Financial Incentives for Older Workers
Welcome to the About Seniors Financial Incentives for Older Workers page. It can be hard at the best of economic times to find a job as a Mature worker, even though older workers have a strong work ethic, are dependable and possess versatile work experiences.
On this page, there are Special Programs for Mature Workers aimed at promoting mature age employment.
You can also find information on how to get Pension Bonus & Tax Offsets and if you need any more help finding a job, you can get Centrelink Assistance as it provides a range of self-help facilities called Employment Self Help for all job seekers.
Where’s the work?
It is all very well to suggest Australians work on past retirement age, but is there any guarantee they will get a job and who is going to hire them?
Our snapshot web poll tells us that 85 per cent of our visitors do not believe work is available for those wishing to work beyond an early retirement age and only 15 per cent believe the jobs are there. One of our visitors took the time to share her experience job hunting.
Thank you for bringing our plight to the media's attention. In fact I was hoping to get something going on the forum and go from there. Despite what we read and hear, all baby boomers are not doing retirement easily especially women, whose careers were often interrupted to raise a family. And not all of us were public servants with the luxury of employer contributions to super before SGF became law. Yet we all paid our taxes some of which was used for public service superannuation. I do not begrudge that, I simply wish the government would recognise the fact.
I am fit and healthy in my mid-50s with many administrative skills and a strong work history. I am not a self-funded retiree (circumstances beyond my control) and need and want to work. I am living in North East Victoria and am willing to travel up to 60 kms to work. I have succeeded to interview in four positions in the past six months. I had the required skills and experience in all cases but was not successful in the end.
I am sure I handled the interviews well and apart from one of them (see below) I came away believing the job would be mine. This is the story of the interview referred to as 'see below'. I had a very good telephone interview and was invited to attend in person. Once again I thought that this one would be mine. When I arrived for the interview, the receptionist offered me a cup of tea and then went into the glass office nearby and alerted the manager to my arrival. When he looked over towards me I saw his chin drop until it almost hit the desk. (I don't have two heads!!!) I'm sure that though he was the same age as me, I was not the idea of what he wanted 'decorating' his office.
He kept me waiting for some 10 minutes during which time I noticed that there was no-one else in the building over 30 (apart of course from the owner and little old me) and that the men and women were all beautiful trendy young things. I would have fitted in with them I know, but already felt that I would not get this job no matter how well the interview went.
With each rejection, I lose a little more self-confidence and fret about my future.
It would be good to hear from women and men who find themselves in a similar predicament and to share ongoing experiences in our quests for meaningful work. What are the prospects like in the city?
