Australians too retiring: OECD - National - theage.com.au

"The study also finds Australian men of prime working age have the second highest jobless rate of all 30 member nations in the OECD.

Perhaps because Australian employers are bastards?

In a wide-ranging reform blueprint, the organisation urges the Federal Government to let people earn more part-time income while still claiming the aged pension.

This is a no-brainer.

It also advocates even tougher rules for older people on welfare benefits - including more work requirements for unemployed people over 55.

I support this, but you have to start with employers. They're the mongrels who block older, disabled people from getting jobs. They use any excuse to sack older workers so they can employ someone younger and cheaper. Most people I assess for DSP want to work. Over half have a horror story about how they were forced into early "retirement" by bastard bosses.

And, in a bid to stop the disability support pension being used as an early retirement scheme, it wants older applicants to face the same tough medical eligibility tests as everyone else.

Despite the Government's pre-budget decision to exempt the existing 700,000 disability pensioners from harsher work tests, the OECD says all recipients should be forced to look for a job if they can work for 15 hours or more a week."

Agreed - but you have to make the definition of 15 hours per week reasonable. How about forcing employers to provide part-time work. Have you looked in the paper to see how many part-time jobs are advertised? Pompous ivory tower academics make these ridiculous pronouncements with no concept of what it's actually like in the real world.

Yesterday I assessed a 57 year old man with multiple injuries who wanted to work, who had actually been an employment consultant in Job Network. He trained people for the Mature Workers Program. He cannot get a job. His Job Network provider has decided not to fund the final semester of his TAFE course.

Here is a man doing all the right things - being screwed by a pathetic system. Shame Johnny.