Oz Pension in Thailand

[terry57]

^^

Brilliant link.

Cheers

So a single guy gets $766 a fortnight.

Livable here in Thailand but no fat there for Emergencies and certainly no Fat for when the Government changes the rules again.

Try living on that back home. Many people must pay rent out of that as well.

[FatOne]

Thanks everyone, some great ideas and some real thought provoking. I will not have my home paid off before I retire. Before the world crisis I had 3 rented homes and a nice home I lived in, but my income has been cut so severely over the last 3 years I have sold 2 of the rented homes at a loss ( house prices crashed) and sold my much nicer 4 bedroom home to move into the last rented home to finance my house build in Thailand. Things have not been easy here so sometimes when you knock someone for not planning for retirement there may be reasons- my rented houses were my retirement fund, all gone up in smoke. I may have some saving grace later on when my parents pass on, but I pray that won't happen for a long while, so in the immediate future I will have to rely on the pension.

[FatOne]

Thanks for the link Luckyjim, from what I have read on that forum I can get the pension when I turn 64.5 but because my wife is not eligible I can get only half the married pension, not the single pension. I shouldn't need to stay in Oz once the pension is granted but need to inform centrelink that I will be residing overseas. Any extra payments and health benefits are forfeited after about 12 weeks overseas.

Thanks also for all your helpful comments Terry

Marty

[Evilbaz]

Age pension eligibility age is no less than 65 years for a male.
Why do you keep quoting 64.5 years - do you get an extra 6 months in Wang when your birth is registered?

[FatOne]

Hi Evil, see where you got your name! 65.5 is the correct age, my memory is getting worse and it had been a while since I read the criteria, plus some wishful thinking!

[KEVIN2008]

I agree - phone the International Affairs office (appropriate name eh?) in Tassie.
They are very helpful.

Be aware that if you have a wife or defacto (who is not eligible for benefits) your Single rate of Age Pension will drop to 50% of the married rate.

You will not get the Supplement after (now?) 6 weeks of leaving for O/S.

I have an Australian friend .....anyway he recently got married and now tells me that his Oz Pension has been reduced by 13,000 baht.....am i confused, yes.....in Ireland and i think the UK his wife would become a dependent and therefore he would qualify for an increase in his pension.
Irish Government contributory pension is 230.50 euro per week and 155.00 euro per week for a qualified adult under 66 ( wife ).....adult dependent increases to 230.50 per week on reaching age 66.....no restrictions on payment overseas. ...( .no wonder the country is bankrupt )

Anyway Oz pension seems a bit cruel ....

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I get a pension

[roger77]

Pension rates payable to people outside Australia

The loss will be because he is now paid as a couple with one eligible
You need ( like in Thai ) to get to the right people for advice The local centrelink people dont necessarielly know - care about the rules..

[FatOne]

I agree Kevin,
Stupid rule, if my wife was of eligible age we would get a married pension which is $A1154 per fortnight ( b33,500 ) if I was single I would get $A766 per fortnight (b22,000 ) but married with a 40 years old wife we only get half the married pension $A577 ( b16,700 ) working on a rough exchange rate. Impossible to live on in Oz, enough in LOS, but not luxurious. It almost seems they are telling us to break up, get divorced and live together in Sin, doesn't it? As we hope to do some travel together we don't want to do this.

[jamescollister]

I agree Kevin,
Stupid rule, if my wife was of eligible age we would get a married pension which is $A1154 per fortnight ( b33,500 ) if I was single I would get $A766 per fortnight (b22,000 ) but married with a 40 years old wife we only get half the married pension $A577 ( b16,700 ) working on a rough exchange rate. Impossible to live on in Oz, enough in LOS, but not luxurious. It almost seems they are telling us to break up, get divorced and live together in Sin, doesn't it? As we hope to do some travel together we don't want to do this.

Think the idea is, that people under retirement age should get jobs.
Not tax payer funded early retirement for young wives. Jim

[FatOne]

Yep, I reckon you are correct. And she probably will, she is already planning a little shop next to our new home. The way Oz changes the rules on pensions all the time it may end up being our only source of income.

[jamescollister]

Yep, I reckon you are correct. And she probably will, she is already planning a little shop next to our new home. The way Oz changes the rules on pensions all the time it may end up being our only source of income.

You may be right, think OAP will disappear, have 2 friends there now, trying to get the 2 year qualification in.
One wrote me, may have wasted his time, talk of another rule change, setting a date, no pensions paid O/S if you were not on the pension before that date.

Jim

[KEVIN2008]

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1849786

[nora tittoff]

but married with a 40 years old wife we only get half the married pension $A577

You get a lot more than me I am in the same situation wife's not old enough and we only get $263 a fortnight.
And if we stay outside Australia for more than six months we lose the pension,at least that's what the hard workers at center link told me.

[roger77]

Outside Australia pension rates and thresholds are reassessed in January, March, July and September each year.

These rates apply to customers who are permanently outside Australia or absent from Australia for longer than 6 weeks.

Payment calendar
If you are outside Australia on a long term absence or live in another country, you will receive 13 regular 4 weekly payments each year.

Your 4 weekly pension payments schedule from July to December 2014.

Above from Centrelink web page, clearly you are entitled to get your pension O/S
Nora my experience with them has ranged from helpful to disgusting, if you ask for advice they get cranky and refer you to the "other team " whoever they are.
I an entitled to A$577 but I get even less than you at the moment partly because my wife works and partly because of the way they have assessed me.

Re the whirlepool link that is a bit dated but its interesting to see how people judge us on Old age pension there is a definite feeling that we are a drain but dont take into account that people of my age contributed to a pension fund, this fund was changed in the '70's at some time and the money was used for their priorities.
Will the pension be axed at some time in the future ? no doubt all goverments would like that but there will still need to be some for of support, already many people who thought they were self funded are struggling through bad advice and being taken advantage of. Even the big banks are at the moment under the spotlight for illegal handling of peoples savings.
I expect that for ME living in Thailand on A$15000 per year will be a doodle, I have a home there and we have everthing there that we need , in Aus I would find it difficult.

[nora tittoff]

in Aus I would find it difficult.

Yes you would and so would a lot of other people including myself.

Sometimes I think I made a mistake retiring at 66 but the job that I had for 28 years was starting to drag me down,managers were a bunch of wankers along with the HR pricks

[terry57]

You may be right, think OAP will disappear, have 2 friends there now, trying to get the 2 year qualification in.
One wrote me, may have wasted his time, talk of another rule change, setting a date, no pensions paid O/S if you were not on the pension before that date.
Jim

Mate, its fairly well general knowledge in Australia that in future years the Pension will be severely curbed, I think it safe to say that they will kill off overseas pensions for sure.

The retirement age has been raised to 68 or 70 ? not sure, compulsory Superannuation has been in for many years.

Not hard to see where its going is it ?

The idea being that the vast majority of Australians will fund their own retirement in coming years and the reliance on Government pensions relieved.

[FatOne]

It's been a while since anyone updated this thread, I think maybe most of the topic has been done to death, but I recently spoke to a friend who reckons that since new rules in June you can still apply for and get the pension as before but if you want to live overseas they will delay your first payment for 6 months. I have checked out the govt website and I can see no reference to this rule, it actually states they will pay into an overseas bank account monthly.

[Warik]

Latest (11 Sep 2014) little charmer from the tossers at Centrelink:

As they have assessed that my country of residence is Thailand (after 6 years), I am now an 'International Age Pension' customer. My 'file' is being transferred to Tasmania and payment frequency is four weekly.

Unbelievable that the thousands of Italians, Greeks, et al, are being affected in this way. What can I do? Nothing. Just get ignored.

Regards

[Warik]

P.S. Also understand they can pay pension (single A$776.90 per fortnight) into a Thai bank account which I would much prefer to avoid the obscene Australian bank charges.

Regards

[Necron99]

Latest (11 Sep 2014) little charmer from the tossers at Centrelink:

As they have assessed that my country of residence is Thailand (after 6 years), I am now an 'International Age Pension' customer. My 'file' is being transferred to Tasmania and payment frequency is four weekly.

Unbelievable that the thousands of Italians, Greeks, et al, are being affected in this way. What can I do? Nothing. Just get ignored.

Regards

Doesn't effect the Greeks. They have a sweetheart deal, dual pension agreement.

[FatOne]

Doesn't answer the question, but yes, that's the way I read it, if you are living overseas permanently then they will pay 4 weekly into any nominated bank account o'seas or send a cheque.

[nigelandjan]

Don't really matter if they pay it monthly or 6 monthly then at least your getting it which is good news

[roger77]

Went to the Thai consulate recently, after reading some of your thoughts on visa I decided to go for a 12 month multi.
Very polite photocopied marriage cert and wifes passport, lightened my wallet by A$235 and said come back in two days - easy.

Then went to centrelink and said that I wanted to go to Thailand, tapped on the computer, asked a few questions,then said I needed to be assessed by another department, that went easy. Asked if I wanted my pension paid to my Thai bank account or an Aus account and that was about it.
I was a bit apprehensive but this time it was easy, they were very polite and helpful.

[FatOne]

That's very re-assuring Roger, thanks for the update!

[Evilbaz]

If you get the Age pension paid into a Thai bank account it will be sent in Baht calculated at the CBA rate so you'll lose 1.5+ baht per dollar compared to conversion from AUD here.