Senior Representative: – “Old, rickety, sick has had its day”

Ingrid Korosec is 82 and still tirelessly on the road – for 2.4 million retirees. On the occasion of the turn of the year and the enormous challenges for its clientele, the chairman of the Seniorenbond calls for a “paradigm shift from the point of view of seniors” in the sense of constructive and close cooperation. The image of “old, rickety, sick” has had its day, prejudices and barriers must be broken down, says Korosec, who strongly opposes rampant age discrimination, especially in the financial sector. She complains about the lack of ATMs and drawbacks when it comes to insurance premiums. It is also important to set more buses and shorter intervals for public transport.

Place of residence determines care allowance
After all, an amendment to the Mortgage and Property Act has ensured that in the future age will no longer apply, but only financial security. An important and obvious point is maintenance. “There are too many stakeholders. The money often ends up with a delay where it belongs. We need financing from a single source.” Here Korosec already received encouragement from Minister of Social Affairs Johannes Rauch (Greens). Second point: affordable care in every state. The differences are huge. The place of residence often determines whether the level 3 care allowance only pays for 27 or 55 hours of domestic help. Across Austria, 900,000 people are cared for, 80 percent of them at home.

Ingrid Korosec points out the importance of seniors as an economic factor: there are almost 90,000 retired people in work – and the trend continues. Or volunteer work: from childcare to family care: 8.5 billion unpaid work, Korosec calculates.

Budgetary challenges
The pensions, which have recently been well adjusted, entail enormous costs. Agenda Austria has calculated that between 2022 and 2026 about 140 billion euros must be allocated. Korosec points to the need to more quickly adjust the actual retirement age to the legal retirement age and wants to create flexible working options for the elderly.

She also emphasizes studies that document the enormous purchasing power of this large group. Most of the money from the pension migrates to consumption, i.e. to the economy. The over-65s are responsible for a quarter of all consumption in this country. Ingrid Korosec’s conclusion: “Senior policy is social policy.” And: “Don’t talk about seniors, but with them.”

There should be a summit of the social partners at the end of January. There is still more progress to be made.