ELDERLY Australians committing welfare fraud on a massive scale are behind the extraordinarily high number of $100 notes in circulation, a former senior Reserve Bank official says.
Yesterday the Herald revealed there are now 10 $100 notes in circulation for each Australian, far more than the more commonly seen $20 notes.
One popular explanation is that they are used for illegal transactions as part of the cash economy, something the former Reserve official, Peter Mair, rejects as a "furphy".
In a letter to the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, dated July 4, Mr Mair laid the blame squarely on elderly people wanting to get the pension and hiding their income in cash to ensure they qualified for the means-tested benefit.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-grey-economy-how-retirees-rort-the-pension-20120924-26hku.html#ixzz27RVxEPF4
Outraged pensioner groups say comments made by a former senior Reserve Bank official have cast ‘‘criminal suspicion’’ over 2 million Australians.
Former senior Reserve Bank official Peter Mair said elderly Australians were committing welfare fraud on a massive scale are behind the extraordinarily high number of $100 notes in circulation.
National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O’Neill said Mr Mair’s comments were ‘‘unfounded and offensive’’.

‘‘Undoubtedly some older Australians may chose to rely on cash - and have a preference for cash because they are uncomfortable with electronic banking and like the convenience issue of having cash - that is entirely different from the his nonsense of suggesting pensioners are rorting the system.’’
Yesterday, BusinessDay revealed there are now 10 $100 notes in circulation for each Australian, far more than the more commonly seen $20 notes.
One popular explanation is that they are used for illegal transactions as part of the cash economy, something the Mr Mair, rejects as a "furphy".
In a letter to the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, dated July 4, Mr Mair laid the blame squarely on elderly people wanting to get the pension and hiding their income in cash to ensure they qualified for the means-tested benefit.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/pensioners-fume-at-welfare-fraud-claims-20120925-26ib5.html#ixzz27RRHoArO
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I like cash, efpos, credit, gold, money, tax rebates, bank transfers.... anything will do... I may be old, but I  ain't seen the colour of a hundred dollar bill, yet.... let me know which bingo parlour I should go to.

Yes Gus,

With 2 million angry pensioners on his trail, perhaps Peter Mair would do well to disappear for a while?

Given Mair’s irresponsible claims, we will now doubtless witness a spate of home invasions & pensioner assaults, as organised crime goes about the business of locating the alleged hidden hordes of cash, squirreled-away by the frail & elderly. With that in-mind, the former Reserve Bank official might well have to extend his travels, as police, politicians & thousands of angry families decide to assist the pensioners in locating him.

More seriously, perhaps Mair’s opinions might be worth listening to, if they went to the alleged criminal behaviour of his former colleagues & the failure of the federal government & ASIC to address that growing scandal, rather than unfounded accusations against our senior citizens, which have all the appearance of a cynically manufactured stalking horse being clumsily used to justify the removal of the $100 note from our currency.

What a dope!!!

And was Peter Mair's retirement package from wherever given to him in $100 bills or as a wheelbarrow of gold watches?...