Thread: Changes to DFRB and DFRDB Pensions

Increases in public service pensions under the CSS scheme are calculated the same way. Adding insult to injury is the fact that these are the only superannuation payments that are taxable. Why? Because the governments never paid any instalments into the scheme. Our pensions are paid from consolidated revenue not from accumulated funds of which there are none. Thus our pensions are deemed taxable income. The only people in Australia whose superannuation pensions are taxable.

Boo Hooo

Self funded retirees, the ones who paid for their superannuation themselves (and mostly paid tax in, tax on the annual interest and tax out), get no CPI increases calculated by any means untill their retirement funds and assets are exhausted.

But I do think that all pensions should be calculated on the actual cost of living, and perhaps should be adjusted for the comparitive cost of living where they live. i.e. if you live in a city where cost of rent etc are higher then there should be a % based loading.

Diana

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Boo Hooo

Self funded retirees, the ones who paid for their superannuation themselves, get no CPI increases calculated by any means untill their retirement funds and assets are exhausted.

fortunately not quite that bad ....

self funded retirees do not have to wait until funds & assets are exhausted

In respect to individual retirees (not partnered), if assessed on the assets test, they will have a sliding scale increase to CPI adjusted Centrelink Age Pension available to them once their assets (excluding their house) fall below about $400,000 - partnered asset limit is somewhat larger but access will depend on other variables incl the age & super of the partner.

garry referred to CL partial access for DFRB pensioners whose pension payments do not keep pace

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Self funded retirees, the ones who paid for their superannuation themselves

Diana

I paid my own contributions for all of the time. When the superannuation guarantee came in, in the early 90s the government also paid in but because the of the way the pension is calculated (a defined benefit scheme) it added nothing to the end payment.

When I realised this was never going to be enough I started privately paying into a super scheme - this has earned the princely sum of 2% over 11 years - that is not 2% per annum but 2% after 11 years.

The other issue with the Defence pension is that there are no other entitlements - no cheap prescritions, no cheap medical - noting.

My mum is 83 and on the old age pension - she gets the health care card, cheaper rates, cheaper electricity phone etc. When tax is taken out of my pension, my medical and prescription bills are met I clear about the same as she does and hers gets indexed more than mine.

Garry

Garry

I sympathise with you, my dad is 84 and my mum is 79 and because they own a small farm right on the boundary of Nowra, they are not eligible for the old age pension, asset rich and cash poor. They live on the agistment fees for 100-150 weaner heifers from the dairy farm next door and what I pay for a vendor mortgage over my home.

It is wrong for a couple that has paid income and business taxes every year from 1941 up to and including this year are not entitled to a pension and yet others who have contributed nought to the society for the best part of their lives get the full pension. I am not including service personnel and public servants in the above group.

What irks me is that I have worked for the NSW Government every year since 1974 but because of a terminology trick I only became a public servant when Howard brought in Work Choices. The result is that I have had to fund my own superannuation and since Superannuation Guarantee, my employer has had to contribute. Had I been working in a psychiatric hospital or remained working for the Prisons Medical Service I would have been a public servant and entitled to a NSW public service pension.

Diana

I recieve a pension under DFRDB I paid my contributions same as any other scheme but the govts of the day spent it then cried when it came time to pay out. While I am happy with what I get, some help with medical and prescritions would be good as mine is an invalidity benefit and transplant medication is not cheap

Diana, commonwealth public servants had to pay their own compulsory contributions, whilst the govt. unlike most other employers did not make any contributions to the fund. Most of my time in the CPS I paid in 10% of my salary, at the time, the maximum permitted.

Brian

Tell me if I'm wrong, but private sector employers were not required to provide any form of superannuation until 1992 when Keating brought in the Superannuation Guarantee with compulsory employer contributions. Prior to that only commonwealth and state public servants and employees under a small number of industrial awards had any form of superannuation.

I know that in the mid 1980's nurses in NSW public hospitals did not have any form of superannuation unless like myself they took on a private commercial scheme. In the late 1980's but prior to 1992 NSW introduced HASS where there was a employee/employer contribution matching scheme similar to the public service schemes but anyone who changed jobs after 1992 was automatically moved to First State Super, a regular industry super scheme with employer contributions limited to that required under the Super Guarantee.

Diana