Aussie Disability Pension Cut Soon

[actiondell4]

This has just been brought to my attention.

Minister Jenny Macklin's Second Reading Speech, upon presentation of the bill to parliament:

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Page: 3

This is just an extract from her speech but if passed it will affect all Australians on DSP ,Disability Pension,who wish to spend any length of time outside of Australia.

A Disability pension is for those under 60yo who cannot work due to illness.

The bill will also include amendments to close a loophole in qualification for disability support pension. This loophole has allowed continued payment of disability support pension to people who live permanently overseas but return to Australia every 13 weeks in order to retain their pension.

From 1 January 2011, only disability support pensioners permanently residing in Australia will continue to receive the pension, except under limited and specific circumstances. This change will bring disability support pension into line with other workforce age payments.

Closing this loophole will keep the disability support pension payment system fair and effective. Any pensioners who have a need to travel overseas for short periods will still have access to the 13-week temporary absence rule.

If she gets this passed I can see a mass exodus from S.E. Asia..

[actiondell4]

So currently if you are an Australian citizen with a disability,sore back,psychiatric illness,or whatever from January apparently its going to get more difficult.

1400 dollars a month about 50,000 baht a month soon possibly to be stopped.

It doesnt say stop mind you,it just says difficult.

Currently an aussie in disability pension has to go back to Australia every 13 weeks,thats why you see some bars closed for a week every 3 months.

There are exceptions,if your blind .

I wonder if there are a lot of disabled aussies in Thailand.

And if there are Aussies on the DSP here,can i ask you,did you always make the flight back to Australia every 13 weeks ?

Look there are ways around this,obviously you have to keep a permanent residence in Australiua which would be easy BUT then they find out your flying out every 3 months with this new system they will know .

We /those on Disability pension will just have to wait until January 2011 to find out more,BUT,rumour has it,it will be cut from 13 weeks away overseas to 9 weeks,AND you must stay in Australia a minumum of 6 weeks BEFORE leaving the country again.

http://dspoverseas.p...s.com/index.cgi

Edited November 15, 2010 by actiondell4

[paulchiangmai]

So currently if you are an Australian citizen with a disability,sore back,psychiatric illness,or whatever from January apparently its going to get more difficult.

1400 dollars a month about 50,000 baht a month soon possibly to be stopped.

It doesnt say stop mind you,it just says difficult.

Currently an aussie in disability pension has to go back to Australia every 13 weeks,thats why you see some bars closed for a week every 3 months.

There are exceptions,if your blind .

I wonder if there are a lot of disabled aussies in Thailand.

And if there are Aussies on the DSP here,can i ask you,did you always make the flight back to Australia every 13 weeks ?

Look there are ways around this,obviously you have to keep a permanent residence in Australiua which would be easy BUT then they find out your flying out every 3 months with this new system they will know .

We /those on Disability pension will just have to wait until January 2011 to find out more,BUT,rumour has it,it will be cut from 13 weeks away overseas to 9 weeks,AND you must stay in Australia a minumum of 6 weeks BEFORE leaving the country again.

So what's new? The Australian government and others have always made it as dificult as possible to receive anything once you are old or disabled. Just look at the way they discard the elderly from the health system should the elderly choose to live overseas, knowing full well that the over seventies cannot get health insurance. For the endless years we paid our taxes to the Australian government not once did they say 'we are going to take a little less tax from you because we are going to give you less when you retire.' The only way you will ever be able to keep the Australian government happy is to die the day you reach 65 or are disabled. Government policy has always been to put the elderly at the bottom of the heap ever since Australias biggest arse hole Bob Hawke took the prime ministership.

By the way, when does $A1,400 equate to 50,000 Baht? You must be getting a better rate than me.

Edited November 16, 2010 by paulchiangmai

[ozzydom]

The DSP is not a retirement pension,It is a financial support pension to assist you while you recover from medium term sickness or injury and if necessary retrain with view to re-entering the workforce.Unfortunately it now blankets everybody ,including the terminally ill and the blind in the same catagory.(who are by far the minority of pension recipients).

The powers that be probably have come to the conclusion that ongoing treatment and/or retraining is not possible if the recipient is outside Oz for the bulk of the time.It should be remembered that submitting to ongoing medical assesment is one of the proviso,s to receiving DSP.

While I have much sympathy for the sick and disabled (after all I was one once)I also have sympathy for the lawmakers who must frame legislation to assist the GENUINE disabled.

Sorting the chaff from the straw is not an easy job and is bound to inconvenience some.

The oft mentioned fact that people say they deserve a pension because of the taxes they paid has little merit in fact, that money is long spent and we are being paid our pensions from the taxes collect from todays tax payers.

Todays taxpayers are now demanding that their taxes are spent wisely and politicians are going out of their way to try to cut expenditure. (of course with re-election being foremost in their mind).

Spare a thought for the British disability pensioner, they propose that by 2013 DSP will be abolished and every recipient put on an "Employment and Services pension " while they are assessed and possibly retrained.

If you are deemed to be able to do a certain number of hours of work in a capacity your disability allows you will be given 12 months to get a job then all payments cease.

One of the examples given was if an ex bricklayer cant carry out his profession because of spinal injury he can still be capable (with retraining) of a clerical job.

Their guesstimate is that they can cut disabled pension recipients by 2/3rds by 2015.

[rick75]

Ozzydom.... those people who are of working age and paying taxes now will never see an old aged pension, it will have long been phased out, so any wonder we are a little dismayed by the attitudes of the entitled amongst Us. The problem my friends is that there are too many who are willing to shaft the system for there own ends and now the system is fighting back.

If you want to save your pension, dob in a welfare cheat, I know its not the Aussie way but these are the people that are making it hard for the honest ones.

Edited November 16, 2010 by rick75

[ozzydom]

Ozzydom.... those people who are of working age and paying taxes now will never see an old aged pension, it will have long been phased out, so any wonder we are a little dismayed by the attitudes of the entitled amongst Us. The problem my friends is that there are too many who are willing to shaft the system for there own ends and now the system is fighting back.

If you want to save your pension, dob in a welfare cheat, I know its not the Aussie way but these are the people that are making it hard for the honest ones.

Your right Rick, its not the Aussie way and I personally would dob nobody (other than a murderer or a child molester)but in many years in S/E Asia ,on golf courses,in bars etc I have met innumerable DSP recipients who for all intents and purposes were bludging on the system.

To my mind ,if you are capable of playing three rounds of golf a week or running a bar ,or even sitting at a bar boozing 8 hours a day then you are capable of taking up paid employment in some form or another.

But I feel that is the responsibility of the relevant authority to weed out the "welfare cheats"and I suppose the proposed legislation is their way of doing it.

[7by7]

This, of course, has nothing to do with Thais obtaining a visa to another country!

However, like the pinned pension thread, I've let this run as it may effect people living in Thailand who need to know about any changes to how they claim their benefit and what they receive.

However, keep the topic to that, please. If it degenerates into a discussion on welfare cheats, pension funding, taxation etc. then it'll be closed.

Thank you.

[TPI]

This, of course, has nothing to do with Thais obtaining a visa to another country!

However, like the pinned pension thread, I've let this run as it may effect people living in Thailand who need to know about any changes to how they claim their benefit and what they receive.

However, keep the topic to that, please. If it degenerates into a discussion on welfare cheats, pension funding, taxation etc. then it'll be closed.

Thank you.

Perhaps the thoughts of someone who as well as being on a disability pension and is married to a Thai citizen (not me - a friend) might have some bearing on the discussion? In Oz The disability pension is used as a grab all to pay money to those who don't fit into other catagories ie. people who are unemployed but are over 60 .....they can't get a job but they don't fail the work test! What do they do? Trot along to a doctor, get the certificate and dissapear o/seas! No one can live on the pension in Oz so what are they to do? It's not as if there're hundreds of people lazing on a beach drinking pina colada! Being a typical government the people back in Oz are picking on the weakest of the herd, never realising that in the near future they could be shooting themselves in the foot!

The ฿42,000 a month is just enough to support a marriage visa, why should anyone give a flying f@#k if someone else has made Thailand the winning post? Selfish, selfish, do the complainers actually think that the government is going to drop taxes if you dob anyone in???? Wood ducks!