Interpretation and declaration of income

I receive half the married rate of pension, payable to us in Spain, where we have lived for some years. My wife (65 years) is not eligible for an Australian pension and does not have a seperate income. Since getting married four years ago we have lived on my pension and supplemented this from our savings. Whilst the cost of living here is significantly less than in Australia, we cannot sustain this depletion of our limited funds indefinitely and fortunately, I may be about to earn an income from an Australian company from the publication of material that I have produced. The income will not be regular nor predictable. My questions are thus:

1. How should the income be reported and what is the implication of the work bonus and the income threshold?

2. Given the best case scenario, what is the maximum I can earn in any one year and still receive a portion of the pension?

3. If in the (unlikley) event that the income is such that the pension is cut off, but the income later ceases, can I again receive the pension?

4. And if so, do I have to return to Australia to do so?

Thank you.

3 comments

1. You should have the maximum $7800 sitting in the work bonus balance, so this will help to reduce the impact.

2.$3163/ftn combined ($82238 pa) + $7800 work bonus if applicable

3. You can always reapply if you fall below the level.

4. Yes

McDaddy, Is this right? Centrelink documents all indicate a total of $8216 per year, or $316 per fortnight. How do we get $3163? Am I missing something?

The question I was answering was the amount they can earn before Pension completely cutoff, you are correct that $316 is the point that the Pension starts to reduce under the Income test, + work bonus $300 if working.

3 comments



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