Pension Pressure

How much you receive in pension payments isn't too straight forward. The maximum amount a single person can receive from the aged pension is $808.30 per fortnight. While it seems like a quite liveable figure, most retired people do not receive close to that amount.

Lucia D'Alessandro has recently retired and she is experiencing first hand the struggle of living on the aged pension.

"I had to retire due to my body," Lucia said. "I loved going to work but when you get to this age, injuries happen and I had a fall last year where I hurt my leg really badly. I tried to go back to work but I couldn't make it through the day with the job I was doing, so I had to retire."

Lucia's partner is still working. While he isn't earning a large amount each week, the effects it has on Lucia's pension is massive.

"I understand that I should get less. I have someone else supporting me so it makes sense that my pension is cut a bit. But it is how much it gets cut that makes it difficult.

"We were right on a line where we couldn't win. If he earned $100 more per week, my pension would be cut by more that $100. So hypothetically speaking, if he earned $650 per week, my pension would be $300 but if he earned $750, my pension would be cut to $150."

Under this system, Lucia and her partner were forced to make a tough decision.

"In the end, we had to decide that he would work less because financially it worked out better," she said. " Which shouldn't make sense. We work for money, and I've worked my whole life and to think that my pension is so dramatically affected because my partner is working more."