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The physical and societal characteristics of home have been established as important in influencing the health and wellbeing of older adults, yet these have rarely been explored together. There is also limited research into variation across age groups, with older adults often examined as a homogenous group of those 65 years and over. This study advances the knowledge base by using the concept of person–environment (P-E) fit to analyse differences in personal and home environment (physical and societal) characteristics between young-old (65–74 years) and old-old (75 and above) age groups, and to assess how these characteristics influence their self-perceived health. This cross-sectional study draws upon survey data from 1,999 older adult participants from the Australian Housing Conditions Dataset. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis were used to assess for significant differences between age groups and a binomial logistic regression was utilised to examine influences on health. The analysis found that the factors which influence health varies appreciably between age groups. For the young-old financial strain, being on the fixed-income pension and hypertension were important contributing factors, in contrast for the old-old gender (being male), having depression and the home being modified for disability were key influences. For both age groups heart disease was a contributing factor to perceived health. The results indicate the important contribution to knowledge of incorporating a wide range of person and environment characteristics when exploring P-E fit for older adults. The inclusion of societal aspects, such as financial strain, fixed-income pension, tenure and access to community aged care services when exploring influences on health, arises as a key conclusion of the study. In terms of impact, this research is significant given rising inequalities globally and specifically in the Australian context, the need for policy measures to address income inequality, and its health and social implications for older households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores enhancement opportunities for Australian Government co‐contributions to superannuation accounts. The article's empirical foundation includes the distributions for variables related to saving, investment and risk perceptions in the 2022 wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. As income or wealth increase, there are increases in the probabilities of individuals making additional superannuation contributions, having a saving horizon of at least five years, and being prepared to take more than average investment risks. Four policy changes are suggested in the article, with the potential for superannuation funds to independently implement some of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's longstanding culture of homeownership, symbolising stability and achievement, also impacts positive ageing outcomes across multiple domains. Recently, demographic and economic factors, such as housing affordability issues, insufficient income and barriers to the housing market, pose challenges to homeownership, with implications for retirement planning as the use of home equity to support ageing evolves. Secure housing and financial security are critical for successful ageing, necessitating flexible solutions and innovative financing models like fractional ownership. We raise awareness of the changing dynamics of retirement planning and accentuate the increasing significance of innovative housing solutions in supporting health during retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines retirement by older workers with intellectual disability. Much research and intervention about retirement and intellectual disability in the last decade or so emanates from Australia, although there are some current cross-sectional and descriptive studies from other developed countries. The Australian literature stands out as the forerunner in the development and controlled evaluation of interventions to support the process of preparing for, practising, and then experiencing retirement. Therefore, this paper begins by briefly describing retirement-related aspects of employment for people with intellectual disability in Australia. Next, we present a critical summary of Australian research on the retirement of people with intellectual disability, supported by a briefer analysis of international literature. Then, key issues, such as financial factors, age of retirement, the time course of retirement (sudden or gradual), and self-determination regarding the decision to retire, are explored. Finally, to help guide future research and policy, we identify a number of retirement-related research questions that are currently under-researched or unexamined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superannuation is the fund set aside by employers to provide their employees with a dignified retirement. Studies highlight that issues can arise with retirement funds from employers, such as failure to make required contributions to an employee's superannuation fund, incorrect payments, or debiting the wrong fund, contrary to legal or contractual obligations. To address these issues, the Australian Government has implemented laws and regulations to ensure employers fulfil their contribution obligations. Despite these safeguards and highly secured information systems, there has been a significant increase in fraudulent activity in the finance sector, and there have been several instances of employers not making contributions, misusing retirement funds, or reporting incorrectly in their systems. The current process restricts employees from viewing recent data until the contributions reach their super fund, which opens the doors for fraud. Recently, blockchain technology has gained popularity because of its ability to improve security and prevent fraud across many sectors, including finance. Prior studies have shed limited light on how superannuation fraud can be prevented. Moreover, there is limited literature on the possibility of utilizing blockchain technology to address this issue. Therefore, this paper aims to review the current superannuation contribution process and identify the factors contributing to non-payment, incorrect payments, misallocation of funds and communication gaps. This study presents a novel process model and develops a blockchain-based application to mitigate fraudulent practices. This research provides valuable insights into the design of innovative process models that utilize blockchain technology to address superannuation challenges. Furthermore, the paper presents a sample simulated smart contract to explore additional implications and advancements in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the gender gap in financial literacy and pension savings is examined in this paper. In Australia, individuals have considerable discretion with respect to how their pension savings are managed. We argue that financial literacy should have a positive impact on the profitability of these decisions. Analysis based on micro‐data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey suggests that a sizable share of the gender gap in pension savings can be attributed to the gender gap in financial literacy. Therefore, policies aimed at improving the financial literacy of women should help improve the living standards of women in retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for a clear and shared objective for Australia's superannuation system, which is the third-largest pension pool in the world. The lack of a legislated objective has led to uncertainty and misuse of superannuation funds. The government aims to establish an objective that focuses on preserving savings for a dignified retirement and ensuring equitable and sustainable income. The article also emphasizes the importance of political consensus, strong performance, and member satisfaction in the superannuation system. [Extracted from the article]

The taxation of capital gains in Australia involves a suite of concessions for small business owners and a related concession for superannuation fund investments. These concessions are part of the taxation regime for three principal reasons: to stimulate small business investment in active assets, to stimulate the selfsufficiency of Australian retirees, and to create horizontal equity between explicit superannuation complying savings funds and de facto retirement savings implicit in the capital of small businesses. By removing the concessions extended to the capital gains of complying superannuation funds, a central part of the case for small business concessions is also removed. The case is made that the key arguments linking savings to investment to capital formation and associated social premiums in terms of increased economic growth are fundamentally flawed and, as economic efficiency is not materially enhanced by such concessions, the core case for these capital gains preferences fails. The argument from horizontal equity between complying superannuation funds and small business capital gains is essentially a “rider” to the argument from economic efficiency. If the economic argument fails, it follows that the horizontal equity considerations can readily be redressed by the elimination of both preferences. Furthermore, the small business capital gains tax concessions primarily benefit wealthier taxpayers, and in doing so, fail to improve the fiscal sustainability of Australia’s superannuation system. Based on these arguments, capital gains preferences extended to small businesses and superannuation funds should be removed, with no or negligible cost and considerable enhancements in tax system simplicity, revenue base integrity, economic efficiency and fiscal adequacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter of the Case for Change paper considers the fundamental design of the superannuation system, and the best reform options to our tax system to: (1) support a sustainable superannuation and retirement system; (2) reduce unnecessary complexity and ensure greater consistency in the various superannuation caps and thresholds; and (3) encourage improved compliance by employers with the mandatory superannuation guarantee regime. There are a number of aspects of Australia's superannuation system which are inefficient and complex. Many of these issues are interrelated. Even parliamentary committees have observed that the tax treatment is complex: contributions, earnings and benefits are partially taxed and partially deductible, the result of a pragmatic attempt to reduce tax expenditures, especially those benefiting higher-income individuals, while encouraging compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyse post retirement spending and saving motives by Dutch and Australians. • Differences in saving motives by country reflect actual pension settings. • The desire for precautionary savings explains why retirees hold on to their wealth. • Saving motives change if people anticipate major health and mortality shocks. • Preferred spending is always more conservative in Australia than in the Netherlands. We investigate the importance of alternative motives for saving and spending patterns after retirement in the Netherlands and Australia. Using an online experimental survey, we elicit the impact on advised spending patterns and underlying saving motives of alternative retirement drawdown designs, ranging from complete flexibility in Australia to full annuitization in the Netherlands, and of major life events such as becoming frail or losing a spouse. We find that important motives for spending and saving after retirement in both countries are the desire to remain financially independent and to ensure that it is possible to enjoy life now as well as later. However, consistent with differences in real world pension settings, life span risk is more important and liquidity less important in Australia than in the Netherlands. With the exception of inter vivos transfers to a surviving spouse, the bequest motive is not important in either country. Our results suggest that an important reason for the widespread behaviour of retirees to hold on to their wealth might be the desire to hold precautionary savings for health and long-term care expenditures. We also find that individuals revise their saving motives in anticipation of major life events but are less responsive to variation in 'experimental' retirement drawdown arrangements, remaining aligned to the prevailing institutional arrangements in their country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assumptions about time, value, labour, and health coalesce in the policy decision to extend the pension eligibility age in Australia from 65 to 67 years. Acknowledging the multiple, often incompatible ways in which time is conceptualised and experienced, we question the expectation of extending Australians' working lives. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 19 male and female bus drivers over the age of 55 in Australia, we illustrate that older blue collar workers may accumulate chronic health conditions that not only limit their ability to maintain the strict time-discipline required to remain in the workforce, but also introduce demands on their time beyond paid employment (including those required for the management of chronic health conditions). Poor health, and the multiple ways in which it constrains labour participation and time, fosters diverse, unequal, and uneven experiences of the final years of work for these blue collar workers, which may not allow them to meet the policy expectation to work until the age of 67. We argue that by failing to acknowledge the long-term health effects of blue collar work and its work-limiting bodily effects, raising the pension age devalues industrial work histories and manual labour. Finally, acknowledging the social milestone of retirement, we question the moral dimensions of extending the pension eligibility age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As governments try to contain rising expenditure on retirement pensions by increasing eligibility ages, there are concerns that such reforms disproportionately affect poorer households. Using detailed longitudinal data, I examine this trade‐off in the context of an Australian reform that increased women's pension‐eligibility age from 60 to 65. While this reform significantly reduced government spending on women at affected ages, the negative effects on household incomes were concentrated among poorer households. These unequal impacts meant that the reform temporarily increased relative poverty rates among affected women by around four percentage points and inequality measures by 6% to 19%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's retirement system is often heralded as world-class. Yet research investigating the superannuation system has reported highly gendered outcomes even in the university sector, which has generous superannuation provisions and established career management practices. This study investigates gender differences in retirement transition goals and barriers in the sector. Data from university employees who are 50 years or older show that gender differences exist. Women are more likely than men to be frustrated in their attempts to transition into retirement as desired and are more likely to desire a reduction in workdays per week. Men are more likely to prefer to continue working as currently or to reduce responsibility. Economic reasons are more likely to be the barrier for women, while organisational reasons are more likely to be the barrier for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the claimed justifications for compulsory retirement savings laws, such as the ones concerning Australia's superannuation regime, is that they improve people's welfare because people's myopia often results in their failure to save adequately for retirement. However, in Australia the merits of such a justification have not been subject to a detailed critical analysis. This article argues that when the disadvantages of such laws, such as comparatively lower working life incomes, are taken into account, that it is far from clear that in the aggregate, such laws increase people's lifelong welfare. The article also examines the merits of an 'opt out' savings regime, which is supported by some commentators, and finds that while such a system has some advantages when compared with a compulsory savings regime, the evidence does not indicate that it is, in the aggregate, welfare enhancing. The article suggests some policy alternatives, including ones involving taxation and spending changes, and concludes that policymakers should look beyond the current compulsory savings regime or, in the alternative, strongly consider dramatically modifying it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of reforms to the Austrian pension system in the early 2000s resulted in a significant increase in the employment rate of older working age women. This increase was highly differentiated along education groups, with increases in employment rates concentrated among those with secondary and tertiary education. Logistic regression analysis is applied to SHARE data from waves 1 and 6, to determine whether the increase in labour market participation of women aged 50+ in Austria has affected informal caregiving across education lines. Unlike their secondary and tertiary educated counterparts, lower educated women were more likely to provide high intensity care in 2015 than in 2004, resulting in an education gradient that was not present before. In comparison, the overall probability to provide care has not changed significantly, irrespective of older women's education. Other possible adjustments were also explored, such as decreased participation in social activities or higher care burden. There is also limited evidence of compensation by increased informal care provision among men. Both employment and informal care provision have become more segmented in Austria in the wake of the pension reforms of 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can a brand go from being the most recognised in its category to winning consumers' hearts? That was the challenge faced by AustralianSuper, Australia's largest superannuation (pension) fund. While the Fund was clearly outperforming the market, its 'voice of customer insights' revealed Emotional connection to the brand was not increasing at the same rate as rational drivers. For Ubiquity Lab, this posed an opportunity, particularly in light of Binet and Field's (Binet, L., and Field, P. (2013, June 11) 'The Long and the Short of it: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies', IPA, London) findings that emotional campaigns yield stronger long-term effects. Paramount to the project's success was a focus on consumer intent and market orientation that would leverage AustralianSuper's existing work and meld current and new inputs. This meant designing a customer-led paid, owned and earned (POE) strategy that would monetise emotion to reach more people within the target market, while differentiating, building salience and, ultimately, increasing sales and profit. A 'brand experience map' methodology was used to correlate data against the digital consumer journey and sales funnel, ultimately unlocking insights to optimise POE tactics. The goal was to arrive at a set of emotional territories that AustralianSuper could begin to 'own', winning hearts and minds and deepening the relationship between accumulating super and its purpose — to enable people to live their best retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with disabilities in Australia face significant employment barriers. Research and policy initiatives over the past fifteen years have consistently emphasised the benefits of vocational education and training generally, and apprenticeship and traineeships specifically, as leading to positive vocational pathways and employment outcomes for people with disabilities. However, there is a dearth of evidence of graduate outcomes for apprentices and trainees with disabilities. This paper presents the employment outcomes including hours of work and salaries for a cohort of apprenticeship and traineeship graduates with and without disabilities across a three-year longitudinal Australian study. Overall, there are positive employment outcomes for the research participants although graduates without a disability achieved better outcomes than graduates with disabilities and participants in receipt of the disability support pension had significantly lower wages than other participants with disabilities. There are indications that the gap in outcomes between graduates with and without disabilities has reduced over time, although generalisability of the findings may be limited by the observational study design. Nevertheless, the study has confirmed positive employment and related outcomes for apprenticeship and traineeship graduates with disabilities, which were sustained, or arguably improved, over the three-year period covered by the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superannuation funds (SFs) offer pension programmes in Australia. Generally, employers must pay money in to an SF account in the name of their employees and employees have the freedom to select an SF of their choice. In this paper, we determine how efficiently SFs manage disbursements (costs, fees and expenses) and risk in generating returns to investors from 2017 to 2019. We introduce two measures (disbursement utilization and risk utilization) under the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodological framework to compare disbursements and risk management performance in relation to overall management performance. The average disbursements utilization is 0.26 and risk utilization is 0.94. On average, more than 80% reduction in disbursements is required to gain disbursement efficiency whereas the average risk reduction required to gain risk-efficiency is less than 20%. No individual SF is disbursement efficient in all five sampled years. Generally, SFs manage disbursements poorly compared to risk in return generation. Variation in fees charged by managed funds is an industry-wide concern. Therefore, how funds manage disbursements is an important consideration for investors. The evidence highlights SF managers the need to pay attention to disbursements management in their pursuit of excellence in overall fund management performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We fielded an online survey in the Netherlands and Australia to explore the influence of an implied endorsement nudge, conveyed by a government‐regulated drawdown from pension wealth, on spending patterns in retirement. The implied endorsement nudge was effective. It influenced the preferred retirement spending patterns of around 30 percent of survey participants, particularly those with fewer financial resources and low pension capability. Australian participants were more likely to follow the nudge where it was framed as implicit government advice, while the Dutch were more likely to respond to a suggestion that the nudge was a recommendation from peers. Our results provide support for a regulated drawdown rule as part of a strategy to guide spending patterns in retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]