Thread: a message for all serving and ex military members

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

CSS pensions are indexed in exactly the same way as military pensions. I just received the magnificent increase of 85 cents.

ATO regards my CSS pension as taxable income. Centrelink also regards it as income and reduces my part age pension accordingly. Other superannuation pensions are not treated this way.

Well then, welcome aboard. Get your CSS mates to stand up and fight for your rights. If we get any joy, follow in our footsteps. I'll give you what support I can, remember the spirit of Eureka, Bob

Gents, I support you in this intolerable situation. It is a travesty that all governments have an inversely proportional value on those who serve. The greater the harm our men and women in Defense and Emergency are placed in, the less they are compensated.
I would love to share the solidarity of the situation, but after 9 1/2yrs of 'Part time' service I have no gov super to have ripped off.

All that and the constant refrain； "Earn your f'n (tax free) money!" yep, a massive $65/6hr day for a Cpl......

Sorry, no offence meant. Where do I sign the petition?
Dave.

Originally Posted by bob10

Well then, welcome aboard. Get your CSS mates to stand up and fight for your rights. If we get any joy, follow in our footsteps. I'll give you what support I can, remember the spirit of Eureka, Bob

All well and good but lets muddy the waters - when this issue went up in Parliament last year one of the reasons it got knocked back was the cost when other similar schemes like CSS were taken into account.

Let these schemes fight their own battles because if the lot are lumped together it will never get up - one scheme at a time.

As an aside, I can remember in the 80s when the CPI was up in double digits and mortgage rates were right up arpund 18%, retiring serving members were complaining that because of the high CPI and massive increases in pensions, when they retired they were actually going to get less in their pensions than people who had retired years earlier whose pensions had been massively increases because of the CPI. Centrelink and old age pensioners were complaining that their rates of payments were not increasing at the same rates.

Really the issue is not whether Military pensions should be linked to the CPI or the basic wage (afterall at times increases in CPI will exceed basic pay rate increases), it is that these should be all treated the same.

Unfortunately most Government authorities bulk DFRDB payments with other pensions when it suits them and with super schemes in other circumstances.

Garry

Not discounting those who serve, but most Australians who retire, if they have any superannuation at all, are on fixed incomes with no CPI increase but have to pay the increased prices as a consumer.

In spite of what the public thinks, after working for the NSW Government for 37 years if I retired today I would also be on a fixed income without CPI increases just like all those who worked in private enterprise.

As for the taxes:

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

...The pension paid by the government as representing the government's input is classed by the ATO as taxable income. This is because succeeding governments did not pay anything into the Scheme. Your pensions are paid by Treasury out of consolidated revenue each year. Everybody else who receives a superannuation pension receives non-taxable income. ...

Every dollar I and my employer put into my Superannuation scheme has been taxed, every dollar received in interest since that time has been taxed and if I retired today my superannuation income/pension would be taxed at least till I turn 60 years of age. That's triple taxation and there is no guarantee that all the money I have paid into super will actually be there when I retire, such is the state of investments and the greed of CEOs and board members of publicly listed companies my Super is invested in.

On service to country!
I would be happy for returned retired service people who actually fought in war zones to receive full indexation of their pensions, but for those other members who served their terms at home or where there was no shooting, sorry your service is no different to other Australian's who worked in low paying jobs be they Government or not.

Originally Posted by Barefoot Dave

Gents, I support you in this intolerable situation. It is a travesty that all governments have an inversely proportional value on those who serve. The greater the harm our men and women in Defense and Emergency are placed in, the less they are compensated.
I would love to share the solidarity of the situation, but after 9 1/2yrs of 'Part time' service I have no gov super to have ripped off.

All that and the constant refrain； "Earn your f'n (tax free) money!" yep, a massive $65/6hr day for a Cpl......

Sorry, no offence meant. Where do I sign the petition?
Dave.

Dave, go to www.standto.org , Bob

Originally Posted by garrycol

All well and good but lets muddy the waters - when this issue went up in Parliament last year one of the reasons it got knocked back was the cost when other similar schemes like CSS were taken into account.

Let these schemes fight their own battles because if the lot are lumped together it will never get up - one scheme at a time.

As an aside, I can remember in the 80s when the CPI was up in double digits and mortgage rates were right up arpund 18%, retiring serving members were complaining that because of the high CPI and massive increases in pensions, when they retired they were actually going to get less in their pensions than people who had retired years earlier whose pensions had been massively increases because of the CPI. Centrelink and old age pensioners were complaining that their rates of payments were not increasing at the same rates.

Really the issue is not whether Military pensions should be linked to the CPI or the basic wage (afterall at times increases in CPI will exceed basic pay rate increases), it is that these should be all treated the same.

Unfortunately most Government authorities bulk DFRDB payments with other pensions when it suits them and with super schemes in other circumstances.

Garry

Sorry, mate, I left the Defence force in 1985, since then I have lost $385 per fortnight, indexed with CPI. Pensioners, I believe were indexed with CPI until 2009, when the FED. Gov, changed their indexation to the present scheme. All we are asking is to be treated the same as old age pensioners, their indexation was changed because they were going backwards. So are we. Mr Whitlam, in his wisdom, took our money [we were paying 5.5% of our salary into our super fund] and put it into consolidated revenue. How many of you would stand for that if Gillard did that to your super funds. Service people were an easy mark, we couldn't complain. To top it off, Keating just didn't index our super at all for a couple of years, It has been estimated we lost about $5,000 there. We want no more than to be treated fairly [no hope of getting the money back]. ADSO has disputed the GOV. costing, and proved their figures wrong. MR Abbot has promised DFRDB pensioners will be indexed to the age pension scheme when elected. That doesn't help MSBS or Military disability pensioners . Dont forget our super and disability pension are part of our contracted condition of service. I agree with you on one fight at a time, I just didn't want to appear selfish. [ also trying to be nice, something that is very difficult when on this subject] Bob

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Not discounting those who serve, but most Australians who retire, if they have any superannuation at all, are on fixed incomes with no CPI increase but have to pay the increased prices as a consumer.

In spite of what the public thinks, after working for the NSW Government for 37 years if I retired today I would also be on a fixed income without CPI increases just like all those who worked in private enterprise.

As for the taxes:Every dollar I and my employer put into my Superannuation scheme has been taxed, every dollar received in interest since that time has been taxed and if I retired today my superannuation income/pension would be taxed at least till I turn 60 years of age. That's triple taxation.

Our DFRDB pension is taxed , and I'm 64 in Sept. My allocated pension from my time in the Post Office is not taxed, I'm over 60. And if you are on the ball, you can increase your super after retirement [ admittedly, I draw the least amount legally possible.] I have had my Post Office super in and out of the market/cash since I retired, my cash option is capital guaranteed. I had to put 15% of my Post Office pay into my super to end up with a reasonable amount.Not enough to live on, but better than nothing.And yes, we pay triple tax on our DFRDB as well. Bob

Bob