Years of bringing up kids and looking after ageing parents, part-time work in lowly paid, feminised jobs, the gender pay gap and broken marriages create a toxic recipe for poverty among older women.

But there may be some relief shortly. Reports about what will be in next week’s federal budget suggest unemployed people aged over 55 will receive an increase in JobSeeker, and women in that age bracket are the fastest growing cohort of new recipients of the payment.