{"id":651970,"date":"2026-05-05T22:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651970\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:18:16","slug":"retirees-overwhelmingly-worse-off-under-crushing-fuel-crisis-and-cost-of-living-pressures-latest-sky-news-pulse-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651970\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirees overwhelmingly worse off under crushing fuel crisis and cost of living pressures, latest Sky News Pulse reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Older Australians overwhelmingly feel worse off compared to three months ago as the oil crisis and Labor\u2019s cost-of-living crunch eats into their quality of life.<\/p>\n

Exclusive new polling found 50 per cent of retirees said their financial situation has declined compared to three months ago.<\/p>\n

No retirees surveyed in the latest Sky News Pulse, conducted by YouGov, said they felt better off.<\/p>\n

Another 49 per cent of this group said they felt no change, while one per cent said they were unsure.<\/p>\n

These shocking findings were contained in a survey of 1,500 voters between April 28 and May 5 amid the oil crisis and high inflation.<\/p>\n

Diesel prices have lifted more than 70 cents per litre compared to February and petrol prices are up about 15 cents per litre, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.<\/p>\n

The oil shock hits alongside high inflation, which was present in the economy before the Iran war.<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank of Australia was forced to hike interest rates for a third consecutive time<\/a> on Tuesday to tackle the skyrocketing prices.<\/p>\n

This rate hike will only force households to further tighten budgets which continue to be strained.<\/p>\n

When looking at all groups, 47 per cent of Australians said they were worse off compared to three months ago.<\/p>\n

Another 43 per cent said there was no change and just seven per cent said they felt better off.<\/p>\n

Financial pressures appear to have grown as respondents who were asked this question in early March felt somewhat better about their financial position.<\/p>\n

About 42 per cent felt worse off, while 49 per cent reported no change and seven per cent still felt they were in a better position.<\/p>\n

In the latest poll, younger generations were comparatively doing better than their older peers.<\/p>\n

About 11 per cent of Generation Z and 12 per cent of Millennials reported being in a better financial situation compared to three months ago.<\/p>\n

Yet 47 and 41 per cent of Boomers and the Silent Generation respectively felt worse off and zero respondents in either generation reported an improvement.<\/p>\n

Older Australians feeling worse off comes as Labor boasts of tackling \u201cintergenerational equity\u201d in its upcoming budget.<\/p>\n

The government uses this language to soften up Australians for planned changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

These changes are aimed at making housing more affordable for younger generations, however, some older Australians have argued against the stereotype of the \u201crich boomer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Victorian real estate agent David Wynack said older generations have been encouraged to invest in property to make up for a shortfall in the superannuation system.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The housing system was not designed to make Boomers rich,” Mr Wynack told The Senior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It was designed to keep us off the pension. The wealth boomers have accumulated in property is not a bonus – it is our superannuation.<\/p>\n

“We did what the government told us. Now they want to punish us for it.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a report from charity organisation COTA Australia revealed that one in four older Australians are living in poverty.<\/p>\n

COTA chief executive Patricia Sparrow said the \u201crich boomer\u201d stereotype needed to be put to rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every older Australian living comfortably, there\u2019s another counting every dollar, skipping meals, or even putting off healthcare,\u201d Ms Sparrow said in a statement.<\/p>\n

In the latest Sky News Pulse, working class Australians were faring much worse economically than those in a higher income bracket.<\/p>\n

About 63 per cent said they were poorer, compared to 33 per cent for middle class Australians and 18 per cent for those deemed \u2018well off\u2019.<\/p>\n

Australians in the latter class were the only group where more respondents said they were doing better than three months ago.<\/p>\n

The poll also revealed a three per cent improvement for Labor\u2019s primary vote, while One Nation fell three per cent and the Coalition lifted one per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Older Australians overwhelmingly feel worse off compared to three months ago as the oil crisis and Labor\u2019s cost-of-living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,8197,99,164,5465,178283,315306,187305,116567,240380,4265],"class_list":["post-651970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baby-boomers","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-older-australians","tag-retired-living","tag-retiree","tag-silent-generation","tag-sky-news-pulse","tag-yougov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}