Hundreds of Illawarra seniors aired their anger over government cuts to the pension during a forum on Tuesday.
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An estimated 230 people took part in the Labor Party-led discussion at Dapto’s Ribbonwood Centre.
Among them was Woonona pensioner John Smith, who said he and his wife had worked all their lives, only to have their benefits cut in half.
“Now, I feel like I’m doing a jail term because I saved money. They’re taking it off me because I’ve worked,” Mr Smith, 72, said.
“It feels like I’ve done a crime.”
Fellow pensioner Dennis Sutton questioned why older Australians were treated as “second-class citizens”.
“Even with a full pension, once you pay for your rent and whatever else you’ve got to pay, your electricity and all that stuff, you get nothing to live on, nothing,” the 69-year-old, from Kanahooka, said.
“You might be lucky to get 300 bucks a fortnight.”
Mr Sutton called on the government to “look after the pensioners”.
“We built this country, you know; we worked, we paid our tax and done the right thing for the next generation. What are we get left with? Nothing,” he said.
The region’s federal Labor MPs, Stephen Jones (Whitlam) and Sharon Bird (Cunningham) were joined by the party’s families and social services spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin, at the forum.
A similar event was also held at Nowra on Tuesday.