I was told of a sight run by some Australians its called D.S.P overseas , stands for Disability support equal rights as Australian citizens.I was shocked to see just how much centerlink has tightened up people on the eligibility to qualifyfor the disabality pension and the time they ,the time can spend out of the country,people are told now if they are O.S for more than 4 weeks their pension will stop and after 6 months it will be cancelled and you have to apply again. Their plan to have every one trying to find work or be retrained for another profession, Their is a way to get back your disability pension you have to return to Aus. and undergo a lot of tests to prove you are not fit to work in any field its not easy but i know a guy that did it and has earned the right to return and live here permitly. Myself and a few friends resently received a letter from centerlink stating their will be no changes to our age pension other than the 2 increases we recieve each year will be smaller.We are the lucky ones that got our approval years ago, when i got mine you only had to have worked and paid taxes in aus. for 16 years now its 32 years
I'm curious, did Australia have a "baby boomer" generation the same as the US? If so you should expect a lot more restrictions on retirement and disability payouts in the future. If your government was as stupid as the US and decided to use the retirement funds on other projects then your grandchildren are absolutely screwed. Single payer should have been done from the start...you get back what you put in. I wish that the current system will be around when it comes time for me to retire because I would be making out like a bandit when it comes time to collect due to a technicality that states your payout will be base off of your maximum contribution for any single year (meaning I could make 200k a year for one year....and then nada for the rest of my life and I would get the max benefits)....but it simply won't be around when I hit retirement age.
Ah! YES the changing World but.. Alex we are to blame ourselves, WE are living Too long. I Remember in the UK some 25 years ago the then Government warned that this would Happen, They (The Government) would run out of money and we should look to other means of provision in our old Age, For once How right they were. Many Many did not heed this warning and of course those are the ones that suffer now. As to Disability Payments, this has been an ongoing thing in many countries for years, The Scroungers and those that claim and are fit have made it Difficult for the Genuine claimant. When People Abuse a System, it is always the Genuine that pay the price. Is there no way round this with Hospital Authenticated Examinations and then your Embassy Authentication on this issue? Your 32 years in put brings you into line with many other countries so I am not surprised at that! After All you can only get out what you have put in and 16 years in this day and age is not long a bit like saying start work at 18 and you are eligible for a pension at 34 payable at 60/65 which ever. Not a viable thing really is it? not at today's prices. JP
YES Wrye83 we had the baby boomers and we did not have the infrastructure in place for our super annuation and when it did start rate of contribution was very low like 2% so we dont have a lot of self funded retiries in my age group 70 plus .They were to slow closing the gate many people the migrated to australia sponsored their parents and after 5 years they could go back to their own country and being australian citizens could get the benefits.They now say all that money is gone ,the Aus. ecomony has slowed down big time JACK your correct the system was abused in a big way and its been going on for years, it seemed that all the power to be wanted was to make un employment figures look good and they had things like mature age allowance that kicked in at age 55 and it was very easy to get, its gone all together now and the pension age will be 67 in the coming years . So now the government has the job of getting the system back in the black.
