Grey Power has lobbied for a long time to have prescription co-payments scrapped and we are pleased that Budget 2023 has recognised this, although we hope that people can actually get an appointment to see their doctor to access a prescription.

And although we also acknowledge that other budget expenditure is likely to benefit many of our older people, the Grey Power Federation president Jan Pentecost said she was disappointed not to find specific mention of older people and that the actual value of this budget to this group remains to be seen because it will be the details that will disclose the actual benefits or not.

“This budget appears to have forgotten or chosen to exclude some of the most vulnerable in our society, those of our older people living in poverty even though the UN expert on the human rights of older people in her 2020 assessment stated the basic New Zealand pension was very close to the poverty threshold with 60 percent of singles and 40 percent of couples with little or no additional income apart from their pension.

We know the Government adjusted superannuation in April but that was the annual catchup, not an increase. And for numerous people national superannuation is all they have to meet the current rising rents and other cost-of-living crises. Many of these people worked hard in their younger years and to leave them behind now in their declining years is outrageous.

Pentecost said it was a sad tragedy that seniors in their twilight years had been overlooked when it would have been relatively simple and cost-effective to ensure they lived the latter part of their lives in dignity. This was not a budget where we could say older people matter too.

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