Wollongong City Council has debated whether more can be done to financially support pensioners. Photo: Google Maps.
A voluntary rates rebate for pensioners in Wollongong will be investigated – but don’t hold your breath.
Ward 1 councillor Ryan Morris put a motion to the council that staff prepare a report detailing options for a cost-neutral voluntary rebate for eligible pensioners, in addition to the $250 pensioner rates discount currently available.
An eligibility requirement for the rebate would be ongoing residence in Wollongong for at least 15 years before claiming.
Councillor Morris said the possibility of re-examining the pensioner rebate was a hot topic during the 2024 council election period.
“I want a report on how to bring up the voluntary rebate to meet new cost-of-living standards for our pensioners,” he said.
“People who have lived and worked in Wollongong their entire lives would have the opportunity to pay into the system and then receive from that same system when they become dependent on a pension or retirement fund.”
Other councillors, however, were skeptical about the possibility of cost neutrality and the ability to implement the scheme.
Councillor Richard Martin said pensioners could end up worse off under such a scheme.
“There’s probably not a person in this room who wouldn’t like to increase the rebate for pensioners,” he said.
“By the same token there’s probably not a pensioner in the LGA who wouldn’t want us to spend money to stop their house flooding again.
“We can’t do both.”
Council staff told the meeting about 13,500 properties in the area received the pensioner rebate, at a cost of $3.4 million.
State and federal governments chip in to help cover that cost, but the council is still left $1.5 million short each year.
Councillor Kit Docker pointed out that the pensioners most likely to struggle with cost of living were renters who would not benefit from the rebate.
“Ten per cent of Australians over the age of 65 are living in poverty, but that increases to 50 per cent for people the same age who are renters,” he said.
“Although this motion is well-intentioned it won’t help the people in our society who are most at risk.”
There were also potential logistical issues with the implementation of a rebate scheme tied to how long a person has lived in the Wollongong Council area.
Council staff said records kept track of an owner’s name against the property they owned.
They do not store other identifying information like dates of birth or driver’s licence numbers.
As a result it is not possible to track homeowners’ residency in the LGA over time if they move house.
There were concerns this could make the scheme vulnerable to misuse by non-resident owners.
Pension numbers are kept on file against owner names and properties, but only after the owner has reached pension age and applied for a rebate.
Councillor David Brown said there was already a scheme in place through which people experiencing financial hardship could defer their rates until the sale of their house.
He suggested the motion be changed to ask staff to provide councillors with a briefing on options for helping pensioners in the area.
“As it is this cannot be cost neutral, and it brings up a bigger debate about what the role of the public sector is,” he said.
“I see it as to provide public good for community benefit, and I’m not going to put my hand up for cost-shifting the responsibility for pensions from the Federal Government to us if I can get away with it.
“We need more information.”
Cr Morris said he was satisfied with the variation, and his motivation was to find any way to assist pensioners with the cost of rates, whether through council policy or lobbying other levels of government.
The variation calling for staff to provide councillors with a briefing on how they might help pensioners was carried unanimously.
