Australian tax payer could save money by

[Chook]

The Australian tax payer could save a lot of money for the government

If more aged Ausys lived overseas the government would make large savings by NOT paying aged pensioners for medicare/ rent assistance / the levey & other things that the state gov. give people

People are now forced to live below the poverty line on the aged pension by stay in Australia for financial reasons due to the actions of the last PM (TA) in penalising people that choose to live OS by reducing their pensions if now they wished to leave Australia which ends up costing the Australian tax payer more than the gov. saves reducing the aged pensions

chook

[Jai Dee]

Topic moved to a more appropriate forum.

/Moved

[nev]

Maybe they should give us an incentive to go and live overseas to lessen the burden on the country and start by getting rid of the two years you have to be in oz before you can go to live overseas.

[Chook]

SAD thad this topic has been moved so that NO ONE can find it just a wast of time

[guapo]

The reason the government has come up with this SCAM is precisely not to pay the pension because they know that the majority of retirees overseas want go back and do the two years . The bustards should be hanged by their balls and titts but that's Australia for you

[AlexRRR]

I'm sorry that abbot and Turnbull ruined your holiday, the rules have been in place for years, if you cared to get informed way before you needed a pension it could have worked out well for you if wanting to live in thailand on your portable pension.

I would agree that changes to the asset test have caught a few people but then again you have/had 18 months to re organise your affairs.

I'd like to ask the OP how and where did the AU goverment reduce the pension for aged pensioners living overseas?

[DavisH]

The reason the government has come up with this SCAM is precisely not to pay the pension because they know that the majority of retirees overseas want go back and do the two years . The bustards should be hanged by their balls and titts but that's Australia for you

Doesn't one need to be in oz for at least 35 working years? I left when I was 30. I would need to return now and work until retirement just to get a full pension. That' isn't going to happen. And by that time the pension may cease to exist. I think that may come into play for younger Aussie expats and needs consideration. I don't care much for the expense/taxes of living there anymore.

[Chook]

AlexRRR TA changed the aged pen. were several months ago (Before his sacking as PM) for people applying for the aged pen & wanted to travel OS for more than 3 months in any 12 month period the pen. it then goes on a sliding scale down as well as you lose medicare / rent assistants/seniors card & other benefits you would be able to receive if you stayed in Aust & please remember if you do not own your house & need to live in a caravan park the cost of doing so is about twice the pen. Try to rent a house in either Sydney or Melbourne forget about Perth as the cost is more when you take in to account the cost of living & my point still is the Aust. tax payer would be better off if the government encouraged in stead of discouraged aged pen. to live over seas chook

[Chook]

The reason the government has come up with this SCAM is precisely not to pay the pension because they know that the majority of retirees overseas want go back and do the two years . The bustards should be hanged by their balls and titts but that's Australia for you

Doesn't one need to be in oz for at least 35 working years? I left when I was 30. I would need to return now and work until retirement just to get a full pension. That' isn't going to happen. And by that time the pension may cease to exist. I think that may come into play for younger Aussie expats and needs consideration. I don't care much for the expense/taxes of living there anymore.

My understanding is if you were to go back to Aust. for the 2 years you would then be put into the new regulations for the aged pen. which would then mean that the travel restrictions would apply chook

[never me]

Start up a petition at Change.org

[AlexRRR]

AlexRRR TA changed the aged pen. were several months ago (Before his sacking as PM) for people applying for the aged pen & wanted to travel OS for more than 3 months in any 12 month period the pen. it then goes on a sliding scale down as well as you lose medicare / rent assistants/seniors card & other benefits you would be able to receive if you stayed in Aust & please remember if you do not own your house & need to live in a caravan park the cost of doing so is about twice the pen. Try to rent a house in either Sydney or Melbourne forget about Perth as the cost is more when you take in to account the cost of living & my point still is the Aust. tax payer would be better off if the government encouraged in stead of discouraged aged pen. to live over seas chook

If you could afford to travel for 3 months or more and your retired and on a pension or part I don't understand what the big deal is, once back home all will be reinstated, other wise it's all about organising your vacations around the rules of the day, myself and people I know normally travel for around 4 weeks.

Living overseas on a portable pension you loose the supplement payment which is for things like electricity etc, which I think is fair enough, if your not living in AU anymore you can't access Medicare but you could keep an address in AU like a relative's and do a short return trip every year or two to keep that option open.

If a pensioner had no assets he would be crazy to think he could live in Thailand because eventually a situation would arise that would clean him out, if that person is struggling in Australia he's a walking disaster to happen in Thailand.

Rules are rules not that much has changed, if anything it's the asset test rules that will hurt pensioners the ones who have a modest amount.

[Time Traveller]

Chook, your writing is really hard to understand. First of all, Taxpayers do not save money for the government. The government takes money by force from taxpayers. It should be the government that saves money for the taxpayers by not spending so much.

Secondly, Australia to some extent is still a free country. Citizens are NOT forced to live overseas as you suggest. That's crazy talk.

And on the other side of the coin also, citizens are free to live overseas if they want to, no one forces you to live only in Australia. Stop blaming others when you should be thanking them for the generous welfare entitlements.

[AlexRRR]

Pension travel limit threat in this mornings paper, at the moments it set at 26 weeks before a cut, new proposed limit is 6 weeks, which has not passed legislation so it's not law, and it only applies to who has not worked the 35 years in AU.

The only people it really affects are retires that come from another country or people who have lived for extended periods overseas.

[AlexRRR]

I think chook is going on about loosing part pension and Medicare etc because he chooses to live overseas, you only loose the supplements, Medicare is useless to you if you live overseas as is the seniors card, if you need rent assistance then you shouldn't be living overseas.

[sceadugenga]

As you as say, the OAP portability rules are rules, just that but they have no current place in the Social Security Act.

I urge anyone caught in the 2 year trap to appeal to the highest possible level.

Currently there is a campaign to have proper portability legislation passed, this will not please everyone of course but anyone deciding to leave the country will know precisely where they stand as happened with the DSP legislation in 2012.

There is no suggestion that people could spend most of their life overseas, return at 65... older now... and leave with a fully portable pension; the Australian Working Life Residency legislation already has this well covered.

Age pensioners should have the same portability rights as superannuation recipients who are currently scooping up just as much, if not more, of the taxpayers dollar as pensioners.

"I paid for my pension" be damned.

[AlexRRR]

As you as say, the OAP portability rules are rules, just that but they have no current place in the Social Security Act.

I urge anyone caught in the 2 year trap to appeal to the highest possible level.

Currently there is a campaign to have proper portability legislation passed, this will not please everyone of course but anyone deciding to leave the country will know precisely where they stand as happened with the DSP legislation in 2012.

There is no suggestion that people could spend most of their life overseas, return at 65... older now... and leave with a fully portable pension; the Australian Working Life Residency legislation already has this well covered.

Age pensioners should have the same portability rights as superannuation recipients who are currently scooping up just as much, if not more, of the taxpayers dollar as pensioners.

"I paid for my pension" be damned.

Sorry but I'm not getting you "deciding to leave the country" if your on the aged pension it is portable if you choose to live overseas and at the moment again if your on the age pension you can travel for 26 weeks which is half a year in a year.

If your talking about moving overseas before your eligible for the pension and expect to be able to get it at 65/67 what ever well the rules have been there for ever and a day, if your expecting to return apply and then go back to where you where well the rules have been there for ever and a day.

You won't get much sympathy from many here, it is what it is, some planning might have been a good idea long before you got to this stage.

What is fair? Government is trying to save tax payers dollars if they can put off a few guys who went to live in Thailand because they could afford to well come back and go through the 2 years, there not denying you anything, if your eligible you will get it.

[sceadugenga]

I care not one whit for the sympathy of anyone here.

My point was that the 2 year wait for portability in certain circumstances has been cooked up by some public servant/s, not the legally elected representatives of the country.

Australians leaving the country should be informed EXACTLY how long they can be away for and over what period of time before they lose eligibility for the portability of the age pension.

Who decides now?

Some Centrelink employee who may or may not be having a bad day?

[AlexRRR]

I care not one whit for the sympathy of anyone here.

My point was that the 2 year wait for portability in certain circumstances has been cooked up by some public servant/s, not the legally elected representatives of the country.

Australians leaving the country should be informed EXACTLY how long they can be away for and over what period of time before they lose eligibility for the portability of the age pension.

Who decides now?

Some Centrelink employee who may or may not be having a bad day?

i can understand your dissapointment but really if every time i left the country customs dropped a 300 page book on my lap about the do's and donts of leaving....your not being realistic....

You got caught out, sorry but thats life, getting pre retirement advise would have been a smart thing to do, rules are rules there there in black and white, i spent my money and went to an independent centreline advisor, you think I've enjoyed cooling my heels here in AU?