Premier Barry O’Farrell today announced he will be taking away money the Gillard Government is delivering to help 84,000 NSW pensioners who live in public housing.

All pensioners living in New South Wales will receive an increase in their pension payments as part of the Federal Labor Government’s household assistance package.

Single pensioners will receive $338 a year and couples $510 combined a year.

This extra money is meant for pensioners and not for Barry O’Farrell.

The New South Wales Government’s decision to hike public housing rents is nothing more than a cash grab that will hit pensioners and vulnerable families.

The Gillard Government will be delivering our increase to pension payments as a stand-alone pension supplement.

We did this so the payment would not be included when state governments calculate public housing rent. Over many years, the accepted practice has been for state governments not to take a cut from stand-alone supplements.

But Barry O’Farrell has shown he is more interested in lining his own pockets than helping pensioners.

Pensioners in public housing in New South Wales pay 25 per cent of their pension as rent. Barry O’Farrell’s decision means a maximum rate single pensioner will now pay an extra $84.50 a year in rent.

http://brendanoconnor.fahcsia.gov.au/node/58

ONE thing that gets me going is comfortably off people who feel sorry for themselves: those who complain how hard it is to get by on $150,000 a year, or retired people who profess to be ''self-funded''.
Someone once asked me why I was so disparaging of self-funded retirees when, from what they could see, I was going to end up as one myself. It's true. Or, rather, it's true my superannuation is too generous for me to get even a smell of the age pension.
But I'd never claim that made me ''self-funded''. Why not? Because I know damn well other taxpayers have contributed mightily to funding the vastly bigger private pension I'll end up on.

The other thing that annoys me about the self-proclaimed self-funded is their motive for this false claim. They say it because they've got their hand out. I'm too well-off to get the pension, therefore you owe me.
So how about a seniors' card that entitles me to pay next-to-nothing on public transport, not because I'm poor, but just because I'm old? How about charging me the same nominal fee for pharmaceuticals you charge pensioners, but deny to the working poor?
The so-called self-funded - the Howard government's favourite charity - enjoy all these perks. But they don't seem to realise that the more successful they are with their begging bowl, the less true their claim becomes.

The notorious superannuation ''reforms'' Peter Costello announced in 2006, which centred on making super payouts tax free for people 60 and over - and which successive governments will have to laboriously unpick at great political cost in coming years - included significantly liberalising the means test on the age pension.
Suddenly, there was a sharp fall in the number of people not receiving the pension and a sharp jump in the number receiving a part-pension. But did all those with their mouths now firmly clamped on the pension teat stop referring to themselves as ''self-funded''? I doubt it.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/these-welloff-retirees-claims-are-a-bit-rich-20120814-246ni.html#ixzz23a0FPTHO