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As a pensioner, I sympathise with Danny Mullen (Pensioners missed out the most”, Coast Community Chronicle 204, September 2) that he didn’t get his meagre pension increase this year.
However, let us be clear that pensioners have no entitlement to a pension increase.
What they receive is a cost-of-living adjustment which means that if there is no change in the cost of living there is no change in the pension.
Actually, since there was a drop in the cost of living, pensioners might consider themselves fortunate that they didn’t get a reduction.
I’m sure that if it had been politically survivable, Centrelink would have been only too glad to make the deduction.
As it is, it will be interesting to see whether, if the cost of living goes up again, pensioners will get the full amount of such increase or Centrelink will offset the increase against the foregone deduction this year and make no change again.
Email, Sept 7
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy