Hello

My husband and I have just been advised by centrelink that we are not entitled to receive the aged pension because we have too much assets in the form of money, over the $290,000 allowed savings sum. My question is when we live off our savings and deplete it to the allowed savings mount or less, will we then be entitled to receive the full aged pension?

Thank you
Vanessa

Hi Vanessa

Ok I would ask Centrelink to recheck your eligibility and you to have a look and make sure you are filing in the forms correctly.

Do you own a home?

Please check out the rates attached https://www.superguide.com.au/accessing-superannuation/age-pension-asset-test-thresholds

If you and Hubbie own a home then the limit for assets excluding the family home is $380k. Yes you can spend some money and even give some away. BUT will only allow for a certain percentage, I think 5%, to not be included in your assets. Example you have $500k and give away $150k hence you have $350k left and now under the limit. Centrelink would consider your assets value at $475k being a reduction of $25k being 5% ( do not quote me I am not %100 sure but it is something like that)

A financial planner would be a good start to have a chat.

Hope that helps.

AJ

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/gifting

the rule is (roughly) up to $30k over 3 years.

thats not to say you are not ALLOWED to give money away, however if you do, Centrelink will pretend that you still have it, and furthermore they will "deem" you to have earned income on it for the purposes of the income test.

so they get you either way.

the assets test is roughly $390k in assets OTHER than the family home for couples who are home owners. If you do not own your home the assets test is roughly $600k. So if you have $290k in cash you would likely be under this threshold.

but you may have other assets.....and here is a little tip for you: the value of your personal effects and household items is rarely what you think it is. REPLACEMENT COST and MARKET VALUE are two very different things.

maybe a good question for you is "what are you doing with your $290k??" if its in the bank earning 0.5% in a savings account then you are losing purchasing power every day, but its not likely to evaporate overnight in the event of a stock market crash either.

I would strongly recommend you talk to someone who can advise you on your options.....including things like:
1- Centrelink
2 - investment options
3 - risk management
4 - estate planning
5 - tax management
6 - super

good luck.

bc

Hi Vanessa,

This doesn't sound right.

If all you have is cash savings of $290,000 you should be entitled to the full age pension.

If you have assets outside of your family home (think car, caravan, boat, super, cash, household contents etc.) below $844,000 then you are at least entitled to a part age pension. The full age pension is payable on assets below $387,500. Assuming you own your own home.

Happy to have a chat with you over the phone so see if there is some way I can help.

Regards
James
03 9909 5800
james.wrigley@firstfinancial.com.au

HI Vanessa,

This doesn't sound correct. If you are a couple that own your own home, you can have assets of $387,500 before the age pension starts reducing and up to $844,000 to get a part age pension.

There might be other factors at play here such as the money is deemed to earn an income which pushes you over the income threshold, but on that amount of money, you would have to have other assessable income.

If you want to shoot me an email on glenn@precisionwm.com.au or call 1300 200 012, I get get your full income and assets and do a quick calculation for you to go back to Centrelink with.

To answer your question though, yes, if you are depleting your assets, you can always go back to centrelink to be reassessed. You need to have spent the money though, not given it away as there is fairly strict limits to how much you can give away (as Brendan has mentioned) under the gifting rules.

Cheers

Glenn