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.

[cherry*135]

Thanks purple, for that info. Need to know these things, not rely on media mistruths.

[izabsmiling]

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@lind9650 wrote:

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@lionrose.7 wrote:

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.

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If that is a fact, then Centerlink has some slack staff. I know of one person that is not an Australian Citizen. Never got naturalised and still spouts how proud he is of his nationality of his country of origin. He has been in Australia for 56 years and for most of the time avoided to pay taxes by being self employed and never claiming cash transactions, but he does receive the full Age Pension.

Erica

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Hi Erica,

It is not a fact.A few posts before lionrose.7 wrote this post which you are replying to you will see the word 'resident' .

An Australian resident of course being different to an Australian citizen.

[cherry*135]

You may want to read back to my post which gives the Centrelink definition for a resident, that cleared up the resident/ citizen issue that Crikey queried earlier on.

[cherry*135]

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@am*3 wrote:
Centrelink's definition of a 'resident'

Australian resident

An Australian resident is a person who is living in Australia and is either:

an Australian citizen
a permanent visa holder, or
a 'protected' Special Category Visa (SCV) holder

Special Category Visa (SCV) holder
People who arrive in Australia on a New Zealand passport are generally issued an SCV on arrival.
SCV holders who arrived in Australia after 26 February 2001 are generally considered to be 'non-protected

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A citizen (eligible for Govt pensions) who is also a resident (residing in Australia).

 It does matter who long non Australian born residents (citizens) have lived in Australia when it comes to the Aged Pension.

[spotweldersfriend]

That's no camera paintsew.That's Keith Richards:)

[izabsmiling]

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@am*3 wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:
Centrelink's definition of a 'resident'

Australian resident

An Australian resident is a person who is living in Australia and is either:

an Australian citizen
a permanent visa holder, or
a 'protected' Special Category Visa (SCV) holder

Special Category Visa (SCV) holder
People who arrive in Australia on a New Zealand passport are generally issued an SCV on arrival.
SCV holders who arrived in Australia after 26 February 2001 are generally considered to be 'non-protected

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A citizen (eligible for Govt pensions) who is also a resident (residing in Australia).

 It does matter who long non Australian born residents (citizens) have lived in Australia when it comes to the Aged Pension.

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Aged Pension 

Eligibility Basics

Australian resident

An Australian resident is a person who is living in Australia and is either:

• an Australian citizen
• a permanent visa holder, or
• a 'protected' Special Category Visa (SCV) holder

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/residence-descriptions

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

• an Australian resident on the day you lodge your claim, 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
• were getting Partner Allowance, Widow Allowance or Widow B Pension immediately before turning Age Pension age, or
• are a woman whose partner died while you were both Australian residents, and you have been an Australian resident for two years immediately before claiming Age Pension

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.

 http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/age-pension

[spotweldersfriend]

I didn't read the OP until just now.The Morning Show and Newscorp.Two very distinguished news gathering entities*. By the way how do they come to this conclusion?.Have they an army.of intrepid reporters scouring the globe,looking for Australians on crutches? In others words the story is just that.A story


*sarcasm.

[cherry*135]

It is a just a story. A tall story. IF some DSP beneficiaries were charged and convicted of receiving benefits they are not entitled too, then they could report those facts in a story.