Disability Pensioners Living Overseas

[icyfroth]

This was being discussed on the breakfast show this moring:

THOUSANDS of Australian disability pensioners are receiving taxpayers' money to live overseas, many in places best known as holiday destinations.

Australians are paying $100 million a year to fund 7300 recipients of the disability pension living overseas.

Official figures show the greatest number, more than 1200, live in Greece, while hundreds more live in Turkey, Croatia, Thailand and New Zealand.

The Philippines and areas of Indonesia, including 83 people in Bali, are among the other destinations where Australian disability pensioners are living at a cost to the taxpayer of $99.9 million a year, News Corp reports.

Social Service Minister Kevin Andrews has told News Corp he has asked for information clarifying residency requirements for such pensioners, saying he's concerned some pension recipients may be choosing to live overseas for lifestyle reasons at the expense of taxpayers.

The federal government now disallows the pension for those who are overseas for more than six weeks.

From Here

The consensus of callers invited to comment felt that disability pensioners should be living in Australia. That is my opinion also. $100 mil for aussie pensioners living overseas permanently is money that's not going back into the Aus economy.

[freakiness]

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@am*3 wrote:
I guess with redundancies etc in media outlets, they are left with the low abilities of those remaining to write articles ( like the uniformed person who wrote this story).

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Who needs journalists when they can just publish media releases from the Looters.

[cherry*135]

What life would you choose?

1. To be healthy and fit and have full employment.

Or

2. Have an permanent illness and/or disability that means you can never work again and be in receipt of a meagre Govt benefit. ( which also allows you to be in receipt of that pension if you live overseas)

[bluecat*dancing]

I'd choose option #1, please.

[freshwater-2]

I am curious (not being a pensioner or on any government assistance))...

If a person on a disability pension and living overseas.....if they have a health problem can they get on a plante to access medicare here?

A person on an aged pension living overseas......how long are they required to work in Australia before they reach the pension age and claim the aged pension?

[cherry*135]

Residence requirements for Disability Support Pension

To be eligible for Disability Support Pension you must satisfy residence requirements. You must:

be an Australian resident, and
be physically present in Australia on the day you lodge your claim
You also need to have been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least 10 years, or for a number of periods that total more than ten years, with one of the periods being at least five years, unless:

you are a refugee or former refugee, or
your inability to work or blindness happened while you were an Australian resident, or
you were a dependent child of an Australian resident at the time your inability to work or blindness happened and you became an Australian resident while you were a dependent child
You may need to meet the above residence requirements for as long as you get this payment.

If you have lived or worked in a country with which Australia has an international social security agreement, it may help you meet these residence requirements.

[cherry*135]

The aged pension eligibility for how many years you have to live here first is very complicated and needs to be addressed on each individual.. How long , what country they came from, if they are going to live in another country when retired etc..

Can be 30 years.

A DSP person living overseas coming back to Australia for medical treatment.. Not sure. They would be Australian citizens to be eligible for the DSP. Whether they would still be eligible for a medicare card if they lived oseas permanently would be the issue.

[cherry*135]

Maybe not.

Eligibility for Medicare Card
Everyone who lives in Australia—excluding Norfolk Island residents—is eligible for a Medicare card if they:
hold Australian citizenship
..more

[lionrose.7]

You have to be a Australian Citizen to get the Australian old age pension, disability pension or any benefit, does not matter how long you have lived in Australia.

[lionrose.7]

Medicare card runs out after 3 month away from AUS

[cherry*135]

Yes, realise that, lion 🙂 assumed everyone knew that ( must be Aust citizen to get Govt pensions). If you are a citizen, but have only lived in Aust for 5 years before being eligible for Aged Pension, still wont be eligible for it, because of the no of years.

NZ'ers moving to Australia have not been entitled to any govt pensions here since Feb 2001. So none, on the Aust Govt DSP for the last 13 years.