The super industry body’s quarterly retirement standard for June highlighted challenges arising from rising costs for food, healthcare and petrol in particular.
“We’re seeing significant increases in the price of essentials, namely petrol (+27.3 per cent), hospital and medical services (+6.7 per cent) and even basic fruit and vegetables”, ASFA chief executive Martin Fahy said.
What was of key concern to ASFA was the impact of such price increases to retirees.
The study indicated that couples aged around 65 living a comfortable retirement now would need to spend $63,352 per year; an increase of 0.8 per cent from the previous quarter.
For singles around 65 this spend would be $44,818; an increase of 0.9 per cent from the previous quarter.
Over the year up to June 2021, prices have been up 2.3 per cent and 2.6 per cent for a comfortable retirement for couples and singles respectively.
“Small price rises across the board can add up to have a big impact on the average retiree budget. The cost of retirement is now 2 to 3 per cent more expensive, on average, than a year ago,” Dr Fahy said.
He added that ASFA was advocating a rise in the superannuation guarantee (SG) to combat the gathering pressure to save for a comfortable retirement due to rising costs of living.
“It’s so important that future retirees are able to build sufficient savings over their working lives to ensure they can face retirement with financial confidence. Moving Australia to the 12 per cent SG setting is an excellent step towards achieving this goal”, Dr Fahy concluded.
