# Australian Pensions.



## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Sad but true, If I choose to live in the Philippines as my permanent residency in a couple of years (when i turn 60) I am not entitled to receive a pension from my government when I hit 67, used to be 65, they keep raising the goal posts, the way it is legislated now is that I can live in any country I like, those countries that have pension treaties some 30 odd have reciprocal arrangements and all good but not the other hundreds of places like PH.

So according to our stupid government God help us, just prior to turning 67 I have to return to Australia, have a residence, can only leave the country for 6 weeks at a time and need to return etc. I have to reside in Australia for 2 years to meet the Department of Human Services criteria before I may return to PH. and then and only then will they continue to pay my pension,,,,,,,,,,,that is if I am eligible, means tested, assets etc.

When I went to work at aged 15 (14 part time) I always knew I would receive a pension, ha.
If you work hard in this country and make a decent living, strive for a good future for your family you are penalised, Sir you have too many assets, Sir you have too much money in the bank. So it appears that hard smart workers are propping up the lazy *******s. same in all countries I suppose.

So after paying just under 2 million dollars in tax over my working life I will be abandoned because I choose to reside outside Australia.
I chatted to a mate about this who is in the know and he advised me this issue is going to the High Court and should be resolved within 5 years, the reason? Discrimination, some stupid poly (prime minister) 10 odd years ago was trying to reduce our deficit.

Superannuation and assets will pull me through my retirement but I seriously feel for those who have less and choose to retire in an unaligned country because the pension paid by our government is insufficient live in the "so called lucky country"
I still feel duped by a bias system as a pension in this Country is only 20K, not really enough to live on and certainly no where near enough to maintain a house and car.

Cheers, Steve


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

I was stationed out of Guam US Navy and for 2 months we got to work with the Australian Navy, not only did they have a ration of 2 beers every day but women on their ships but the one complaint they had was, this was in 1995 they lost their pensions or won't get a pension and they had to set up a 401K or similar type of an account. 

Canada also seems to penalize their citizens if they remain outside Canada for over 10 months the pension is reduced by 25% but not as drastic as Australia, hope that changes it doesn't seem right and there are many Australians that retired or living here.

On a lighter note the USNS ships (US) have women and men sailors, civilians and civilian government run crew, best time of my life was on the USNS Chauvenet homeported out of Subic Bay Philippines, hit all sorts of ports and the ship worked alone.


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## Danman (Mar 23, 2016)

Bigpearl I just read your story concerning the Australian Pension, you are right as the Age Pension has raised the age of retirement for men from 65 to 67 and later will raise it again to 70 as the Government say people are living longer than they did many years ago. Once you could apply for an Age Pension from the Philippines but now the new rule is you must go back to Australia to apply and you have to stay for two years before being allowed to return to the country where youwant to retire in. I have a friend in Australia who retired at age 50 that was ten years ago because of his assests he received no pension but got a health card and until today still does not receive a pension for him or his wife and he stills pays a tax on his money he has invested. I believe that the Australian Pension has lowered the amount on assests to make it even harder for people with investments and a house to receive an age pension. The age pension has always been a struggle to live on if you reside in Australia, I saw my mother struggle every year on her pension that is why I came to live in the Philippines. Anyway mate all he best


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Danman said:


> Bigpearl I just read your story concerning the Australian Pension, you are right as the Age Pension has raised the age of retirement for men from 65 to 67 and later will raise it again to 70 as the Government say people are living longer than they did many years ago. Once you could apply for an Age Pension from the Philippines but now the new rule is you must go back to Australia to apply and you have to stay for two years before being allowed to return to the country where youwant to retire in. I have a friend in Australia who retired at age 50 that was ten years ago because of his assests he received no pension but got a health card and until today still does not receive a pension for him or his wife and he stills pays a tax on his money he has invested. I believe that the Australian Pension has lowered the amount on assests to make it even harder for people with investments and a house to receive an age pension. The age pension has always been a struggle to live on if you reside in Australia, I saw my mother struggle every year on her pension that is why I came to live in the Philippines. Anyway mate all he best





Danman said:


> Bigpearl I just read your story concerning the Australian Pension, you are right as the Age Pension has raised the age of retirement for men from 65 to 67 and later will raise it again to 70 as the Government say people are living longer than they did many years ago. Once you could apply for an Age Pension from the Philippines but now the new rule is you must go back to Australia to apply and you have to stay for two years before being allowed to return to the country where youwant to retire in. I have a friend in Australia who retired at age 50 that was ten years ago because of his assests he received no pension but got a health card and until today still does not receive a pension for him or his wife and he stills pays a tax on his money he has invested. I believe that the Australian Pension has lowered the amount on assests to make it even harder for people with investments and a house to receive an age pension. The age pension has always been a struggle to live on if you reside in Australia, I saw my mother struggle every year on her pension that is why I came to live in the Philippines. Anyway mate all he best


Thanks Cobber, I hear you as many others do, it certainly gets under my skin big time.
I foolishly believed that if I worked hard and paid my taxes all my life to support what is a great but very expensive country to live in (and we do pay high taxes) that my wonderful government would look after me to some degree when I retired or should I say reached the 65 y/o retirement age, that bar has been raised now to 67, as you pointed out accumulated wealth from hard work, investing and saving one is penalised. While brightening our future we contributed more and more revenue for a hungry economy and an inept government.

The case going before the high court with regards to returning to Australia for 2 years to qualify and then maintain your tax payers/citizens rights is based on discrimination and discrimination it is. Many people choose to or are forced to relocate to developing and third world countries simply because they cannot afford to live in Australia on a pension of AU $ 20,000.00 odd per year. Currently over 13% of single Ozzies fall on or below the Au $ 426.00 per week. The amount considered to be living in poverty, many of these people through no fault of their own come under this banner, others abuse the system.

Image result for australian pension per week
Payment rates
Pension rates per fortnight	Single	Couple each
Maximum basic rate	$797.90	$601.50
Maximum Pension Supplement	$65.10	$49.10
Energy Supplement	$14.10	$10.60
TOTAL	$877.10	$661.20
Age Pension - Australian Government Department of Human Services
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/age-pension

Now why would you live on the bones of your a*se in Oz when for 400 bucks ozzie a week you could live comfortably in many countries where the average income is that or less per month? Say around PHP 58,000 per month, My better half lived an average life there on 20K PHP per month and he considered himself middle of the road. Our rent for a 3 bed 3 bath condo in San Lazaro Sta Cruz Manila was PHP 25K per month, you can find comfortable accommodation for PHP 10K per month and less, cost of living in PH is a quarter or less than Oz, The writing is on the wall, My government has no empathy for the people that supported and contributed to greater and lesser degrees for 40, 50 plus years of their lives to prop up a mismanaged economic and misguided system that put the contributors out to pasture,,,,,,, the new generation though will bring them undone because they seem to want it all yesterday, they are in for a big shock as are our pious leaders.

Now don't get me started on what our politicians benefits in this country are, google it and you will be shocked.
Enough ranting for now, hope I didn't bore every one.

Cheers, Steve.


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