16 September 2013 For immediate release With Art

New Zealand’s Superannuation, ‘not so super?’

Hamilton, 16 September: On average one in five Kiwis aged 65 or over live below the international poverty threshold. A campaign launched today, ‘Not So Super-Annuation?’ aims to create awareness of the increasing number of New Zealanders who have reached retirement and struggle to provide for themselves.

The campaign will target the ‘sandwich’ generation, people aged 45-54, with dependent children and also dependent parents. It will encourage this group to think now about whether they will be financially ready for their retirement, before it’s too late. New Zealand has a strong culture of self sufficiency and sustainability but this has not historically extended to “Financial Self Sufficiency”. This campaign aims to kick-start a discussion around why this has been the case and highlight steps that can be taken to ensure financial self sufficiency for New Zealanders in their retirement.

The government superannuation in New Zealand pays just $348 per week, and calculations show that people living off superannuation will only have little more than $100 left each week to spend on food, clothes and other expenses such as health care.

Dr Rose Black from Poverty Action Waikato says “The difficulty many people experience in the 45-54 year old age group is that they are very often still supporting children and also supporting ageing parents. Many people in this age group are not earning large incomes”.

Hamilton retiree Irene Finlayson believes the superannuation is not enough to get by on and her main concern going into retirement was “whether or not I’d have enough money”.

“I think no one could actually live on the pension as such. If you didn’t have something extra, you wouldn’t really be able to manage,” says Irene.

Estimates show that by 2026, 20% of New Zealand’s population will be aged over 65, which will have significant implications on health and social services.

The campaign calls for New Zealanders to join the discussion about their future.

For more information about the ‘Not So Super-Annuation?’ campaign visit www.notsosuperannuation.com , and follow the campaign on Facebook www.facebook.com/notsosuperannuation .

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ENDS

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