BOOMER COUPLE DIVIDE AUSSIES WITH QUESTION AFTER WINNING $1MILLION
- Couple lose their pension after winning $1million
- Asked how to keep getting the government payment
- READ MORE: The one thing millions of young Aussies want boomers to do
An elderly couple who won a $1million lottery prize has infuriated younger Australians by asking how they can keep being paid a tax-payer funded pension by the government
The couple, aged 73 and 67, posed the 'entitled' question to the Sydney Morning Herald's money columnist Noel Whittaker on Wednesday.
They revealed they were both receiving the full aged pension which has since been revoked after winning the massive amount of money.
'(We) have placed that money in a basic interest-bearing savings account with our bank,' they wrote.
'We intend to use that money to buy a new house and sell our existing one, but may just renovate.
'The windfall has stopped our pension completely until we spend the money, which is all good and well, but could we have prevented the pension loss in any way?'
Mr Whittaker said the couple should consider themselves 'extremely fortunate and enjoy the money' as they could live a more lavish life off the winnings than a pension.
But he urged them not to just spend money to get their assets below a $1.031million benchmark and have their pension returned as they could still be ineligible .
The couple's question was met with a furious backlash from younger Australians struggling with the nation's cost-of-living crisis.
'I would bet my million dollar lottery winnings that this couple has at some point complained about entitled dole bludgers,' one person wrote on X.
Another person commented: 'Some people are never satisfied, if they want to keep their pensions so desperately, perhaps they could give the money to a charity for the homeless.'
'Imagine winning the generational lottery and then winning the actual lottery and having a sook about it,' a third added.
Other users said the couple shouldn't be judged too harshly.
'They worked their whole lives for those pensions, there should not be a question if they keep them,' a user wrote.
'If they spent all their life working hard and paying taxes … they deserve their pension, what's wrong with that?' another questioned.
They added that those critiquing the couple weren't 'talking about grifters claiming Centrelink ... because they're too lazy to work'.
Read more 2024-07-03T05:52:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd