Hello dear Members!

I hope you're all well

As most of you know, the Seniors Discount Club is a growing online community for all Australians over the age of 60. We have been around for three years now and feel incredibly lucky to say we now have over 320,000 members!

With our online community growing, and with each and every one of you sharing some of your day-to-day struggles, we have decided to launch a few petitions. We believe with the number of members we have, there is potential for us, as a community, to hopefully inspire some change. We have just four petitions live at the moment, and we'd be more than happy to launch some more if there are any more topics you as a community feel passionate about. If you're interested in seeing the petitions we have live currently, you can see them below:

• Stop the transition to all self-serve checkouts: We think this one speaks for itself! For many of our members, their local supermarkets are quickly transitioning to fully self-served. We believe this is not only causing job losses, but makes the weekly shopping so much more challenging for Australians over 60... Not to mention, how fiddly and frustrating they can be to use! We are petitioning to keep traditional checkouts in our stores.
• Strengthen Aged Care Support, Funding, and Transparency: Sadly, I think I speak on behalf of most of our members when I say the current state of aged care in Australia is extremely concerning. We are petitioning to improve the quality of aged care provided to Australian seniors in facilities across the nation. At the end of the day, our population is ageing and if we continue to turn a blind eye to aged care support, Australians are in for a frightening future.
• Increase the Australian Aged Pension for a Better, Fairer Future: We hear every single day Australian news outlets discuss how Aussies are struggling with the current cost-of-living... But how about our pensioners trying to put food on their table, keep their lights and heating on, and pay for their medicine? The cost-of-living crisis is hitting Australian pensioners the hardest, and there is not enough being done about it.
• Protect the Right to Use Cash and Ensure Financial Inclusivity: Where do I begin?! Without cash, so many Australians suffer. Not every Australian has access to digital payment methods and banking and removing cash, and bank branches is making anything to do with money so much more challenging for Australian seniors. Cash should be kept alive for all Australians.

We know these four topics are just scraping the surface so if there is anything else you'd like us to put a petition together for, please let us know in the comments below.

As with all petitions, the more signatures we get on these, the louder we become! So please share this with all of your family and friends, whether they are a member of the Seniors Discount Club or not! The number of supporters in the top right corner of each petition will be manually updated by our team as often as we can, but our goal is to get 100,000 signatures on every petition!

I cannot thank you all enough for your ongoing support of us and our community. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Sign our petitions! Image source: Shutterstock.

Have a great day!
Maddie

 

[Blossom1]

I agree

 

[marita2025]

I am a level 2 age care package and it's a total RIPOFF, one example I was charged $900+- for a social worker to come and fill in some paperwork to give my husband a carer's allowance. Everything has a 12% fee added, the Govt requires a physio, OT, or social worker to approve all needs, They, in turn work for companies that sell these products at inflated prices. e.g a pick-up stick $15 from Aldies, I paid $65...I could go on and on.
the govt is getting ripped off, the consumer is getting ripped off and the companies are reeping all the benefits.

 

[Nazza CNS]

I click the icon to sign and it just whirls is there something wring with the link

 

[Dohlesrocks]

Done

 

[Bezz]

Signed all 4, we have got to let these organisations know that we have a voice loud and clear.

 

[GrannyJA!]

I have signed every petition you guys put up. They're all worthwhile.

 

[Towing]

I heard that one brand is considering re-opening their original checkouts. Elderly customers have problems understanding them. I always have issues with them. I notice the staff in that section are constantly assisting customers - not just the elderly. Kmart have put theirs in the middle of their stores. When they are busy the queue extends across into an aisle the other side of aisle that goes past the area even with some ""ordinary"(?) checkouts

 

[Mika in the van]

I’d like to see pension requirements change. Currently if a couple is under 67 and the other 67, (both not working), the 67 year old gets half a couples pension even though they have a dependant. but if he/she were single they would get much more. If only one person qualifies for the pension they should get single pension until they both qualify.
If you have savings of more than $11,000 you don’t qualify for Jobseeker so 2 of you have to live on less than a single person.

 

[LITTLE RED ROBIN]

Yes keep the CHECKOUTIT KEEPS PEOPLE EMPLOYED

 

[Dynamo]

Yes, I want to be a part of it. Please guide me how to do it
And don’t treat me as a 7yo, as the 7yo knows more technology than I do. I am 78yo, a dinosau

Plenty of dinosaurs on this page!

 

[Sue Cook]

I support all of these

 

[Khate]

All 4 please

 

[gentlejack]

Thanks for the proposed challenging petitions
I've signed the four of them as I believe they are all a worthy cause.

 

[Luckyus]

Done and Dusted

 

[tigerKath]

Signed times 4. Hope it helps in some way.

 

[zacca]

I’ve signed the 4 as well. We also need to think about those of us that are still a few years off the pension age and will probably never get another job and trying to live on Centrelink it’s around $300 a fortnight less than the pension. I’m 65 my flat mates 66. It’s very hard to survive on it. Our rent went up 16% an extra $65 a week this year I know we’re one of the cheapest in the area but if that happens again next year we’ll be living in the car. No need to giggle it’s true. We need to be bought up to the pension dollars. It’s just ridiculous we don’t smoke, drink or go out. The body isn’t keeping up with what Centrelink think we should be doing.

 

[nelliehopkins]

I have signed these petitions too. We need to let the authorities know what is best for the majority of us and not let them dictate to us what they think we need.

How did u find these to signbthem. I keep hitting the petition button but nothing happens

 

[Sherril54]

Thank you so much SDC, finally issues regarding seniors are being taken seriously. I feel that until recently our issues were not being treated seriously or with respect, sadly we had mostly had been forgotten and we did not have a voice. BRAVO!

 

[Lien]

Thank you Maddie for organising this. I have signed on all 4 petitions.
It would be great if we could also lobby for all Australians from 60 years old to have a health care card entitlement without means testing. A healthy population is a key to a prosperous nation.

 

[GrannyJA!]

I'm pretty sure that I have signed all these petitions. Is it possible that there's a new version? Maybe being sent to a different branch of government?