Thread: Age Pension

My wife & myself have never dealt with Centrelink, so have never had a Centrelink number that was the hard part to start with. We decided to do it on line , with daughters help, I got mine no trouble but for my wife because her birth name was different to her married name it just froze , they give you a list of reasons for a last name change but getting married was not one, so Centrelink don't recognize that a women get married & has a name change. I then had to get on the phone to sort it , one & a half hours later after getting past the selections the computer gave me then talking to a real person in different departments ( I also had to get the wife to give permission to speak on her behalf) I had the number. I THINK , I HOPE, will see what happens once financial adviser starts dealing with getting our Health Care Cards.

Originally Posted by incisor

i know, i had a shot when i nearly died a few years back and could only work in 15 minute sessions every couple of hours for a while

went through the whole rigmarole and was left waiting for a response that i never recieved until 12 months later when they said seeing i hadnt reapplied they were cancelling it.

they never advised i got it in the first place...

Sounds a familiar yarn Dave. I have a lot of people with healthcare card visit and a lot with out one who would clearly qualify. I give them the details and phone number or often give them to a relative if it would be difficult for them to deal with.

My tip is always find a responsible and reasonable contact. I assume a lot of the staff in those offices are very helpful and caring peoples. There are exceptions. Be reasonable and also demanding of accountability and time frames promised and drop a bomb via complaints in the following order.

First try and negotiate with the staff that makes promised to do things. ( works most of the time)
2- Try and resolve quietly via asking to chat with their manager
3 - Whole nine yards- ministerial complaint ( often fixes things via your local member and staff knowing who to talk with)

No mater what you do always record the date, time and person you talk with.

I do feel for many of the pension office staff who get self-righteous sods like me or unreasonable sods who want what they are not entitled to

The phone when/if you do it is best left for a time when you have a hot cupper and a news paper or good book to read while waiting in the line to talk

Originally Posted by 1950landy

My wife & myself have never dealt with Centrelink, so have never had a Centrelink number that was the hard part to start with. We decided to do it on line , with daughters help, I got mine no trouble but for my wife because her birth name was different to her married name it just froze , they give you a list of reasons for a last name change but getting married was not one, so Centrelink don't recognize that a women get married & has a name change. I then had to get on the phone to sort it , one & a half hours later after getting past the selections the computer gave me then talking to a real person in different departments ( I also had to get the wife to give permission to speak on her behalf) I had the number. I THINK , I HOPE, will see what happens once financial adviser starts dealing with getting our Health Care Cards.

I love dealing with this one again and again and ..... Getting married decades ago a lot, not all assume the woman's name legally became the mans last name. It is a alias unless she legally changes her name via deep poll. Few if any people did that so the name they use is legally an Alias. As long as you understand that it is not an issue - I am frequently dealing with GRUMPY old men who are angry the rotten medicare office lists their wife's name 'incorrectly' as they refuse to listen to him demanding they change it as they assumed it was changed by simply getting married I have my blank face on with some of those gents and occasionally the women whose opinion must be correct and the law must be wrong

from the sound of things here , some of you are with the wrong superannuation fund. (they should be performing superbly at the moment...) and some of you are definitely not with a good financial advisor.

I know the above statements will instantly **** some of you off because it's hard to admit that you made a bad choice. However , it is not too late to get on board with the right people.

Mine , and my wife's funds have average almost 13% over the last financial year and with correct management , so should yours. We stay a little on the safe side or the results would be a lot higher.

Normally , unless you manage your funds yourself , your financial planner or fund representative does it for you.

If you are not getting something like our returns I would be checking your managers income and questioning his fund selection.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

from the sound of things here , some of you are with the wrong superannuation fund. (they should be performing superbly at the moment...) and some of you are definitely not with a good financial advisor.

I know the above statements will instantly **** some of you off because it's hard to admit that you made a bad choice. However , it is not too late to get on board with the right people.

Mine , and my wife's funds have average almost 13% over the last financial year and with correct management , so should yours. We stay a little on the safe side or the results would be a lot higher.

Normally , unless you manage your funds yourself , your financial planner or fund representative does it for you.

If you are not getting something like our returns I would be checking your managers income and questioning his fund selection.

And have a look at the fees they charge.It can reduce the return substantially.
Some of them take quite a large amount.

Originally Posted by scarry

And have a look at the fees they charge.It can reduce the return substantially.
Some of them take quite a large amount.

Definitely - my Uncles money is invested through Commonwealth Financial Planners, not my choice but that is what he wanted. Ongoing fees used to be about $700 a quarter with "free" annual reviews. Because of the Royal Commission, fees are now charged when services are provided and the Commonwealth now want $5500 to do an annual review - so annual fees have gone up nearly $2000 because of the Royal Commission. I suppose he could do without an annual review but it needs tight control to minimise taxes and still provide $5000 a month to pay his nursing home bill.

PS nursing homes are a rip off. $5000 a month for food, cleaning, domestics, electricity and water - medical is medicare and he "owns" the room via a bond so a lot of money for not a lot of services.

Yes the blood suckers are still out there who are happy to take your money on financial services but not provide much service in return.

Garry

When you lodge a claim for a Centrelink payment be sure to tell the whole truth about your income and assets. Otherwise sometime later you may get a visit from a fraud investigator or an invitation to come to the office for a serious chat and possible later a court appointment. It is surprising the number of Centrelink clients who "forget" about the block of flats or the sheep station (yes, a bloody sheep station), the valuable collection of art, vintage cars, antique furniture, jewelry, the de facto spouse and so on. Computerised Data Matching has made life a good bit easier for Centrelink investigators. Few realise that the department started computerised data matching in 1991 with awesome results. The algorithms have been refined over the decades according to results. Some of the most successful matches are overseas departures, interest paid in excess of $100 p.a, land titles, high rent, employment declaration forms held by the ATO, Tax Notices of Assessment indicating income declared to the ATO not in line with that declared to Centrelink, Births Deaths and Marriages. The last was a ripper. First done when the last states computerised their BDM registers. Centrelink (then DSS) found out how many dead people were getting pensions and withdrawing and spending. Also the number of people who got married to a working partner and didn't notify.

Yes, that's right. Declare everything and don't think you can hide or forget anything. They can and do scan your bank accounts, transactions and tax records automatically with their computer systems at any time. Remember robodebt?

Income and assets have to be declared, including amounts of over $1000. For example, if a $50,000 caravan is suddenly registered in your name and your bank accounts don't reveal where the money to buy it came from, there could be problems.

You can also receive a tax-free pension from your super account in addition to the age pension, if the numbers are planned correctly and it is fully declared.

Its a very good idea to get a financial planner involved. We paid our super fund financial adviser a tidy sum to do a full plan to see what would happen well before I actually applied. Our super arrangements were adjusted to maximise the results. That saved a lot of hassles. It meant we were just basically having to produce the correct documents for it to happen.

The good news is once you have jumped through the hoops and been approved, it normally seems to work smoothly.
If your situation changes down the track, its just a matter of declaring the changes.
Hopefully.

As I said previously, I strongly recommend downloading the Centrelink Express Plus ap and linking it to your my.gov account. It saves a lot of hassles.

Have fun!