Thank you to all who gave their feedback in our most recent Federal Budget Survey. These results assist COTA SA in developing approaches to ensure that the voices of older South Australians are heard.

A total of 250 older people completed our short survey to tell us about how they felt about the announcements made in the May Federal Budget. Nearly half of the people surveyed felt very positive (9%) or somewhat positive (31%) about the Federal Budget. Interestingly the largest percentage of people felt neutral (36%) with the remainder feeling somewhat negative (12%) or very negative (9%).

Of the 42% of people who believed the Federal Budget measures would impact their quality of life over the next 1-2 years, almost half thought this impact would be completely positive (4%) or more positive than negative (45%).

The most positively received budget announcements included the increase to bulk billing/Medicare changes (32%) and energy bill support (28%). 12% believed that announcements provided support to disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

39% of those surveyed felt that the announcement would have a more negative (30%) or completely negative (9%) impact of their quality of life.

Nearly a quarter of all respondents (23%) stated that a wider application of cost of living benefits is needed. This sentiment reflects the recent State of the Nation survey undertaken by the COTA Federation that found 46% of older South Australian surveyed felt things were getting worse and 20% of people felt under pressure with overdue bills due to payment difficulty.