yourpension.com.au

Guidance on claiming and maintaining your age pension. Translating what the Government needs to say to what you should know.

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Eligibility

The Centrelink site provides a reasonable summary of the eligibility criteria. These include:

Age

Residency

Income test

Assets test

Payment rates

The most common problems encountered are covered in other blog entries. However, You should also note the following:

You only need to be in Australia the date you sign and submit the claim. Therefore you could have been overseas the day before and the day after. However, should you leave the country before you are granted the age pension, we would strongly recommend you appoint a nominee to act on your behalf to answer answer any Centrelink queries, or to attend a Centrelink office.

Centrelink do not ‘work’ under the same rules as the ATO. You need not have worked a day in your life to be entitled to an age pension. It is often said that “ a stay at home mum “ is as entitled as anyone. Even if you earn less than the tax threshold you will still need to report wages/earning to Centrelink.

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HOW TO CLAIM FOR THE AGE PENSION

Summary

Download the claim forms

Use the Staff Assisted Claim service

Book an appointment with the Financial Information Service Office for more complex claims

Use the online service for managing your age pension.

Centrelink has recently changed its policy and services in relation to claiming the age pension. It is our understanding these changes are – in part – a recognition of the problems associated with the on-line claim process.

However, it is not always the case that all Centrelink offices are fully aware of these new policies. Therefore, we provide the following summary of your ‘rights’ in relation to the Centrelink claim process. It is our experience that most age pensioners prefer ‘face-to-face’ support and believe that there should be no cost barriers to access these services.

As of June 2018, the average age pension claim processing time exceeds 7 months. Therefore being aware of the following may avoid unnecessary processing delays.

The key options are as follows:

Staff Assisted Claim

Since June 2017 an age pension applicant can request a Centrelink staff member sit with you and help you complete a claim. You are not required to claim on-line. The advisory options may be subject to the skills of the individual officer but for the majority of claims they will be able to assist.

Note: It is our experience that this option has never been offered to an age pension applicant. The “Department” has confirmed that this is a service ‘right’. Any denial of such service should be reported to the complaints hotline.

Financial Information Service Office (FISO).

Should you require more advice than can be provided via the Staff Assisted Claim you may request a booking with a FISO officer. This is the section of Centrelink that runs seminars etc and are authorised to provide ‘determinations’.

This is a private booked meeting. There must be a FISO officer at all Centrelink offices at least one day a week and often at least three-four days a week. In some cases – e.g. remote areas/urgent matters - this ‘meeting’ may need to be undertaken via “phone booking”.

We have always strongly recommended that before any significant change to your circumstances – e.g. sale of a home – that you obtain a determination from a FISO officer before entering into any ‘contract’.

Again if you have experienced some problems in accessing this service, we have been advised that you should immediately contact the Centrelink complaints hotline.

More information on FISO is available here

Completing the Printed Claim Form.

You may download the claim forms, print, complete, sign and date – refer links below. Again you are not required to do the claim on-line.

Even if you do the claim on-line you will still be required to attend a Centrelink office to present your “proof of id” documents – refer link below. This is required even if you are already a Centrelink client. Therefore, you can “drop off” the claim at the same time and have the claim checked for completeness. You may also avail yourself of the above two staff assisted processes to additional check, or advise upon your claim

You can then take the completed claim and your identity documents to any Centrelink office.

From July 2018, as you “hand over” your claim Centrelink staff will check the claim for ‘completeness”. You will no longer be able to submit a part-completed claim; unless your claim is more complex and requires additional claim forms for involvement in companies, real estates etc. That is, the two primary claim forms listed below must be completed.

Where the claim requires answers to questions that are unclear or you are uncertain indicate as such – e.g. refer attached. Then provide supporting documents that clearly state your circumstances.

Where a complex response can be better provided via a printed attached document, then do so. For example, when completing the bank account/balance section an attached internet printed summary is all that is required. The same super account balances etc. Most super funds can provide a “Centrelink Schedule”; request it and attach it to the claim.

Basic Claim Documents

All age pension claims must have at least two claim forms signed, dated and submitted. The first basically informs Centrelink about you, and where applicable, your partner. The second provides information about income and assets, again where applicable, for both you and your partner.

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/sites/default/files/2017/06/sa002-1707en.pdf https://www.humanservices.gov.au/sites/default/files/2017/06/sa369-1707en.pdf

Details on what documents are approved for “proof of id” can be found here… https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/confirm-your-identity

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ONLINE or INLINE?

We can not recommend using the online claim process for the age pension. 1. You are not required to claim online. The Government’s own Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) does not recommend the online process. The Government recognises the complexity of the claim process. It is one of the reasons why the age pension claim is not supported by aids such as YouTube help guides; most other claims are provided with such ‘helps’. 2. Claiming online does not reduce the claim processing time. Even if the claim data is submitted online it is still manually transferred to the age claim database. 3. If you claim online, you will still need to visit a Centrelink office to “prove your identity”. Therefore, we recommend dropping off the claim at the same time. Especially now that Centrelink has the Staff Assisted Claim service whereby your claim can be checked. 4. The age pension claim is not processed by the Centrelink office where you submitted the claim. The claim is scanned and ‘uploaded’ to the online process. 5. If you do prepare the claim via the printed forms, we recommend keeping a copy. Too often things are “lost” and you will need to reconcile your own grant. 

We additionally recommend using the free library scanning process, so you can email a copy of your claim ‘back to you’. The online process does not enable these options.

It is our experience that ‘older’ Australians are not as ‘computer illiterate’ as is often portrayed. If the technology is available, then once shown how to use a frequently used online process – e.g. internet banking – then age pensioners are generally comfortable with the technology. However, the age claim process is a ‘once off process’ with unique interfaces and terminology. As such, once an age claim has been granted and routine maintenance is required – e.g. income reporting – then we have experienced general acceptance of the process.  

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One Partner Eligible

If only one partner is eligible for the age pension then only one partner receives the payment; and this payment is the couples rate – not the single rate.

The income and assets for both will be assessed even if only one is entitled to the payment.

However, the illegible partner may be entitled to the Newstart benefit.

If the non-eligible partner:

has super – in accumulation mode – then the super balance is not assessed as an asset. Once that ‘super’ is accessed then it may be deemed as an asset.

Is working, then they will not be eligible for the Work Bonus Scheme (WBS). Only age pensioners receive the WBS.

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HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

The average age pension claim process time is currently more than 7 months! (as at June 2018).The claim processing time was a more reasonable 2-3 months just 3 years ago.

It was also then that Centrelink had a 30 day ‘kpi’ associated with age pension claim.

It has been our experience that Newstart claims are not that dissimilar to approx. 50% of age pension claims. The same income and assets need to be declared. Yet the Newstart claim process is generally less than 3 weeks! The median super balance for those claiming the age pension is – approx. - less than $100k for females and less than $200k for males. This means that when coupled with other assets (e.g. bank accounts) most age pensioners have assets less than the assets threshold. Therefore, should Centrelink ever consider ‘filtering’ the age pension claims into an ‘easy or complex’ claim process. Most claim could be processed quickly and be a ‘full’ entitlement. But there appears little incentive to speed up the claim process; even though it can be demonstrated that they can do it for Newstart and other Government benefits.

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Under the assets test yet only entitled to a part pension?

So you have total assets less that the assets test threshold – say $380,000 for a home owning couples (as at 1 July 2018). Let’s also assume that these assets are deemed assets - i.e. bank accounts, super, etc.

Then you will only receive a part pension. As at 1 July 2018, the full pension for a home owning couple is approx. $684 pf.

With 380k in deemed assets, then the home owning couple is expected to receive approx. $654 pf.

You can check other scenarios via our calculator.