'Marriage-Like Relationships' and Social Security: Retirees and the Age-Pension

Abstract

This article illustrates the problems of senior pension holders who may be involved in marriage-like relationships under the Social Security Act 1991. The article shows how an expanded definition of these relationships in 1995 has caught a wider group of couples who may suffer a reduction of pension. At the same time the article traces the concept of cohabitation through a change in the meaning of the concept of 'dependency'. This approach shows how this key indicator of cohabitation has shifted or expanded with the recognition of new forms of relationships.