The Brotherhood’s Social Barometer on Retirement and Ageing
Helen Kimberley
Brotherhood of St Laurence
Contact Email:   hkimberleybsl.org.au

International trends in poverty definition and measurement such as the social inclusion approach of British and European social policy and Amartya Sen’s ‘capabilities’ framework, propose multidimensional measures of disadvantage and deliver similar social indicators. These approaches, particularly Sen’s, have influenced the Melbourne Institute’s work on poverty and the Cape York Institute’s work with Indigenous people (see Headey 2006; Cape York Institute 2005). Likewise they are informing Brotherhood research toward the evolution of social and economic policies that respond to the changing conditions in Australia and in the global environment.

Retirement and Ageing is the fourth research report in the Brotherhood's Social Barometer series that utilises the capability framework, its predecessors being The working years (Allen Consulting Group 2007), Monitoring children’s chances (Scutella & Smyth 2005) and Challenges facing Australian youth, (Boese & Scutella 2006). Retirement and Ageing examines the extent of disadvantage among older Australians through indicators of people’s capabilities covering eight key dimensions of life.

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