Retirement
I have reached the pension but my husband has not and still works. I wondered if I am entitled to anything?
SHUSHA, you need to go to Centrelink and discuss all aspects, inc your husband's earnings etc. There is no hard and fast rule, apart from age/residence requirements and you need to talk with them, as his income (and any other income between you) will affect the outcome. Best wishes, Wendy.
I shouldn't think so. I retired before my partner and had to wait till he retired to apply for a bit of govt pension. Luckily we both had super from our jobs.
I've heard of people in your situation telling Centrelink you are separated from your husband they are obliged to give you support. But you must keep them advised if one day you get back together.
They do not support honest people.
Abby, you are making missinformed accusations again. Shusha is eligible for the full married rate aged pension, without having to be dishonest. She will be assessed as an individual although she will only receive the married rate. This is, of course, dependant on her qualifying under the 10 year residency rule.
Sorry! This is not right! Her husban'd searning will affect the rate of pension shld she be eligible. Where does some of this info come from as it is patently incorrect.
Sorry, but I worked in the Pensions section for fifteen years until recently. Don't mean to step on toes, but the lady needs to go there and talk with them for an accurate estimate.
innes.
I made a statement and not an accusation
She must satisfy both an income test and an assets test to become an Age Pensioner.
Fair enough Abby, but she does not have to be separated. You & fwed are quite correct in that she has to pass the income & asset tests as well as the residency. If she passes them, she will get the full married rate pension whilst still in a marital relationship, even if her husband is still working.
WRONG! WRONG WRONG!
I am not sure you are correct in that statement Innes - they do take in his income and assets under the means test which is why it it there - to make sure they dont pay the pension to anyone with other means, unless that is they have changed it recently.
someone also said just yesterday, so not had a chance to check, that these days they are taxing seniors as a couple, which I thought was simply not on, because for years younger couples have wanted to split income usually from him to her so they pay less tax and not allowed to date.
Also did you know they title check the ownership of the home to see in what name etc as well as with the ATO and I think Medicare all linked in order to stop rorting of our taxes etc. Applies to rent assistance also. Means that you cant just separate have to live separate also to draw the full pension rather than married rate.
The Age Pension should be the same amount for each person and then add on for disadvantage just as they do rent assistance. Save a lot of angst.
I went to a C link office and was told no you are not due a pension.
The same day I went to another office and was granted a partial pension.
One was in an Aussie area.....refused.
The other was in an Asian area ....accepted.
I'm afraid there is a lot of misinformation above.
We get a part Centrelink aged pension and I can tell you very definitely that:
a) they assess and tax you as a couple and the pension is means tested against all assets and other income although your primary residence is not counted. However, they pay you individually, so each partner gets half of the amount paid into their account.
If you go to the government website at www.humanservices.com and go to the age pension sectionyou will find all the tables of how much you can have in cash and assets and how it then reduces or eliminates your pension pro rata.
b) they do random assessments and you can be compulsorily called in at any time and all your details checked and reassessed - it happened to us
c) they have access to all your bank accounts and superannuation and can check them if they want to. I was the state presdient of the teachers union before I retired and we worked with RBF (the Govt super fund) and they send all their records annually to Centrelink for data cross-checking
d) if you tell them you're living apart you will have to provide plenty of evidence for that and they can check it all and do and you can be heavily fined and pensions stopped automatically if they catch you out. Legally they have the upper hand and you have to do the appeal process if they are wrong.
e) you can now earn up to $250 a week after retirement without it reducing your pension and you accumulate credits for it. I'm doing that at the moment.
Good information jaywalker. Thanks.
Should that be www.humanservices.gov.au?
Yes, that's the correct URL. My browser won't let me copy and paste into this site's reply boxes for some strange reason.
Thank you for the informative response of youe personal experience jaywlker
I have the same problem Jaywalker if I use Firefox or Google Chrome but if I use Internet Explorer I can Copy and Paste with no problem. I do not hav ethis problem with any other Forums I frequent.
It is a pain how the different systems work isn't it. I can't post from my ipad. I can click on reply and type, but it won't post. Another quirk I guess.
Hi Amanda so far I have had no problem using my IPad for posts on here, could it be something to do with your settings?
Really? I just checked my Safari settings and notice Block Pop-ups is On. I will give it a go and get back to you in 10, 9,,,,
Thanks vivity.
Nope, didn't work. I also turned Javascript off and that didn't work either.
My Safari settings are:
Search engine - google
autofill - off
always show bookmarks bar - on
fraud warning - on
javascript - on
block pop-ups - on
accept cookies - from visited.
Are any of these different to your settings?
Same settings only thing different is I have cellular data on and fraud warning on, Computers lovely to have as long as they do what they are told! Have not been much on the Meeting Place Forums before but seeing ones like this one we are chatting on now makes me realise maybe there are civilised ones worth staying on for after all!
Thanks for that vivity. I still can't get it to work though. Not to worry. I have a laptop which I will have to continue using for this site.
I know what you mean. I am relatively new to the site and had a bit of a baptism of fire. But you live and learn. I thought long and hard over the last couple of days and have decided to stay. There is a lot of information outside the forums that is of particular interest to me and if a discussion is started on something that interests me or I want to know more about I will post. I won't get drawn into anymore tit for tat though. All you get is indigestion.
Amanda
I find the copy and paste problem only on Meeting Place Forum - I do not have a problem in the Community Blog on this Website ????
Actually Abby, now that you mention it, I have posted once or twice in the blog from the ipad. I will have to test it tonight. Thanks for that.
I open up my Internet Explorer when I want to do a copy and paste in the Meeting Place forum which is a bit of a nuisance but I have a link set up in the bar for the Meeting Place.
I cannot Copy and Paste with either Firefox or Google Chrome in the Meeting Place but can in the Blog.
I open up my Internet Explorer when I want to do a copy and paste in the Meeting Place forum which is a bit of a nuisance but I have a link set up in the bar for the Meeting Place.
I cannot Copy and Paste with either Firefox or Google Chrome in the Meeting Place but can in the Blog.
Thanks for that info Abby. Sorry you are experiencing technical difficulties also.
If you google the problem you will find lots of people complaining about the same thing. I can only do it via Safari but not Google or Firefox (which I used to be able to do with both) so I keep both browsers open for different websites.
Apparently there are changes you can make to your settings to make it work but it sounded too complicated for me. I think it depends somewhat on which program you are running - this started with me after upgrading to Lion OSX on my Mac.
It just may be wothwhile to have a look at Safari as I have read that Firefox will stop supporting XP in the very near future.
You can try Centerlink but you would be affected by income and assets limits.