Australian Aged Pension

[giddyup]

7 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

If you're married/in a long-term relationship, you're assessed taking into account your significant other's income, always assuming they're not also a pensioner. Either you get no pension, a part-pension or a married person's pension depending on your circumstances. All of them are less than a single person's pension

I assume that notifying Centrelink of your marriage is not to your advantage. Hypothetically, if your partner is also your carer would she be eligible for a carers allowance, or is that only paid in Australia.

[Sparkles]

50 minutes ago, LosLobo said:

 

Sparkles had his relationship status re-assessed and his rate was reduced due to his marriage.

Yes after 11 years of receiving the single rate when the knew all along I was married. They confirmed that to me in writing at the time on receiving the single rate pension and as mentioned before I did query it at the time. Obviously they are reviewing overseas pensions paid and looking to tighten up the screws.

 

My wife is now 57 although in appearance to be only mid 40's, finding a new job is nigh on impossible.She has no seperate  income.

 

The confirmation letter they sent me took 5 weeks and 4 days to get her,sent ordinary mail ,they will not use email.

 

With the dollar heading south I guess I'm not the only one feeling the squeeze thats why I sought opinion on success rate of appealing 

[Sparkles]

39 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I assume that notifying Centrelink of your marriage is not to your advantage. Hypothetically, if your partner is also your carer would she be eligible for a carers allowance, or is that only paid in Australia.

I dont think you would have any chance of a carers pension in another country.I told Centrelink that my wife was virtually my carer following 2 minor strokes , diagnosed with sleep apnia,mild depression and continuing battle with skin cancer they didnt appear remotely interested in that

[madmen]

Yes after 11 years of receiving the single rate when the knew all along I was married. They confirmed that to me in writing at the time on receiving the single rate pension and as mentioned before I did query it at the time. Obviously they are reviewing overseas pensions paid and looking to tighten up the screws.
 
My wife is now 57 although in appearance to be only mid 40's, finding a new job is nigh on impossible.She has no seperate  income.
 
The confirmation letter they sent me took 5 weeks and 4 days to get her,sent ordinary mail ,they will not use email.
 
With the dollar heading south I guess I'm not the only one feeling the squeeze thats why I sought opinion on success rate of appealing 

Take her to oz. Why would you stay here with the dollar collapsing and no end in sight. If you find a nice small town I doubt it would be much more expensive especially with health insurance and she would be on benefits in a few years

[LosLobo]

31 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

I dont think you would have any chance of a carers pension in another country.I told Centrelink that my wife was virtually my carer following 2 minor strokes , diagnosed with sleep apnia,mild depression and continuing battle with skin cancer they didnt appear remotely interested in that

If you are a carer of someone who has a severe disability, severe illness or someone who is frail aged and are an Australian resident (having at least 2 years residency), you may be eligible for a carers pension.

 

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/carer-payment/eligibility

 

[totally thaied up]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Has anyone actually had their pension reduced after Centrelink found out that they were married?

Mine was cut immediately from $770 to $644

 

I planned on gaining from the start PR in Australia for my wife, so that is the reason I married.

 

If you have under $5000 in your bank, I was told you may be able to appeal under a different sectioning code but I know of only one person based in the Philippines a few years back being successful.

[Sparkles]

12 minutes ago, LosLobo said:

If you are a carer of someone who has a severe disability, severe illness or someone who is frail aged and are an Australian resident (having at least 2 years residency), you may be eligible for a carers pension.

 

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/carer-payment/eligibility

Reading the requirements You both have to be Australian residents and in Australia when applying

[scorecard]

29 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

I dont think you would have any chance of a carers pension in another country.I told Centrelink that my wife was virtually my carer following 2 minor strokes , diagnosed with sleep apnia,mild depression and continuing battle with skin cancer they didnt appear remotely interested in that

 Well I was advised by an ex veteran association that centrelink managed carer's allowance are available through state means in some states, and some payable abroad. I don't have any details and this was not aligned to veterans entitlements in any way.

[Sparkles]

23 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

Mine was cut immediately from $770 to $644

 

I planned on gaining from the start PR in Australia for my wife, so that is the reason I married.

 

If you have under $5000 in your bank, I was told you may be able to appeal under a different sectioning code but I know of only one person based in the Philippines a few years back being successful.

I just hear on the grape vine that appealing only postpones the inevitable.Still trying to find some semi official source other than Centrelink who in the past have stuffed me around big time.I even got a phone call from the head of Centrelink, Hobart where they process overseas payments aplogising for her staffs incompetence

[scorecard]

17 minutes ago, LosLobo said:

If you are a carer of someone who has a severe disability, severe illness or someone who is frail aged and are an Australian resident (having at least 2 years residency), you may be eligible for a carers pension.

 

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/carer-payment/eligibility

I guess that means 2 years residency right now, rather than at sometime in the past?

[LosLobo]

3 minutes ago, scorecard said:

I guess that means 2 years residency right now, rather than at sometime in the past?

Yes in this case you would have to wait 104 months after applying after you got residency.

[totally thaied up]

4 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

I just hear on the grape vine that appealing only postpones the inevitable.Still trying to find some semi official source other than Centrelink who in the past have stuffed me around big time.I even got a phone call from the head of Centrelink, Hobart where they process overseas payments

It can vary.  All depends on the level of hardship and cash reserves left.  Since you have 800,000 for your visa, you still have available funds and most likely would not be successful.

[Sparkles]

1 minute ago, totally thaied up said:

It can vary.  All depends on the level of hardship and cash reserves left.  Since you have 800,000 for your visa, you still have available funds and most likely would not be successful.

I told then about the 800,00 baht, fix term deposit, is compulsory for visa extension reasons .In $A terms thats very little money.One of the frustrating things is Centrelink appear to have no knowledge of this country ,they dont even know once you are over 70 (I'm 76) health insurance with pre existing conditions in almost impossible to buy unless you are a miilionaire. Of course I  can no longer can get treatment using Medicare.......44 years paying substantial tax !

 

Even now in Aus, if as a retired couple ,you want to go on a long dream holiday to Europe and travel around you pension cuts out after 13 weeks

[ThaiBunny]

3 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

44 years paying substantial tax !

Utterly irrelevant. Pensions in Australia are paid out of the tax other Australians are paying. When you paid tax in the past you were paying for those who were drawing the pension then.  Tax is not a savings account or a store of "merit".  If you're a perfect driver for 44 years and then kill someone while driving in your 45th year, do you expect to be let off because of your record? Of course not, and the same principle applies to tax and pensions

[ThaiBunny]

6 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

you pension cuts out after 13 weeks

Your pension does not cut out after 13 weeks. Your supplements cut out, and that's because they are intended to help pay your expenses while you are in Australia. The basic pension continues to be paid

[giddyup]

26 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

Mine was cut immediately from $770 to $644

 

I planned on gaining from the start PR in Australia for my wife, so that is the reason I married.

 

If you have under $5000 in your bank, I was told you may be able to appeal under a different sectioning code but I know of only one person based in the Philippines a few years back being successful.

What are the odds that C'link would find out if you didn't advise them? I went through the whole marriage rigamorole 4 years ago but decided not to go ahead because of losing some pension, but now at 77 I want to make it easy for my partner in terms of inheriting money here and in Australia. I don't want her to have any hassled with conniving lawyers and for her to have full authority to cremate me.

[LosLobo]

7 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

Even now in Aus, if as a retired couple ,you want to go on a long dream holiday to Europe and travel around you pension cuts out after 13 weeks

Not correct! Might lose pension energy supplement and pension supplement drops to basic rate after 6 weeks.

[totally thaied up]

11 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

I told then about the 800,00 baht, fix term deposit, is compulsory for visa extension reasons .In $A terms thats very little money.One of the frustrating things is Centrelink appear to have no knowledge of this country ,they dont even know once you are over 70 (I'm 76) health insurance with pre existing conditions in almost impossible to buy unless you are a miilionaire. Of course I  can no longer can get treatment using Medicare.......44 years paying substantial tax !

 

Even now in Aus, if as a retired couple ,you want to go on a long dream holiday to Europe and travel around you pension cuts out after 13 weeks

I was told bluntly in a letter from DSS that any form of appeal was solely dedicated to hardship. They rang me at a further date in fact and told me about the $5,000. 

 

DSS don't care about us once we are overseas. Once you are back in Australia that all changes. DSS have treated me very good over the past and I cannot complain.

 

2 minutes ago, giddyup said:

What are the odds that C'link would find out if you didn't advise them? I went through the whole marriage rigamorole 4 years ago but decided not to go ahead because of losing some pension, but now at 77 I want to make it easy for my partner in terms of inheriting money here and in Australia. I don't want her to have any hassled with conniving lawyers and for her to have full authority to cremate me.

I could not really say. You got to look at the benefits. If there is a major benefit in being married, is the offset of losing money worth it? You could maybe not advise them but then get caught and be forced to pay them back or worse still, your wife have a bill to pay back after your death. I always use honestly as my best policy but it costs me every fortnight in lost money. Still,  when I applied for a Visa for my wife to travel to Australia, it only took four days to get for our holiday.

[LosLobo]

Interesting page from the Human Right Commission about our right to the Govt Pension.

It also includes handy contact information about appeals, complaints etc.

 

https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/3-your-right-government-support

[Brickbat]

7 hours ago, ThaiBunny said:

Your pension does not cut out after 13 weeks. Your supplements cut out, and that's because they are intended to help pay your expenses while you are in Australia. The basic pension continues to be paid

Good on ya T Bunny. Tired of these blokes whinging about how much tax they paid. Folks who paid a hell of of lot more taxes DO NOT GET THE OLD AGE PENSION. . ( Means Test)

[LosLobo]

Call to cut Pension Deeming Rates in line with RBA

 

Leading advocacy organisation National Seniors Australia has called for deeming rates to be cut in line with record low interest rates announced by the Reserve Bank.

 

Deeming rates have not been adjusted since 2015 despite interest rates falling from 2.25 per cent to the current record low of just 1.25 per cent.

 

Pensioners relying on income from bank deposits are getting hit twice. Firstly, from reduced income from deposit investments and then by again by deeming rates that don’t reflect lower interest rates but which are applied against income to determine the level of pension they will receive.

 

https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/media-release/cut-pensioner-deeming-rates

 

 

 

[ThaiBunny]

On 5/21/2019 at 1:12 AM, Brickbat said:

Good on ya T Bunny. Tired of these blokes whinging about how much tax they paid. Folks who paid a hell of of lot more taxes DO NOT GET THE OLD AGE PENSION. . ( Means Test)

Paying taxes conveys no entitlement to the pension. It is not a savings plan. It is paid out of the taxes that are contributed by taxpayers in the current year. If you paid taxes, good on you, you have complied with the law. There is no case for "I've been a taxpayer all my life therefore I'm entitled ...". In fact most married-with-kids "taxpayers" have been tax bludgers for most of their adult life - spouse rebate (while it existed), free Medicare for the kids, free education ($10,000 per year per kid is what it costs the taxpayer), the list goes on and on. Now we've got paid maternity leave (another lifestyle rort for breeders) and subsidised child care (ditto)

[4MyEgo]

On 6/7/2019 at 1:59 PM, ThaiBunny said:

Paying taxes conveys no entitlement to the pension. It is not a savings plan. It is paid out of the taxes that are contributed by taxpayers in the current year. If you paid taxes, good on you, you have complied with the law. There is no case for "I've been a taxpayer all my life therefore I'm entitled ...". In fact most married-with-kids "taxpayers" have been tax bludgers for most of their adult life - spouse rebate (while it existed), free Medicare for the kids, free education ($10,000 per year per kid is what it costs the taxpayer), the list goes on and on. Now we've got paid maternity leave (another lifestyle rort for breeders) and subsidised child care (ditto)

Don't forget Family A & B payments, I couldn't believe it the other day when I enquired if I returned to Oz, I would get around $30,000AUD for just having 4 kids, then there would be rental assistance and Newstart for me and the Mrs so we would be on around $48,000 a year. 

 

Never received any of the above that I know of because I always earned too much, yeh, yeh, the more you earn the more tax you pay, tell me about it, but hey moving back to Oz without rental assistance or Newstart would pay for my annual rental accommodation, makes you wonder why a particular mob, no race mentioned have 6 kids as a minimum, ah...."the lucky country" for some ????

 

Just in case others have been wondering where some of those tax $'s have been going on top of the above post.

[nev]

5 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Don't forget Family A & B payments, I couldn't believe it the other day when I enquired if I returned to Oz, I would get around $30,000AUD for just having 4 kids, then there would be rental assistance and Newstart for me and the Mrs so we would be on around $48,000 a year. 

 

Never received any of the above that I know of because I always earned too much, yeh, yeh, the more you earn the more tax you pay, tell me about it, but hey moving back to Oz without rental assistance or Newstart would pay for my annual rental accommodation, makes you wonder why a particular mob, no race mentioned have 6 kids as a minimum, ah...."the lucky country" for some ????

 

Just in case others have been wondering where some of those tax $'s have been going on top of the above post.

Are they all your kids and are they Thai?, My son is joint Aussie and Thai dual passport and my wife has two sons Thai I help take care of, I should take them all over there before I reach pension age in 6 years time and Rory the system.

[4MyEgo]

3 hours ago, nev said:

Are they all your kids and are they Thai?, My son is joint Aussie and Thai dual passport and my wife has two sons Thai I help take care of, I should take them all over there before I reach pension age in 6 years time and Rory the system.

My Mrs has two from her 1st who are 15 so returning now would be premature as there would only be family A & B payments for 3 years for them and then they would have to go through all the hassle of schools, and learning English a whole lot more than they know here, although they communicate well with me, but would be too much drama in my opinion. I have taken care of them financially since they were 2 and a half, and am the only father they have known as their father has 8 kids to 6 different women and hasn't even wanted to see them, the other two are girls, and are from our marriage who were born in Oz and have dual passports.

 

Apparently my wife's two sons only need child visas if we were to return now and as soon as they land on Oz territory, they are entitled to family A & B as they are dependants.

 

I am not far off pension age too, i.e. 8 years, suffice to say the plan is to return when our daughter completes year 12 here in 8 years so then its straight back to Oz, apply for the AAP and naturally sit it out for 4 years instead of 2 so that the youngest completes year 12 there before returning here, I would be 71 then if still kicking and the daughter who completes year 12 here can go to uni in Oz if she wants to or work, "up to here".

 

Plans are plans, and without a plan, you have no plan, they change of course depending on circumstances, but ours usually work out from a lot of forward planning, but if we did end up going back to Oz to get the AAP in 8 years, the boys would have finished uni here and could start working in Oz for the 4 years we plan on being there, they could save a fair few dollars which would easily provide them with a house and car upon returning here, that or they can stay in Oz and continue working to survive there, "up to them" we will give them the start they require in life, and the rest is up to them.

 

The girls on the other hand will have a good leg up I have left this planet from my years of working before retiring at 55 four years ago.

[Artisi]

13 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

My Mrs has two from her 1st who are 15 so returning now would be premature as there would only be family A & B payments for 3 years for them and then they would have to go through all the hassle of schools, and learning English a whole lot more than they know here, although they communicate well with me, but would be too much drama in my opinion. I have taken care of them financially since they were 2 and a half, and am the only father they have known as their father has 8 kids to 6 different women and hasn't even wanted to see them, the other two are girls, and are from our marriage who were born in Oz and have dual passports.

 

Apparently my wife's two sons only need child visas if we were to return now and as soon as they land on Oz territory, they are entitled to family A & B as they are dependants.

 

I am not far off pension age too, i.e. 8 years, suffice to say the plan is to return when our daughter completes year 12 here in 8 years so then its straight back to Oz, apply for the AAP and naturally sit it out for 4 years instead of 2 so that the youngest completes year 12 there before returning here, I would be 71 then if still kicking and the daughter who completes year 12 here can go to uni in Oz if she wants to or work, "up to here".

 

Plans are plans, and without a plan, you have no plan, they change of course depending on circumstances, but ours usually work out from a lot of forward planning, but if we did end up going back to Oz to get the AAP in 8 years, the boys would have finished uni here and could start working in Oz for the 4 years we plan on being there, they could save a fair few dollars which would easily provide them with a house and car upon returning here, that or they can stay in Oz and continue working to survive there, "up to them" we will give them the start they require in life, and the rest is up to them.

 

The girls on the other hand will have a good leg up I have left this planet from my years of working before retiring at 55 four years ago.

Assume you will be pushing for Oz citizenship for the two boys, worth more than gold to them in the future.

PS - added, maybe a few loops to jump thru' - possibly adopt them if not already done which means citizenship could be automatic. 

[4MyEgo]

20 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Assume you will be pushing for Oz citizenship for the two boys, worth more than gold to them in the future.

PS - added, maybe a few loops to jump thru' - possibly adopt them if not already done which means citizenship could be automatic. 

Haven't dug that far as I believe that they can apply for permanent residency after a period of one year and that process can take up to 4 years, but don't quote me on that, then they can apply for Citizenship thereafter which would also take about the same period to get it, but again, like I said don't quote me on that.

 

Citizenship will be up to them, as far as I understand with the difference, is that they can vote and if on permanent residency, they can lose it if they don't reapply if out of the country for more than 5 years.

 

The above said, we will see how things pan out and plan more as the time gets closer, for now they are coming over for a couple of weeks later in the year and if they like what they see and realise there are golden eggs to be had in the future, then all and good, if not and the want what Thailand has to offer them, then all and good again, no skin of either of our noses, we will lead them to water as the saying goes, up to them to want to drink it.

[Will27]

22 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Haven't dug that far as I believe that they can apply for permanent residency after a period of one year and that process can take up to 4 years, but don't quote me on that, then they can apply for Citizenship thereafter which would also take about the same period to get it, but again, like I said don't quote me on that.

 

Citizenship will be up to them, as far as I understand with the difference, is that they can vote and if on permanent residency, they can lose it if they don't reapply if out of the country for more than 5 years.

 

The above said, we will see how things pan out and plan more as the time gets closer, for now they are coming over for a couple of weeks later in the year and if they like what they see and realise there are golden eggs to be had in the future, then all and good, if not and the want what Thailand has to offer them, then all and good again, no skin of either of our noses, we will lead them to water as the saying goes, up to them to want to drink it.

One advantage of citizenship is you (usually) can't get deported

[4MyEgo]

24 minutes ago, Will27 said:

One advantage of citizenship is you (usually) can't get deported

Correct, but only if you were born in the country you have citizenship in, e.g. Australia cannot strip it's citizens born in Australia of their citizenship (period), regardless if the breached Section 35 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (the Act), however on the other hand someone holding dual citizenship can be stripped of their Australian Citizenship under the above section if they were not born in Australia.

[steven100]

Has anyone had any recent experience with a loan from an Aussie bank. NAB, CBA or the likes.

Say you were looking at buying a property to raise goats for meat export, as live goat meat prices seem to be strong over the past 5-10 years. US buys most of the Aussie goat meat.

Would a bank loan 15-20% of the property purchase price to use for buying stock ( rangeland goats )  and fencing etc ....

So I provide 85% deposit .... and borrow 15% .....  but the income is based on working the farm and exporting 6 month old goats, not a salaried job.

Would the bank lend for this at reasonable interest rates ... ?