Skip to main content

Age Pension Increases - March 2016

Every 6 months (March and September) the Age Pension is automatically adjusted in accordance with indexation. Of course the ‘age old’ question is which indexation factor is the one that should be applied. The ‘standard’ CPI or the CPI that best reflects pensioner costs?

From 20 March 2016 the following Age Pension rates will apply

Maximum pension payment rates





Previous
Current
Increase
Single
Base
$788.40
$794.80
$6.40

Supplement (1)
$64.50
$65.00
$0.50

Energy Supp.(2)
$14.10
$14.10
nill

Total
$867.00
$873.90
$6.90
Couple (each)
Base
$594.30
$599.10
$4.80

Supplement (1)
$48.60
$49.00
$0.40

Energy Supp. (2)
$10.60
$10.60
nill

Total
$653.50
$658.70
$5.20






So an age pensioner, who is in a relationship, has a additional $135.20 annually to spend and a single pensioner has the luxury of $179.40!

Notes:
1. The above Pension Supplement is the maximum amount payable and may be reduced to $22.50 for a ‘single’ and $18.60 each for a ‘couple’ whilst travelling overseas.
2. The Energy Supplement (formerly the Clean Energy Supplement) is no longer subject to indexation and will remain at the rate of $14.10 for singles and 10.60 for each eligible member of a couple. What a pity given that increasing cost of utilities is far exceeding other cost increases.

Comments

  1. I thought that the increase is based on wages growth or inflation..which ever is higher
    The last few increases have been around .7/.8 reflecting inflation of 1.5/1.6 whereas wages growth is 2.2/2.4 ????

    ReplyDelete
  2. I admit, I have not been on this web page in a long time... however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic pension advice and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contacting Centrelink

Various news outlets reported on the 11/1/17 that the human services minister, Alan Tudge, said “…I know that the call wait time for Centrelink can be long, the average call wait time at present is about 12 minutes…” and “People can also go to a Centrelink office and typically they’ll be able to see a person, in person, within 10 minutes.” Now this is a significantly different to that reported by Centrelink staff and that which has been presented at Senate enquiries. The Australian National Audit Office reported that in 2013-14 13.7 million callers hung up after waiting for as much as 1 hour. From all reports the current situation is now far worse; especially since the average age pension claim processing times have gone from an average 6 weeks to 4-5 months! Now let’s test those ‘access’ times. It’s unlikely to be statistically significant, but it may give an idea of how a ‘typical’ Centerlink recipient needs to handle the situation. We are going to work with an age pensione
After the robo-debt debacle, here's how Centrelink can win back Australians' trust This article was originally published on  The Conversation . Read the  original article .                   Australia’s social security policy and service delivery system is not designed to put customer needs first.         AAP/Julian Smith         Paul Henman , The University of Queensland   The ongoing furore over Centrelink’s automated debt recovery program has highlighted a perfect storm of poor and worsening service delivery in the federal government’s premier service delivery agency.   The extent of Centrelink’s customer service delivery problems is legendary, and it has been getting worse over the last decade. There are several reasons for this, including policy changes and funding cuts. But while the situation may look dire, there are ways Centrelink can win over dissatisfied Australians. Worsening wait times and customer experiences Since its creation in 1997, Cent

Is $0.5m in super really a “small amount”?

When providing advice to a Centrelink age pensioner, a recent article in the mainstream press (7/9/16) suggested “for a relatively small amount, such as $500,000”.  Of course “relative” can mean a number of things and is dependent upon - relative to what. So let’s look at that relativity. First we look at what $500k in super means to a single age pensioner – as was the case for the press article. Let’s assume that this was the total amount of assets held by the age pensioner. The age pension would be reduced from $870 to approx. $440pf for that “relatively” small amount. In 2017 that age pension is expected to be reduced by a further $7,700 pa. A weekly loss to the age pensioners 'budget' of nearly $150 per week from the current 2016 pension. Back to judging whether that $500k is a relatively small amount. In December 2015 the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Ltd(ASFA) published the report “Superannuation Account Balances by Ag