Warrick Pryce is an 82-year-old truck driver who has to keep working to survive. Photo / Andrew Warner
OPINION
Warrick Pryce, 81, has tried to retire at least seven times but he is still in the driver’s seat. A mechanic by trade, he still works three days a week hauling “human poo” for a Kawerau transport company and says he wouldn’t have a show living on the pension alone. He has been driving trucks for about 30 years and says “the pension is not enough to live on, it’s just for the bare necessities”.
Read the full story: 81-year-old still driving trucks as pension ‘not enough to live on’
Have your say by going to bayofplentytimes.co.nz or dailypost.co.nz and becoming a Premium subscriber.
I am a 67 Māori woman still working.
I was taught to pay your bills before you have the good things in life.
It still stands. We used to take care of each other but now there are too many people out there with plenty to say but when the chips are down they run the other way instead of all of us collectively trying to solve the problems.
The young people are lost and the older people unfortunately are in the same boat.
We need to be building stand-alone houses not apartments.
We need to put more money back into the pockets of those who paid their taxes years ago and let them spend the rest of their years enjoying life without the worry. The young need to be busy, give them something to do and make it worth their while.
They need a voice, they are not stupid. Give them a chance, give them a hand up. Ask them what they want, don’t tell them what you think they want.
I am sure we squandered money/time so hey, we live and learn. Hopefully sooner rather than later. - Julia F
So on one hand we have people past retirement age having to go back to work if they’re able, on the other hand people of retirement age with an income from rentals and/or investments of over $200k per year, seems an easy fix as long as the means test is income based and not asset-based. - Warren S
This statistic is only going to get worse with our education standards falling and more so with any Labour/Greens Government whose only focus is on lowering such standards to create “equality”. Why is this? Because when standards are lowered you remove any incentive to achieve, resulting in at best average outcomes that impact one’s life today and in the future.
This article is just a small glimpse into the future of today’s 10-15-year-olds who won’t be equipped to be competitive against their global peers and will rely on the state to support them in their pensioner years. The irony of the Labour/Greens education policy is that they create a bigger divide. - Richard Y
Not disrespecting these folk at all but financial literacy is and always has been low over most of the population.
They don’t even teach it at school. Very simply, compound interest is the solution. But you have to start early in a managed fund or such to reap benefits - 10 per cent of what you earn and you won’t miss it.
Plenty give that much to church for zero return. If you have kids in the workforce just starting out, get them on to it now for a comfortable retirement. $70 a week at 8 per cent is 1.5 million if you start at 20 and go to 65. That’s at today’s money as contributions will increase to offset inflation. - Nigel N
The sad thing for the current elderly generation is that they built much of the infrastructure and contributed to rapid development of society in the decades following World War II. They worked hard and were always led to believe that they would be able to live on the pension.
I’m sure if they were told they needed private pensions/KiwiSaver as well they would have made arrangements, but it’s a bit late to preach financial literacy to them now.
We repay them with poverty-line pensions and run the infrastructure into the ground. - Federico G
You have to admire these older people’s spirits, get up and go, self-reliant and fix it themselves attitude.
We need more of that in the young who elect to go on the dole or get pregnant to achieve a regular income. - East H
National Superannuation has clearly not kept up with wage rises, particularly rises in the minimum wage. The Super used to be indexed to the average wage, it seems to have got completely out of touch right now.
It’s high time that there was a large increase in the Super to start catching up with wages.
Most people on the Super worked most of their lives and paid a lot of tax. The contract has always been receiving the Super at retirement. It needs to be something that people can live on. Maybe there could be a reduction in tax? - Ian U
- Republished comments may be edited at the editor’s discretion.
The Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times welcome letters from readers. Please note the following: