Professional Project: Housing Decisions of Older Australians

This report examines the influence of transfer systems and tax on the housing decisions of older Australians. It explores the background of housing policies in Australia and the significant role housing plays in the wellbeing and financial security of older individuals. The report investigates the objectives, research questions, and literature review related to housing choices, age pension, and government support. The research methodology uses an interpretative approach with secondary data analysis and quantitative methods to analyze how the transfer system and tax affect the older population’s decisions regarding homeownership, retirement, and living standards. Findings highlight the impact of age pension eligibility, asset tests, and income levels on housing choices, as well as the preferences of older Australians for staying in their homes. The report also provides recommendations for improving living standards and addresses limitations, offering a comprehensive analysis of the key factors influencing housing decisions in this demographic.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PROJECT
Influence of Transfer system and Tax on Housing decisions of older Australian
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive summary:
Certain housing policies have been taken for the older residents in Australia. It has been
observe d that the structural concept of housing has been used in Australia for different
purposes. Housing plays a significant role in the society of Australia. The report contains
prescription of different usage of housing. The transfer system and tax impacts on the
decisions made on the housing system and the report has pointed out the older segment on the
housing related decisions. The level of income during the retirement period and the way to
improve the living standard has been provided in this report. Interpretative approach has
been made in this research and the data are collected from the secondary sources. The
methodology is based on quantitative research method.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background............................................................................................................................3
Objectives...............................................................................................................................3
Research Questions................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................6
Findings from secondary data analysis:.....................................................................................8
Theme 1: Age Pension and residence:...................................................................................8
Theme 2: Transfer system:...................................................................................................11
Discussion:...........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
Aim and objectives:..............................................................................................................16
Limitation:............................................................................................................................17
Recommendation:................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................19
Checklist:..................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
Background
Housing plays an important role towards the ever increasing population of the ageing
Australians. It forms an integral part of the economy of Australia and is a major part for the
wellbeing of the individuals. Moreover, it serves as a basic need of human beings for shelter
and contributes to the psychological, physical as well as emotional security. It acts as a key
determinant of the individual’s financial security and wealth in the old age. Housing
dwellings and land attributes for more than 50 percent of the total domestic assets and two
thirds of the Australian home owners (Agnew, 2013). Housing is an essential part of
everyday life and also, it is considered as a major investment. The ageing population of
Australia and ever growing longevity, as well as the demographic and structural changes have
elevated the policies and helped in driving the decisions of the older people (Barrett et al.,
2015).
Objectives
The purpose of this report is to discuss about the influence of transfer system and tax
on housing decisions of older Australian. The overall study aims to explore those drivers of
the changes in their decisions and the barriers which affect better outcomes. In addition to
this, the report also provides information regarding the future public policy decisions. It has
been evident from leaked sources that older Australians like to have their own homes than the
younger ones and their standards of living are more dependent in nature. The quality as well
as the location of the housing highly influences the physical as well as psychological health
of the older segment of the society (Burke, 2012).

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Research Questions
The purpose of this report is to;
 Analyze the scope of increasing the standards of living of the older Australians
through availing the equity of the overall family income in order to back their
incomes up at the retirement period.
 Analyze how the transfer system and tax influences the housing decisions of the older
Australian.
 Provide some recommendations on how the living standards could be improved.
Literature Review
According to Chomik & Piggott (2014), housing is an integral part for the wellbeing
of the individuals, especially for the older segment of the society. For the majority of the
older people, home ownerships provide independence as well as security at the time of
retirement. The older Australians strongly prefer residing in their family homes, although the
common notion is that such residences are comparatively bigger in size. Majority of the older
Australian’s assets is in their family homes; however, it remains an unexplored source of
income during the retirement period. On considering the influence of tax and transfer
treatment of the housing policies, several factors like Age pension, ownership over renting
and others come into play.
In Yeandle, Kröger, & Cass’s (2012) opinion, the principal residence consist the most
percentage of wealth of the aged households. Moreover, a majority of the older Australians
prefer relying on Age Pension as the source of income and also some other supports from the
government for accommodation and aged care. The way by which residential properties are
actually treated by the transfer and tax system offers for both equity and efficiency problems.
As per Égert’s (2013) opinion, the transfer and tax systems have the power to affect the

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choices of the individuals whether to relocate or remain in the current residence. Another
factor, that is, drawing on the housing wealth for income also comes into play. In addition to
this, a key indicating factor of the equity and efficiency is the transfer and tax system, as it
relates to the decisions taken for the housing policies. Moreover, it influences the different
types of residential tenures and various types of allocation of funds in a neutral manner.
Australia’s Age Pension is the subject which incorporates assets tests as well as
income. A couple’s or say, individual’s asset and income level highly imfluences their overall
eligibility of the pension limit, as well as the amount of their pension entitlements. Judd et al.
(2012) mentioned that the asset ranges which are subjected to the asset tests are real estate,
life interests, granny flat interests, superannuation investments, financial investments in
assets, business assets and income streams. Some assets like principal residence and others
are excluded from the asset tests. In addition to this, Podger, Stanton & Whiteford (2014)
commented that retirement village contribution is considered as an extra allowable amount
which is also excluded from the asset tests. The principal home residing property is not
included in to the means tests for the majority of the Australian Government transfer
payments like Child Care Benefit, Parental Leave Pay and Family Tax Advanatages Part A
and B (Wang, Caminada & Goudswaard, 2012).
Moreover, Simpson & Clifton (2016) said that those individuals whose assets or level
of income make them unfit for receiving full age pension entitlements are actually decreased
to some percentage. According to recent researches conducted on this topic, it is evident that
for the individuals who receive monthly salary beyond the threshold level, their pension
payments will be reduced by fifty cents. In the year 2013, there were around 2.3 million
people receiving pensions in the country of Australia, which roughly represented
approximately seventy percent of the individuals aged sixty five and over. Furthermore,
according to leaked information, the assets test is insignificant to those people who do not

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have their own homes. This reflects the lower level of the overall assets by the non home
owners. On the other hand, Slack & Bird (2014) mentioned in their research, that their
counterparts had net assets of over $ 700,000 and the home owners had a median wealth of
around $ 500,000, with a mortgage. However, since the past years, there have been a number
of suggestions from the officials to ammend the asset tests so that it enhances the equity and
efficiency of the overall system.
Research Methodology
A research philosophy is generally regarded as a belief in which the existing data is
gathered from authentic sources, analyzed as well as used for the purpose. Research
philosophies are of three types, positive, negative and interpretative. The interpretative
approach is used in this research as the existing information are used and interpreted.
Contradictory points are being given based on the existing sources and literature review of
existing journals and theses. The overall philosophy deals with the sources, development and
the nature of knowledge. In simple words, the existing materials gave an idea regarding the
formation of the study. In addition to this, the approach of the research is deductive.
A deductive approach is mainly concerned with developing a hypothesis, based on the
existing materials, journals and theses. In the deductive approach, hypothesis has been
formed from the existing theories and the empirical data has been explored. The data has
been collected from the secondary sources in order to test the hypothesis. The design of the
research is descriptive. Data and information are collected from several secondary sources
and contradictory points are being raised in response to that. In order to support the points, a
review of the literary sources is being done. However, the strategy of the research is case
study analysis as several case studies has been analyzed in order to support the study.

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The data is collected from several secondary sources and quantitative research
methodology is carried out. The overall research on the existing theories, literatures and
theses has helped in identifying the applications and range of them. In addition to this, the
nature of data analysis is thematic as it helped in focusing on the existing themes within the
data. The method emphasized on the overall topic as well as rich description is being given of
the data set. In addition to this, the thematic analysis helped in identifying the explicit and
implicit ideas as well as concepts within the data. The interpretation of the wide range of data
set helped in supporting the statements made in the research study. However, the overall
work is being designed in order to construct the theories and research segments.
The overall study has been designed in a way to construct and support the theories
and identifying the existing ideas as well as concepts. This approach basically emphasizes on
the overall perceptions, experiences and feelings of the existing sources and articles. On
considering the ethics of the conducted study, it is worth mentioning that all the literatures are
being ethically reviewed. No interpretation of the existing data or numbers is done. All the
articles, journals and theses are ethically studied and citations are given. Moreover,
quantitative data analysis is done with the help of existing materials and data. The age
pension means test comprised many income and asset test. This basically meant that the data
was applied to the samples of older Australians. The research indicated that the older couples
are more likely to reside in their current home rather than moving to a new house. The most
of the senior Australians prefer living in private resident and data shows that the older
households strongly prefers staying in their own places rather than moving to some other
area. However, few mentioned that they prefer to live in a retirement village.

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(Figure: Individuals aged 65+ living in private and non-private dwellings
Source: Woellner et al., 2012)
Findings from secondary data analysis:
Theme 1: Age Pension and residence:
It has been find that the age pension test depends on the income and assets. The
assets and income of an individual affects the age pension eligibility and the assets include
fixed assets, granny flat interest, financial allocation, superannuation allocation of financial
resources, income streams and business assets (Atalay & Barrett, 2015). However, it is
required to be mentioned here that certain assessments like principal residence and retirement
village contribution are exempted from the assets test. It has been observed that principal
residence is also excluded from the test on which the age pension is depending.

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Source: Created by author
2.3 million Age pension recipients were recorded in the year 2013 and it has been
observed that most of the persons were 65 years old. The persons who are not able to receive
full amount of age pension, will be come under the purview of tapering (Chen, 2017).
Additionally, the person who has no flat or house of their own will be excluded from the
assets test. Therefore, low assets level can be found in case of age pension test (Spicer,
Stavrunova, & Thorp, 2016). There are certain characteristics recorded in the year 2013
regarding the age pension recipients that can be mentioned as follows:

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Marital status number total percentage
Married/de facto 1336393 57
Single/separated/divorced/widowed 1015746 43
Home ownership
Home owner 1766926 75
Non-home owner 585213 25
Payment status
Maximum rate 1390152 59
Reduced rate 959775 41
Payment under test
Paid under income test 614620 64
Home owner paid under assets test 334923 35
Non-home owner paid under assets test 10232 1
Income/assets test not coded 1555 0.1
Total age pension recipients 2352139 1000
Source: DSS (2014)
However, certain changes have been made in the age pension assets to make it
efficient enough. According to Daley, principal resident has certain equity effects and it is
more suitable for the older Australians. According to Judd (2014), many Australians are
facing downsizing due to age pension. According to the statement made in Henry Review, a
cap need to be applied to the exception of the major abode and it will enhance the principle of
fairness in the respective system. The view was supported by the National Commission of
Audit. The superannuation assets have been fixed by Rice Warner for getting eligible
regarding the age pension (Temple, McDonald & Rice, 2017).

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Theme 2: Transfer system:
In case of transfer system, it has been found that the transfer system of Australia is
less progressive and it should not be imposed as a lifetime basis. Certain discriminations can
be observed in Australia regarding the transfer payment (Bray, 2015). It has been observed
that the richest persons are getting more transfer payment compared to the poor people. In
Australia, it has been observed that the tax payers are paying their income taxes and get the
benefit of transfer payment for the lifetime. This system allows the incentives of the people to
be getting through work and ask to invest in a process so that it can be reinforced. A micro
simulation model has been propounded by the commission to investigate the interaction in
between the tax payers and the transfer payment receivers (Müller & Slominski, 2016). The
transfer system is an independent medium of the government and transfer payments are given
by the government to the citizens and to their families. The income and assets test are playing
an important role in case of making the payment. There are four kinds of transfer payment
existed such as pensions, allowance, supplementary payments and family payments. A
growth in the tax proportion can be observed if the economy of the country becomes weak.