19 May 2011

Seniors struggle for basic necessities as costs rise

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirm what struggling pensioners already know - even the basic necessities are getting more expensive.

The PBLCI (Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index) rose faster than the CPI in the March quarter confirming that cost of living pressures are falling more heavily upon older consumers, particularly pensioners, when compared to the general community.

The largest increases within the PBLCI were for food (+3.3%), transportation (+3.6%), housing (+1.7%) and health (+6.7%).

“These commodity items are clearly necessities – not something that older Australians can cut back on,’’ chief executive Michael O’Neill said.

The ABS pointed to the Qld floods and Cyclone Yasi for increases in particular fruit and vegetables; increasing petrol prices leading to more expensive transportation and increases in electricity and rents contributing to rising housing costs.

“With energy prices expected to soar even further this year, Governments at all levels needs to look at how to ease the increasing cost of living for our pensioners and self funded retirees on limited fixed incomes.”

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Senior of the Year Awards

Do you know a senior Australian who is making an extraordinary difference to their community?

Nominations for seniors aged 60 and over are now open for the 2011 Victorian Senior of the Year Awards and the 2011 Premier’s Awards for Queensland Seniors.

Individuals or organisations can nominate a volunteer colleague, a neighbour, friend or a family member for these prestigious state government awards.

The annual awards recognise the tireless and extraordinary community service of older people.

Queensland nominations close on 17 June 2011 and Victorian nominations close on 26 July 2011.

In Victoria, contact Seniors Information Victoria on 1300 135 090 or visit the website for more information.

For further information about the Queensland awards visit the website or phone 07 3224 2625.

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Plan to provide online resource for grandparents

Grandparents Australia is looking for non-parent carers to assist them develop a helpful online resource in partnership with the Government.

The Commonwealth Government is developing an online resource for non-parent carers of children that will provide easily accessible information about support and services available to assist carers in their caring role.

The website aims to address an information gap on the range of existing support, and will take the shape of an information ‘portal’.

There will be specific sections for foster, kinship, informal and grandparent carers, as well as Indigenous specific information for each subcategory of carer.

If you want to participate, please email.

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Seniors play their part in preservation of the environment

A study of botanic gardens and the older volunteers who make them so popular, show passionate volunteers are providing wide-ranging benefits to visitors, the community and to the preservation of the environment.

The study set out to explore older people’s engagement in volunteering at botanic gardens investigating the benefits for volunteers, for botanic gardens as organisations, and for the wider community.

The National Seniors Australia Productive Ageing Centre’s report titled Growing Plants, Growing People: Older volunteers in botanic gardens, studied volunteers through focus groups, a questionnaire and through staff interviews.

“We looked at various volunteering opportunities and thought we’d take an unusual situation across the country and study everything impacted by the volunteering work,’’ chief executive Michael O’Neill said.

“There were huge benefits to the botanic gardens as organisations, to visitors who enjoy the gardens, staff, the wider public and most importantly, the environment.”

O’Neill said an interesting finding in the report was that 16 per cent of volunteers identified themselves as having a chronic illness or permanently disability and satisfaction in the volunteers’ roles were very high.

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What was cool in your day?

A new sensation sweeping the world at the moment is the “planking” stunt.

Planking involves lying face-down in an unusual place, having your photo taken and posting the results on the internet.

Planking can be a creative and innocent stunt if plankers do not put themselves in dangerous positions.

So what was cool in your teenage years? What was the craze that everybody was talking about?

Do you look back now and laugh?

Have your say on the blog.