Indigenous man loses bid to access pension early due to shorter life expectancy

Federal court rules 65-year-old Wakka Wakka man had not demonstrated any lesser enjoyment of right to social security

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An Indigenous man seeking to access the aged pension three years earlier due to racial disadvantage has lost his federal court case.

Uncle Dennis, a 65-year-old Queensland-born Wakka Wakka man who has requested that his surname be withheld, lodged a claim to receive the pension but it was rejected because he had not reached the pension age, now 67. He argued that if retiring Indigenous men were expected to live for three years fewer than non-Indigenous men, then their pension age should be 64.

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