04-05-2024, 08:32 AM
(03-05-2024, 11:10 AM)dken31 Wrote: Canada, Australia, UK and a bunch of other countries have a reciprocal arrangement whereby time spent there is counted as time spent here for the purposes of superannuation eligibility.
It is generally a much needed change though as allowing someone to move here at 55 and then start receiving free money 10 years later (possibly for the next 20+ years) was unsustainably generous.
When superannuation was first set up in NZ, eligibility age was only a few years short of average life expectancy. In other words, the average recipient only received super for fewer than 5 years.
Now, the average person receives it for about 20 years.
For someone on the average wage who lives to an average age, total combined super payments received over those 20 years are more than the total combined income tax they paid over their entire working life. It is a literal pyramid scheme where it is only "sustainable" if there is a significantly ever increasing number of new taxpayers repeatedly added in at the bottom level (i.e. significsnt constant population increase).
Mmmm, so maybe we should start rationing medical care for the aged? After all, they (we) aren't very productive once we retire, maybe we shouldn't be doing free vaxes and queues for new hips?
Meanwhile, come Tuesday I'm buying me a new sun umbrella (Bunnings, down fifty bucks!) and another raised vege garden planter, on the strength of my super raises. Blue this time. The brolly, not the vege garden.
I love being old.
