Boost to get jobs for seniors

Older Australians will be beneficiaries of new incentives to keep them in the workforce for longer.

The federal government will make faster payments to employers who take on job seekers over 50 years old under plans unveiled in Tuesday's budget.

The boost to the Restart wage subsidy scheme will mean businesses will only have to wait one year instead of two to get up to $10,000 to take on a mature worker.

The move is likely to be welcomed by seniors groups who have criticised the government for seeking to have Australians work for longer without tackling the barriers to workforce participation, namely age discrimination.

It's also likely to head off criticism of the 2014 budget measure, stalled in parliament, to raise the pension access age to 70 by 2035.

The government already has cleared a separate 2014 budget "barnacle" aimed at seniors, after scrapping the unpopular plan to index the pension to inflation.

That's been replaced with measures tightening the thresholds for pension eligibility and lifting the rate at which the payment drops above the revised cut-offs.

WHAT'S IN THE BUDGET FOR SENIORS

* Boost to Restart wage subsidy paying employers to take on older workers over 50 years old

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* Employers to get payments of up to $10,000 over 12 month period instead of 24 months.

* Aged care to be self-directed. Funding for homecare to be attached to person rather than provider from February 2017.