Australian Age Pension Rules for Expats about to change again from 1 January 2017

[4MyEgo]

10 hours ago, sandgroper2 said:

I will put a spoke in everyone's wheel. You dont have to have paid tax for 35 years to get th e full OAP. I didnt and i get the full pension, means tested, I I will explain ,if anybody is interested, after i watch Millionair hotseat.

 

Yes a military disability pension, however this post is about the OAP

[chiang mai]

On 06/12/2016 at 5:13 PM, 4MyEgo said:

 

If born in Australia, they would be entitled to the full pension, if not, well.......

 

Australia has been throwing money away for years, I know of immigrants who have worked for less than 10 years paying minimal taxes and received pesnions, is that fair to the Australian community is it ?

 

If those immigrants were forced under law to contribute to those pensions during those ten years, they should receive the benefit just like anyone else would - their role is not to provide contributions to help swell the pensions of native Australians.

[4MyEgo]

9 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Thanks for your comment and not surprised. I don't really know why it would 'have to be in person' but one immediate thought  would be 'to prove that you exist and your alive' and I don't argue that the appropriate agency should make such a check.

 

Although I have poor health and some mobility issues I could go to Australia for a couple of weeks or similar with my Thai adult son accompanying me. Much of my poor health and mobility problems stems from war service in Vietnam for which I do receive a veterans disability pension but not the main OA pension.

 

But I do realize that this would be a long shot. 

 

You could try talking to the embassy where you are, and they could confirm who you are by sighting your documents and forwarding copies of and witnessed to them back in Aus.

 

Personally I don't see why not, but if the legislation states otherwise, your out in the cold, hence you would have to try some other avenues/agencies that would take up the fight.

[4MyEgo]

9 hours ago, louse1953 said:

This 35 years overriding the 2 years is news to me.Good news i hope.If you have been made a non resident for pension reasons you have to re-establish residency,ie 2 years.I have to go back,to sign on,and i want to hang for a while to tart the house up,but maybe not as long as i thought.

 

You are correct louse1953, that is, if you are deemed a non resident, you have to hang around for that period, although I hear you get payment of the OAP while you are hanging around, that is, providing you are at the OAP age.

 

If I ever went back I would be looking at going back 2 years prior, therefore getting my residency back and then applying at 67, yes the bastards lifted it 2 years, but who knows it will probably be 70 by then, that is unless some of the bastards get some balls and drop it back to 65, but I doubt that.

[4MyEgo]

10 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

 

If those immigrants were forced under law to contribute to those pensions during those ten years, they should receive the benefit just like anyone else would - their role is not to provide contributions to help swell the pensions of native Australians.

 

My comment should be corrected, you are right, I since found out they get it prorated as opposed to a full pension, which is fine by me. 

[chiang mai]

It's maybe worth pointing out what the US does in this situation, they apply a mandatory 24.5% withholding tax at source to the Social Security pensions of ex residents (not citizens, just Green Card holders or ex GC holders who no longer live in the US).

[scorecard]

44 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

You could try talking to the embassy where you are, and they could confirm who you are by sighting your documents and forwarding copies of and witnessed to them back in Aus.

 

Personally I don't see why not, but if the legislation states otherwise, your out in the cold, hence you would have to try some other avenues/agencies that would take up the fight.

 

Can any Oz members share any details of agencies / consultants etc., who work in this area. Please share.

Edited December 9, 2016 by scorecard

[SaintLouisBlues]

12 hours ago, sandgroper2 said:

I will put a spoke in everyone's wheel. You dont have to have paid tax for 35 years to get th e full OAP. I didnt and i get the full pension, means tested, I I will explain ,if anybody is interested, after i watch Millionair hotseat.

You have to be resident, not necessarily paying tax. There will be hundreds of thousands of women who never worked because they relied on their husband's income, who nevertheless get the OAP

[SaintLouisBlues]

11 hours ago, louse1953 said:

In this post and others you keep mentioning Sydney and the cost of living.Have you thought of living in another state and out in the country.For example, rural South Aust,renting farm houses is cheap and maybe pickup some seasonal work.

You should look at sites like GreyNomads for some tips

[SaintLouisBlues]

11 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Enjoy  what you get of what  you  have paid  for. 

You didn't pay for your pension. You paid for everyone else's pension who was getting it at the time. Taxes do not cover future expenditure (ie. your pension) but current expenditure (ie. someone else's pension if they're a pensioner when you're a taxpayer). However a lot of this chatter about "I paid taxes all my life" is so much nonsense. Unless you're a single person, no kids, you were probably a tax bludger most of your life, not a tax payer. You got money back, directly and indirectly, for having kids, for the government educating them, for Medicare paying for their treatment for free (your Medicare levy doesn't go up just because you have kids). Don't need to believe me, these statistics are available year after year but they're an inconvenient truth so the tax bludgers all ignore them and keep on whingeing.

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

 

Can any Oz members share any details of agencies / consultants etc., who work in this area. Please share.

 

I really don't know of any, however try this link: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/contact-us/message-centrelink once you have opened it, go down to the heading: General Centrelink Enquiry, and above it is a light blue line market send an online message asking for help, fill in the details and go from there.

 

Fingers crossed they can assist, or put you in touch with the right department.

 

Good luck

[4MyEgo]

11 hours ago, louse1953 said:

I am of the same opinion as you.First of all it pissed me off thinking of 2 years in Oz,but now i am ready for it.The house needs a tart up and i will do the grand tour of Oz visiting all my mates.The hospital will get plenty of visits fixing all my minor aliments.Some of my Thai friends are gunna come down and visit,no problem sleeping on the floor for them.

In this post and others you keep mentioning Sydney and the cost of living.Have you thought of living in another state and out in the country.For example, rural South Aust,renting farm houses is cheap and maybe pickup some seasonal work.

 

I think the best way to go about it is to apply and if they put me down as a non resident, so be it, at least I can have some coin coming in for the 2 years there before I can return.

 

The plan will be something like this: 1st year we will stay in Sydney, visiting friends and family, and trying to make some jam on the side, you see I have to up heave the kids which will be 14 and 9 which is a pain in the ass, however after putting them in school for 12 months, we will look at hiring or purchasing one of those motor homes and travelling around Australia for about a year, and sure Medicare will get a work over, don't you worry about that.  The after the 2 years is up, its as Arnie would say; astalavista baby 555

 

Well that's the plan anyway.

[4MyEgo]

12 hours ago, louse1953 said:

This time you are wrong.AWLR means you were available to work in that period.Don't have to actually have worked 35 years.

 

I never mind being corrected, if that's the case, then that's the case, suffice to say why on earth would the government want to give people a pension for not contributing ?

[4MyEgo]

12 hours ago, louse1953 said:

If you come back you have to get all that paperwork anyway,unless your living in a tent down in the long grass.

 

That should be a no brainer, lease, utilitiy bills, Medicare reinstatement & electoral re-enrolment after 6 months, club memberships, car registration etc etc

[4MyEgo]

12 hours ago, louse1953 said:

You are right.

 

Part right for me, I would have to go back in 9 years when I am 65 and then wait till I am 67, as opposed to being 63 and waiting till I was 65 to get the OAP, remembering the bastards lifted it for those of us born after 1957, so it is now 67, I suppose you could say its 6,2,1, half dozen the other, but its 2 years of non payments and we have to survive another 2 years...lol

[4MyEgo]

11 hours ago, louse1953 said:

Aust does exist past the Blue Mountains,you know.You talk about your family/friends but here you are living in Thailand.

 

I chose to retire 12 years early at the age of 55 years in (2015), this is due to having had a heart attack back in Sydney in 2008, at the time of the attack I was just short of being 48, I wanted to stop work, but I needed to survive and as I have a daughter (previous failed marriage), who was in 11, so I wanted to stay in Oz so I could see her finish high school and start uni, this I did and continued to work my C... off till last year, 2 jobs to save more for my early retirement.

 

I am living here by choice, i.e. to survive a comfortable life in Australia, you need more than you think, e.g. if you have a miilion in the bank, you will get around $540 a week, now that's not a lot, especially with a couple of more off springs, and when you have had a wake up call as I have and have seen at least a handful of mates under 50 go before there time, you don't want to hang around, you want to LIVE, because you ain't living in "The Land of Slavery" in my opinion.

 

I have a lot of friends and my family in Sydney as mentioned, including family; daughter, mother who is frail and will be long gone by the time I go back to Sydney for the OAP, if I go back, and 2 brothers, so the way I look at it, daughter would have probably gotten married and had child/ren by then, so be good to spend some time and see the grandchild/ren and do some catch up, and also travel around Australia after the 1st year, as mentioned previously, that is the plan 555

Edited December 9, 2016 by 4MyEgo

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

You didn't pay for your pension. You paid for everyone else's pension who was getting it at the time. Taxes do not cover future expenditure (ie. your pension) but current expenditure (ie. someone else's pension if they're a pensioner when you're a taxpayer). However a lot of this chatter about "I paid taxes all my life" is so much nonsense. Unless you're a single person, no kids, you were probably a tax bludger most of your life, not a tax payer. You got money back, directly and indirectly, for having kids, for the government educating them, for Medicare paying for their treatment for free (your Medicare levy doesn't go up just because you have kids). Don't need to believe me, these statistics are available year after year but they're an inconvenient truth so the tax bludgers all ignore them and keep on whingeing.

 

Let us not forget, some of us earned more than the threshold, and were not entitled to payments for the kids from the government as everybody else was getting. Personally I have never received anything from the government that wasn't paid for by me in taxes, e.g. hospital for heart attack, compliments of Medicare levy surcharge, supported wife and 3 kids on my income.

[ozzydom]

13 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

Part right for me, I would have to go back in 9 years when I am 65 and then wait till I am 67, as opposed to being 63 and waiting till I was 65 to get the OAP, remembering the bastards lifted it for those of us born after 1957, so it is now 67, I suppose you could say its 6,2,1, half dozen the other, but its 2 years of non payments and we have to survive another 2 years...lol

Your maths need a bit of work,

In earlier posts you claim to have the 35year residency covered which would take you to minimum 51 years of age then you claim to have been out of Oz for 10 years which would make you 61 yo,now you claim to be only 56yo, just does not add up.

You obviously have not taken into account in your planning,the implications of getting a Thai wife and two kids into Oz on long term Visas,Boy are you in for some nasty surprises.

[SaintLouisBlues]

8 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

Let us not forget, some of us earned more than the threshold, and were not entitled to payments for the kids from the government as everybody else was getting. Personally I have never received anything from the government that wasn't paid for by me in taxes, e.g. hospital for heart attack, compliments of Medicare levy surcharge, supported wife and 3 kids on my income.

And the three kids were schooled entirely out of your own pocket, the school never received a red cent of government funding? The kids of course were all born in an entirely privately funded hospital that received no subsidy from the government whatsoever in the form of Medicare payments, and your Medicare levy as sole taxpayer covered the doctors visits for your indolent wife and the kids and the subsidized costs of all of their medication? The government paid no government benefit whatsoever for your kids (It used to be called "Child Allowance" I believe)?

Edited December 9, 2016 by SaintLouisBlues

[4MyEgo]

17 minutes ago, ozzydom said:

Your maths need a bit of work,

In earlier posts you claim to have the 35year residency covered which would take you to minimum 51 years of age then you claim to have been out of Oz for 10 years which would make you 61 yo,now you claim to be only 56yo, just does not add up.

You obviously have not taken into account in your planning,the implications of getting a Thai wife and two kids into Oz on long term Visas,Boy are you in for some nasty surprises.

 

Hey ozzydom, 

 

I have never claimed to have been out of Oz for 10 years, please feel free to quote one of my posts and I will eat humble pie as the saying goes.

 

Been married to my Thai wife for 10 years yes, have two off springs with her, however she has lived in Oz with me since 3 Feb 2007, up until November 2015 when we moved here, prior to that we would holiday here every year, once or twice.

 

The wife and 2 kids have Australian Citizenship, all have Australian passports and Thai passports.

 

Nasty surprises I think not, I am a planner, everything in my life goes according to plan, as I research as much as possible, the only things I cannot control are those who pull the rug from under me, be it governments who change the goal posts or human beings 555

 

Can you eat humble pie ?

 

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by 4MyEgo

[4MyEgo]

18 minutes ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

And the three kids were schooled entirely out of your own pocket, the school never received a red cent of government funding? The kids of course were all born in an entirely privately funded hospital that received no subsidy from the government whatsoever in the form of Medicare payments, and your Medicare levy as sole taxpayer covered the doctors visits for your indolent wife and the kids and the subsidized costs of all of their medication? The government paid no government benefit whatsoever for your kids (It used to be called "Child Allowance" I believe)?

 

Sure, all the kids born in public hospitals, hence there legislation forcing us to pay Medicare, you cannot have your cake and eat it to, otherwise I suppose I could have paid for private health cover.

 

The child allowance might be the Family A payment you are referring to, 1st child divorced with mother when she was under 2, even though I had her on shared care arrangements, i.e. 50/50 Centrelink saw it that the mother got the majority of the benefit which I think was 80/20, that is after I found out of such a payment a few years later, she was getting 100% and they don't back pay in those circumstances I am told, suffice to say it didn't bother me then, another F over.

 

The 2 off springs with the Thai wife, cannot recall if we did get any payments, all I can recall is every time they send us a letter, it said we were not entitled to any payments or child care because I earned too much, suffice to say I wasn't going to argue over spilt milk, besides I didn't have enough time to take a dump working two jobs.

 

I do remember paying a lot of child support for my 1st daughter though 555 

[sandgroper2]

5 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

When your entitled to something i.e. a pension for all your years of working/serving your country, you should be entitled to it, not f..k around by governments trying to put further restrictions on getting it, don't you get it.

 

How would you feel if they promised you a disability pension if you got injured for your services to the country, then moved overseas early, and when it was time to get your disability pension, they said, you have to return to the country for 2 years, I am sure you would spit the dummy then.

No dummy spit from me. Would it help , no. The law is the law, I would man up and take it on the chin. (dont forget this is TV)

[4MyEgo]

3 minutes ago, sandgroper2 said:

No dummy spit from me. Would it help , no. The law is the law, I would man up and take it on the chin. (dont forget this is TV)

 

lol

[sandgroper2]

5 hours ago, chiang mai said:

 

If those immigrants were forced under law to contribute to those pensions during those ten years, they should receive the benefit just like anyone else would - their role is not to provide contributions to help swell the pensions of native Australians.

Nobody contributed to "those pensions", It was and is noncontributory. They paid tax , thats all. We , or rather, i am anyway, talking about Australia, not the UK.

Edited December 9, 2016 by sandgroper2
add

[sandgroper2]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Can any Oz members share any details of agencies / consultants etc., who work in this area. Please share.

There are 6 pages, and still counting, of us right here.

[SaintLouisBlues]

2 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

I never mind being corrected, if that's the case, then that's the case, suffice to say why on earth would the government want to give people a pension for not contributing ?

You've never heard of the concept of a "safety net"?

[chiang mai]

16 minutes ago, sandgroper2 said:

Nobody contributed to "those pensions", It was and is noncontributory. They paid tax , thats all. We , or rather, i am anyway, talking about Australia, not the UK.

 

Even though the Australian pension is non-contributory it is paid for somehow, presumably through an allocation of tax money? That being the case all people who pay taxes must surely be equal and all should be entitled to share in however those taxes are allocated.

[sandgroper2]

2 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

 

Even though the Australian pension is non-contributory it is paid for somehow, presumably through an allocation of tax money? That being the case all people who pay taxes must surely be equal and all should be entitled to share in however those taxes are allocated.

Why? No tax dollars are put aside into a OAP fund. The OPA is paid by working Australians to help out the needy. Again, Oz, not UK.

[SaintLouisBlues]

On 12/7/2016 at 4:35 PM, scorecard said:

Has anybody ever heard of the following:

Too sick to go back and live alone (no surviving family in Oz) for the two years, therefore a compromise:

- Remain living in Thailand, gain approval, but on the basis that no benefits are paid for the first two years.

I always thought the law was very clear - you must be in Australia on the day you lodge your application. The only exemption of which I'm aware is that you're resident in a country with which the Aussie government has a reciprocal social services agreement and so you're entitled to the Australian payments through your existing government's arrangement eg. an American who has worked in Australia but goes back to the US may be entitled to a part-pension from the Australian government (as is a friend of mine)

 

Centrelink: "On the day you submit your claim you must be an Australian resident and physically present in Australia". An Australian resident means "an Australian citizen or a permanent resident" https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/age-pension

[simple1]

14 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Superannuation  schemes  are schemes. At the point of time at which  you  become a recipient  you (usually)   can only  recieve an annual percentage. Any  residual is  retained when you  are  dead. Better save on your  own account over time. Consider it  a compulsory. :)

Oops!  Too late  . Right?

 

 

Not relevant to Australia, you can drawn down the entire funds in Superannuation as a lump sum, actually prior to the Govt legislated retirement age. T&Cs on the Web