maths involved.

According to the Grattan Institute, the average net worth of an Australian aged 41 to 64 is $809,000. This is a respectable figure. If you’ve been working for 40-plus years, you’ve had time to build your portfolio and pay off your loans, mortgages and what have you.

When looking at the 25 to 40-year-old demographic, though, the average net worth drops off a cliff to $238,000. That is less than one-third of their senior compatriots.

You may be thinking, “Oh, but Jarryd, seniors aren’t working, how are they meant to pay for their day-to-day expenses? They shouldn’t be expected just to use their saved income and superannuation.”

That is a valid point, you shouldn’t have to, but in lies a very important question, are they?

According to Services Australia, senior citizens can apply for an Age Pension from the age of 67, with the average couple able to claim $1,725.20 and an average single resident claiming $1,144.40 with no tax a fortnight, equating to around $45,000 a year for a couple and $30,000 for a single.

On top of this, The Australian Insitute of Health and Welfare claims that 92 per cent or 2.6 million Australians over the age of 67 claim the Age Pension.

Contrast these findings with a report conducted by Forbes Australia showing that 70 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 25 made less than $700 before tax a week, with 72 per cent having a net worth of less than $100,000, and something begins to feel a little off.

The same report found that most mortgages are paid off by age 64. Meanwhile, the average rent for a person over the age of 18 and under the age of 25 is $220 a week.

This means couples over the age of 67, on average, aren’t paying for rent or a mortgage, HECS debts and taxes, and are still earning on average $875 a week per week. Yet, people between 18 and 25 are earning less than $700 a week, but their taxes go towards seniors pensions? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Technically, if people between the ages of 18 and 25 are unemployed or students, they can qualify for financial support such as JobSeeker or Student Allowance, but that is only if they recognise independence from their parents or if their financial situations are considered dire.

This requires a lot of paperwork, a lot of time and even more proof. Even then, according to Services Australia, the average Jobseeker/Student Allowance is $778 a fortnight for people under the age of 55 (nearly $400 less than the pension) and $833.20 for people over 55.

So reading all of this information, how on top of not paying taxes on their pensions, having their mortgages paid off during the cheapest housing market of all time and having four times the net worth of their next demographic and eight times of the 18-25 demographic, do we still think giving seniors 20 per cent off on certain expenses is fair?

If we continue to live in a time where the gap between our wealthiest people (who most commonly are our senior citizens) and our poorest (most commonly 18 to 30-year-olds) continues to grow, how can something like the Senior’s Card Discount continue to operate with little to no exceptions made for our country’s young people?

I’m not saying we should get rid of the Senior’s Card, but we should definitely acknowledge that the program in its current form doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Riverina.