Information for

Financial Services, Financial Advice - AXA Australia

	\| Home \| Superannuation \| FAQ \| What about Centrelink payments?

What about Centrelink payments?

The Federal Government (via Centrelink) provides the Age Pension as a source of retirement income.

To qualify for the Age Pension you must meet a number of criteria, such as:

for men, you must be aged 65 years or more
for women, depending on your date of birth, qualification ages range from 63 to 65
you must meet certain residence requirements , and
your income and assets must be below certain levels.

The income test
When assessing your eligibility for an Age Pension, Centrelink conducts an income test to assess the level of assessable income that you receive. You can find a full list of assessable income on the Centrelink website.
The list generally includes:

personal earnings (ie wages, bonuses, commissions etc)
monies (ie cash, legal tender)
valuable consideration (ie receiving goods or services in exchange for an item, action, or promise), and
profits (ie the amount of earnings in excess of its expenses).

If you have a partner, his or her income is also taken into account when working out your payment rate.

The assets test
When assessing your eligibility for an Age Pension, Centrelink conducts an assets test to assess the value of assets owned by you. You can find a full list of assessable assets on the Centrelink website. The list generally includes:

debts owing to you
your share of assets partly owned by you, and
assets held outside Australia.
If you have a retirement income stream from a superannuation fund, it will usually be considered an asset. However:
certain complying income stream products commenced before 20 September 2004 are 100 per cent exempt from the assets test, and
certain complying income stream products commenced between 20 September 2004 and 19 September 2007 are 50 per cent exempt from the assets test.

For more information on your eligibility for the Age Pension, contact your financial adviser or visit www.centrelink.gov.au.

Note:
The pension asset test taper rate will be halved from 20 September 2007. From that date recipients will only lose $1.50 per fortnight (rather than $3) for every $1,000 of assets above the relevant threshold.

The new pension asset test taper rate applies to the following payments:

Age and service pension
Disability support pension
Carer payment
Wife pension
Widow B pension, and
Bereavement allowance.

The 50 per cent assets test exemption for purchased 'complying' income streams will be removed from 20 September 2007. This change will only apply to income stream products purchased on or after 20 September 2007 and will not affect the assets test treatment of income streams purchased before this date.

| | |

| | | | |