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SENIOR CITIZENS
INTRODUCTION:
New Zealand First is committed to empowering senior citizens to enable them to remain independent for as long as they wish within their communities, and maintains that our seniors must be treated with respect and not as a burden on society. We know our seniors have a valuable contribution to make to society through their experience and knowledge garnered over the years. This must be viewed as a valuable resource to be utilised.
New Zealand First believes senior citizens are the foundation on which our communities are built. Policy designed to impoverish our senior population is destructive and short-sighted. Their ability to contribute to those communities and the families that they consist of is dependent on government policy recognising that value and supporting it.
New Zealand First recognises the value that senior citizens bring to their families and communities and undertakes to reflect that in its policy-making. We maintain that our treatment of our seniors sends a clear signal of our status as a developed nation. There is little point in pursuing economic growth and other objectives if our seniors are not looked after adequately.
PLANS
New Zealand First will:
- ensure the needs of retired New Zealanders are met through a sustainable superannuation scheme. In giving people certainty (and thus security) such a scheme also gives New Zealand an expanded savings base;
- immediately, upon entering office, revise the mechanism for calculating New Zealand Superannuation to ensure that the minimum base level cannot fall below 66% of the net average wage to redress any financial loss incurred through the application of the current mechanism;
- continue to incrementally raise the level of New Zealand Superannuation to 68% of the net average wage in the first instance (calculated on married couples with a similar adjustment of rates for single persons), rising to 72.5% over time;
- change the rebate for non-qualified spouse in receipt of New Zealand Superannuation and the 55 plus benefit to bring it into line with the widows and domestic purposes benefit;
- raise the rebate threshold for a non-qualified spouse from $80 per week to $100 and index it to the CPI;
- cement in place the age of entitlement to New Zealand Superannuation at 65 years;
- provide that (on a pro rata basis) receipts of superannuation at death will form part of the deceased estate with no requirement for repayment;
- pass legislation which ensures that any modifications to the scheme can only be made with a 75% majority in the House of Representatives;
- ensure that any new scheme would not affect any person who at the time of introduction was aged 55 years or older and thus maintain certainty for that group currently closest to retirement;
- provide for regular inflation adjustment of benefits (and abatement levels);
- work towards a formula for those receiving overseas pensions, based on a pro rata, 1/45 year entitlement (or the appropriate working life span) for years worked in overseas jurisdictions and New Zealand, while ensuring that anybody who qualifies for New Zealand superannuation receives no less than the base New Zealand rate;
- broaden the benefits available to seniors included in the SuperGold Card;
- support the development of accommodation initiatives for pensioners;
- explore options to reduce the rates encumbrance on seniors;
- further develop a strategy for meeting the health needs of an ageing population;
- assure equity of access to health and disability services across generations by removing income and asset testing for older people needing long stay geriatric hospital care services and asset testing for long stay geriatric private hospital care;
- implement national standards for geriatric home care that are enforced, and require a more than cursory inspection of rest homes to ensure standards are met;
- review specific 'disability' provisions and rest-home care;
- review the funding of resthome care contracts, particularly in relation to costs imposed by legislative changes which impact on the cost of care;
- ensure that staff ratios in aged residential care facilities are maintained at appropriate levels for safety and care, while ensuring that staff receive appropriate ongoing training and professional development;
- update the PricewaterhouseCoopers report which is now more than ten years old and ensure all future planning with the eldercare industry is done in consultation with all stakeholders;
- ensure that all future funding of the eldercare sector is based on a minimum CPI adjustment annually;
- put in place a long term planning strategy for the eldercare sector thereby ensuring that the huge cost of the aging population bubble will be adequately planned for;
- smooth the funding pathway between the Ministry of Health and eldercare providers to ensure that the cumbersome negotiations at the DHB level are less intrusive;
- review lottery funding criteria for community transport for seniors groups;
- develop close working relations with seniors' advocacy groups;
- scope the free provision of hearing aids and spectacles to qualifying citizens;
- complete the nationwide network of Elder Abuse and Neglect Co-ordination Services;
- ensure that adequate funding and direction is put into Alzheimer's, dementia, and osteoporosis research;
- ensure that a pilot study is undertaken to provide a formula for the timely provision of operations for cataracts and hip replacements;
- guarantee the maintenance of core hospital services and timely access to acute emergency services;
- conduct a review of the eldercare sector, along the lines of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report of 2001, in order to facilitate long term planning in the sector;
- ensure that the subsidy paid to elderly in care is automatically adjusted for CPI inflation each year, like New Zealand Superannuation, and ensure DHBs fully pass this funding on;
- incrementally work towards pay parity between eldercare nurses and DBH employed nurses;
- develop a specific Industry Training Organisation for the eldercare sector;
- ensure that planning for the eldercare sector incorporates the capacity for family home carers;
- adequately resource elective surgery and establish guaranteed maximum waiting times for a range of surgical and specialist treatment;
- ensure that senior citizens receive greater recognition for the thousands of hours of voluntary service they perform in the community and provide opportunities for paid contributions; and,
- provide a range of measures in support of the safety and security of all New Zealanders by properly resourcing the police, providing stiffer sentencing, and greater community involvement.
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