The National Seniors Advocacy Group is calling for legislative changes to allow older Aussies to work without it affecting their pension.

All pensioners who work are currently required to report their earnings to Centrelink with extra income reducing their government payments.

Over 65s make up only 14 per cent of the Australian workforce with just three per cent of them being pensioners.

“Why do we have so few pensioners working? Because they have to deal with Centrelink … and they hate it with a passion,” National Seniors Chief Advocate Ian Henschke told Luke Grant.

“We need 60,000 workers in the caring industry … more that 100,000 jobs in hospitality … there are a lot of people who are coming up to a pension age, if you asked ‘how about you keep working and you can keep your pension?’ can you imagine how many of those would continue to work?” he said.

Luke Grant described the potential move as a “game changer” for the worker shortage.

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