How Have Social Policies and Changes to the Australian...

How have social policies and changes to the Australian welfare state affected the aged population. In 1901 just 4.0% of the Australian population were older people and after two decades this has increased to 6.4%. In 2011 the aged population continued to increase and reached 14%. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (Abs.gov.au, 2012) indicates that since the baby boomers are now becoming old, there has been a decrease in fertility rates and an increase in life expectancy. The population of people over 65 years has continued to increase and it is predicted that it will continue to increase for the next 50 years. As people become older they are more susceptible to becoming sick and in need of government benefits. Since there is a major†¦show more content†¦Joe Hocking defends this significant rise with the fact that our life expectancy has increased as opposed to when the pension was implemented 100 years ago and that our current economy can no longer support the increasing expenditure of the age pension. Even with this cost benefit to our economy, (Chomik, 2014) points out definite inequalities that would develop from this. For example older people within the workforce are already often discriminated against when seeking employment as they can be seen as a negative long term investment in terms of training. Joe Hocking’s argument on the rise of life expectancy seems ill supported when considering the fact the financially poor individuals have shown to have a lower life expectancy in comparison to the rich, thus resulting the inequality of the poor being able to enjoy less years of their retirement. In conclusion, Income security has had insignificant change however the introduction of compulsory superannuation’s are steps forward in trying to provide adequate standard of livings through privatisation. There are conflicting views over such policies as not everyone has benefited. Australia will always have some level of unfairness between our social sectors, however the main benefiters of the superannuation guarantee and the age entitlement to access pensions seems to be the already well-off sectors. Perhaps a way to avoid this is to increaseShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Ageism On The Delivery Of Nursing Care For The Older Person1736 Words   |  7 Pageshowever for this essay, it will be used in the context of discrimination of the elderly population. 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