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A house in Bali and a full age pension.

“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 Indonesia, John is also worried that as he no longer has the family home he may be considered a non resident. John uses the $200k in super to enable his son to renovate the house to “pay the costs associated to build a granny flat on someone else’s property or the costs to convert someone else’s property to suit your needs and establish a lifetime right to live there” https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/granny-flat-right-or-interest

John's age pension now rises back to the full single age pension rate – from $660 to $870pf.

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