We have again been called in to help an age pensioner who was incorrectly assessed by Centrelink with respect to ‘living’ overseas. Centrelink state that “ from 1 July 2014 new rules will apply regarding the period of Australian working life residence required to receive a full means-tested pension outside Australia after 26 weeks. To continue receiving your full rate of Australian pension you will generally need to have spent 35 years of your working life in Australia. This is an increase from the current requirement to have 25 years of Australian working life residence.” Read more here and “as at June 2012 there were 73,158 recipients of the Australian Age Pension residing overseas.”. Without going into the individual case let’s look at two scenarios Tony moves to Italy and still gets the full pension entitlement. Tony had been living and working in Australia since he was 15. After he retired and claimed the age pension he decided to travel overseas to Italy and liv...
Your age pension concierge service for Centrelink. Case studies and observations on claiming and maintaining the Centrelink age pension in Australia. The objective of this blog is to inform and promote discussion. Information contained within is generic and does not constitute advice, and professional assistance is recommended before any action taken with Centrelink.