Reform or retirement income system continues to fail: ISA

Australia's retirement income system will continue to be a failure to future generations of women if there is no substantial structural reform, Industry Super Australia (ISA) believes.

Women's lower earnings and disrupted work patterns compound into a much larger gap of 47 per cent, ISA's chief executive, David Whiteley said referring to the Australian Bureau of Statistics latest figures for the year 2013/14 on super savings.

"Without substantial structural reform in a number of areas, our retirement income system will continue to fail future generations of women. In a relatively wealthy country like Australia, this is unacceptable," Whiteley said.

"The government is to be congratulated on its preparedness to consider re-balancing super tax concessions. This would be a significant step in increasing the super savings of millions of Australian women."

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Whiteley noted the lowest paid, mainly women, receive no tax concessions and effectively suffer a 14 per cent reduction in their super income due to the fact they pay more tax on super than on their income.

ISA said it hopes the government will review recent changes to the age pension asset test, the abolition of the Low Income Super Contribution, and the freeze in the scheduled increase of the super guarantee.