The Government needs to simplify the country’s superannuation regulations, review areas where retirees need extra support, and legislate to make the overall retirement income system objective clear, according to the Actuaries Institute.
The institute’s pre-Budget submission said the superannuation guarantee (SG) would likely be appropriate between 9.5% and 12% but that setting the levy was complex.
It said the Government needed to consider the interactions between the Age Pension, rental assistance, and other forms of assistance for older Australians when it looks at the objective for the compulsory superannuation guarantee system.
The Institute said when determining adequacy consideration needed “to be given to matters such as the assumption used in relation to retirement income indexation (e.g. to keep pace with a measure of inflation or wages growth), broken work patters, and involuntary early retirements”.
The linkages with savings in other assets, such as housing, were also important to understand.
The submission also said the Government should consider simplifying regulatory requirements, such as merging the asset and income test, potentially including a portion of home ownership. It also called for a review of rent assistance for retirees who were not home-owners.
Actuaries Institute president, Jefferson Gibbs, said: “Along with retirement policy, the Pre-Budget submission addresses climate change and the need for measures to help Australians develop greater resilience to extreme weather; intergenerational inequity, which is wider now than it has been at any time in the previous two decades; and the rise of gig workers as a significant part of Australia’s economy”.
