Retirement review questions asked by Alliance

Questions have been raised by the Alliance for the Fairer Retirement System that it feels should be addressed by the Review of the Retirement Income System.

The review was announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last week and was the first major review of Australia’s superannuation system in 30 years. It will examine the interaction between the age pension, compulsory super and voluntary savings.

John Maroney, spokesperson for the Alliance, said the review would provide an ‘important opportunity’ to ensure the superannuation system continued to evolve in a positive way. However, it raised five questions which it felt needed to be addressed within the review.

The five questions were:

• How can the retirement income system ensure incentives are in place to encourage those who can save for an independent retirement to do so and avoid disincentives? 
• What is an adequate level of retirement income commensurate with their pre-retirement standard of living that older Australians should seek to attain?
• What are the defined objectives of superannuation and the age pension and how should these two pillars work together to ensure intergenerational equity and the sustainability of the retirement income system?
• How can retirement income policy settings ensure the maximum degree of certainty for those planning for retirement over decades?
• Where are there gaps or issues that indicate a lack of fairness in terms of either horizontal (between people with similar circumstances) or vertical (between different generations) equity in the existing three-pillar retirement system?

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It also praised the appointment of former Alliance spokesperson Dr Deborah Ralston, who was also chair of the SMSF Association, on her appointment to the review board.

The Alliance encouraged all Australians with an interest in promoting a fairer and sustainable retirement income system to respond to the Review’s discussion paper later this year.