Age Pension Concierge @ yourpension.com.au

“John” recently “went through” a divorce and considers that he no longer has the funds to purchase a home whilst on the age pension. John is living with his son and their family. John and his former partner were on the full age pension and both were receiving approx. $660 pf. This is a summary what he did following the sale of the family home. He continues to run a small business that requires him to travel to Bali to purchase stock. He determines that the company would benefit if he “bought” a house in Bali to use when he visits. You can not own property in Bali but it will be treated as an investment property for Centrelink purposes. The property is valued at $300k. John also has a further $200k in super. As a single age pensioner, without assets, he would have been entitled to approx. $870pf. Now with the above assets his age pension falls to nearly the same as what he was receiving as a part of a ‘couple’ to $660pf.  As there is no international agreement with Indon...

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...