[Question:] I will retire in the next six months and would like to know how much pension I will get. I am single, own my house and have $400,000 in monetary assets. I have lived in Australia for 25 years. I believe that 35 years are required to get the full pension. I am not entitled to a pension in my country. I plan to live six months of the year overseas. I have tried to get the above information through the internet, but I have not found an informative site with a list of different scenarios, where you just tick the ones that apply to you and then get a final answer. M.C.
[Answer:]Assuming $420,000 in savings, car, personal assets etc, you can expect a part pension of around $365 a fortnight at January rates while in Australia.
To get an age pension, you only need to have been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least 10 years, or for a number of periods that total more than 10 years with one of the periods being at least 5 years, unless you (i) are a refugee, (ii) were getting partner allowance, widow allowance or widow B pension immediately before turning age pension age, or (iii) are a woman whose partner died while you were both Australian residents, and have been an Australian resident for two years immediately before claiming age pension. You may also meet the residence requirements if you lived or worked in a country with which Australia has an international social security agreement.
You are referring, in Centrelink jargon, to "age pension portability", which you can Google, and changes are afoot, scheduled for January 1, 2017.
Currently, age pensioners (plus those getting the wife pension, widow B pension and disability support pension) continue to receive their pension payments while overseas for up to 26 weeks, that is six months. However, from January 1, this reduces to six weeks for pensioners who have lived in Australia for less than 35 years. Your payments will then be paid at a reduced rate proportional to your period of "australian working life residence".
For example, if you lived in Australia for 25 years between the age of 16 and age pension age, you will generally receive 25/35ths of the your means-tested rate of pension.
The changes will only apply to people whose absence starts after January 1. Those already outside Australia then, will only see future overseas travel affected. Start packing!