Ageing

The extra 25 years of high-quality life expectancy over the last century constitute an unquestionably positive development for both individuals and society. Australia should embrace longer lives as a remarkable opportunity rather than a grave challenge. We seek solutions to issues resulting from Australia’s ageing population, aiming to increase the social and economic wellbeing of older Australians.

Gender Equality
August 31, 2020

The ‘Herstory’ of Superannuation

This report looks at the history of superannuation for Australian women, marks its progress towards equity, and identifies what more could to be done to improve the system in order to mitigate women’s vulnerability to poverty in retirement.
Ageing
July 13, 2020

Home for Good: Communities for Wellbeing

In this fourth Home for Good policy brief, we explore ways to build ‘communities for wellbeing’. By this, we mean the ways in which good housing outcomes extend beyond individual housing circumstances to the context of neighbourhood and broader community.
Ageing
May 6, 2020

Home for Good: Social Housing for an Ageing Population

In this, our third policy brief, we turn our attention to Australia’s social housing sector. In the context of declining home ownership and growing housing insecurity among older Australians, we ask whether social housing can provide the three critical functions of home as we age.
Ageing
March 23, 2020

Home for Good: Improving the Private Rental Market for Older Australians

This policy brief, the second in a series looking at housing options for an ageing population, draws on the work of Per Capita and TACSI, to explore and propose new and innovative pathways for private rental housing.
Ageing
February 25, 2020

Home for Good

This policy brief is intended to restore the idea of home as both a psychological and social asset to our discourse on housing, rather than just a financial asset. It is specifically concerned with the role of the home as we age, positing that successful ageing is dependent on a person’s access to a home that provides security, community, safety and autonomy.
Ageing
September 9, 2019

Mutual Appreciation: a social innovation thinkpiece

A triple threat is looming in relation to ageing in Australia, one with particular implications for women. While access to secure and affordable housing can mean the difference between poverty and a decent life in older age, full homeownership in Australia is increasingly a privilege.
Ageing
April 2, 2019

Per Capita’s 2019 Fantasy Budget

Every year, progressive think tank Per Capita releases its fantasy budget: a set of budget priorities that, if implemented, would progress Australia towards a more equal society. Here are our budget priorities this year.
Ageing
May 3, 2018

Emerging Ageing: Co-designing Responses to Positive Ageing for New and Emerging Migrant Communities

Emerging Ageing: co-designing responses to positive ageing for new and emerging migrant communities. A report by Per Capita's Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing, in partnership with the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria.
Ageing
September 12, 2017

Money for Jam: Financial Wellbeing through Micro-enterprise

Enabling women over 50 at risk of poverty to create financial wellbeing through micro-enterprise
Ageing
August 21, 2017

Retirement Housing in Victoria

In June 2017, Per Capita joined representatives from resident advocacy groups, universities, industry, ombudsman schemes, government agencies and regulators met at an Experts' Forum in Melbourne to discuss the future of retirement housing regulation in Victoria.
Ageing
July 20, 2017

Not So Super, For Women: Superannuation and Women’s Retirement Outcomes

In a significant research collaboration, Per Capita and the Australian Services Union have looked at the way the the super system is failing women.
Ageing
July 18, 2017

What’s Age Got To Do With It? Towards a New Advocacy on Ageing and Work

Australia, along with the other developed economies, is grappling with the implications of an ageing population. Concerns about increasing welfare costs and shortfalls of labour supply have brought with them calls to prolong working lives. However, current public policy is inadequate if the nation wishes to make the best use of its ageing workforce.
Ageing
September 14, 2016

The Adequacy of the Age Pension: An Assessment of Pensioner Living Standards

The Age Pension in Australia is inadequate. It fails to provide a decent standard of living for approximately 1.5 million older Australians who rely on it as their main source of income.
Ageing
May 9, 2016

Money For Jam: a co-design project

A co-design project enabling women at risk of poverty to create financial wellbeing through microenterprise.
Ageing
November 29, 2015

Getting the Measure of the Problem

November 2015: In this report, Emily Millane finds that our current benchmarks for measuring retirement income are inadequate as they exclude housing costs.
Ageing
April 29, 2015

Spaces for All Ages: Policies for an Inclusive Australia

April 2015: In this report, Emily Millane looks at real life ways to increase the participation of older Australians in the workforces and the broader community.
Ageing
February 23, 2015

Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing

Housed within Per Capita, CAPPA creates a permanent research capacity on longevity and ageing, to identify emerging issues for older Australians now, as well as anticipating the opportunities challenges for future generations of Australians.
Ageing
January 28, 2015

The Head, the Heart & the House

January 2015: This report shows how we can make our homes places which improve health and quality of life as Australia ages. By Emily Millane.
Ageing
November 7, 2014

The Entitlement of Age

Australia’s retirement income system is becoming unsustainable. This is not because too much money is spent on the age pension. Australia spends an average of 3.5 per cent of its GDP on age-related spending against an OECD average of 7.8 per cent. Per Capita’s detailed analysis shows that unsustainability and inequality are the two emergent trends in Australia’s retirement income system. The changes being proposed by the federal government will make both of these problems worse because they ignore the role of private wealth in shaping people’s chances later in life.
Ageing
October 20, 2014

Per Capita Longevity Forum

The Longevity Forum will continue the momentum of the Blueprint for an Ageing Australia.
Ageing
October 3, 2014

Ageing and Longevity

In 2014, Per Capita launched the Blueprint for an Ageing Australia. It sets out the steps that must be taken to ensure that ageing is an asset, not a liability. Longer lives present Australia with an enormous opportunity: longevity is a gift, but only good if you can live well. We could be doing more to ensure longevity isn’t just enjoyed by the well-educated, the well-healed, and the well-housed. We have to remake our social structures to make the most of the great gift of longer lives.
Ageing
September 3, 2014

Blueprint for an Ageing Australia

The Blueprint is the report of the Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing. The Advisory Panel was constituted in 2011 with a three-year mandate to produce a comprehensive policy review on the opportunities and challenges associated with an ageing Australia. In November 2013, the funding of the Panel was discontinued, and Per Capita entered into a partnership with four members of the Panel to re-establish the Panel and complete the Blueprint. The Blueprint was published in 2013 and outlines seventeen practical and important policy recommendations across seven policy areas that can make ageing a positive experience for all. The Blueprint is built around the idea that living longer is a good thing, that the rising average age of our population is a vindication of advances in science and health policy, and that the best way to approach it is to look for ways that older Australians can participate more effectively in our society and our economy to the best of their abilities.
Ageing
November 19, 2013

Still Kicking: Longevity and Ageing. The demographic climate change of our time.

The paper looks at how a number of significant social changes, both before and during the lives of the baby boomers, have produced specific policy challenges in increasing longevity and an ageing society. By Emily Millane.
Ageing
June 3, 2007

Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing

The Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing was originally constituted in 2011 with a three-year mandate to produce...
Ageing
May 6, 2007

Longevity and Ageing: The Sleeping Giants of Public Policy

The Sleeping Giants of Public Policy. Increasing longevity will be the biggest social change in Australia over the next 30 years. It will change...