Dubbo Chamber of Commerce president Matt Wright said employers, education institutions and over-55s themselves could all play a part in ensuring seniors drew a wage and not a pension.

A new Regional Australia Institute (RAI) report has contested age discrimination in the workforce needs to end to combat a growing aged pension crisis in the country’s oldest regions.

The report found there was lower growth, lower incomes and a higher welfare services bill in ageing regions that are increasingly reliant on the pension.

The report said some regions already had more than 20 per cent of their populations reliant on the age pension.

While the proportion of people at Dubbo engaged in the workforce between 55 and 64 years of age was greater than 65 per cent, some parts of the region fared worse.

In the Warrumbungle Shire, 17.5 per cent of the population receives the pension, the data shows.

When it came to over-55s in the workforce, Mr Wright said creating an awareness of the issue and educating businesses there was the opportunity to “tap into a very experienced type workforce” were important.

Business operators should be looking at what retraining their long-time staff might need, he said.

“They carry a fair bit of knowledge that’s priceless for a business owner,” he said.

“So certainly to look at those employees who are ageing and that they want to retain for a long period of time.”

Thirdly was to make sure people in the age group continued their education to acquire different skills if required, he said.

He said recruiting or retaining ageing workers could provide further growth and have economic spin-offs.

“It’s not the problem of the elderly, it’s not the problem of businesses themselves, it’s something that everyone probably needs to be aware of and assist with addressing,” he said.

“So I’m sure that some of those education facilities out there that are looking at this as a potential opportunity to retrain people, maybe in that baby boomer type era or before.”