Centrelink

If you receive income support from Centrelink and pay rent to a private landlord for accommodation, you may qualify for rent assistance.  Rent assistance is paid in addition to a pension, allowance or benefit that you may receive.

You may qualify for rent assistance if you pay more than a certain amount for:

• rent (other than for public housing)
• fees paid for a caravan site or similar, which you occupy as your principal home
• service and maintenance fees in a retirement village (special rules apply)
• fees paid to moor a vessel you occupy as your principal home, or
• lodging (if you pay for board and lodging it is generally two thirds of the amount paid unless the payment for lodging is identifiable).

The type of concession card you may be eligible for will depend on how much income you earn and whether you are receiving income support payments from Centrelink.  There are many rules associated around who may qualify and we below table summaries the majority of situations where you may be eligible to receive one of these cards and the benefits included.

The main types of concession cards include:

• Pensioner concession card
• Low income health care card
• Commonwealth seniors health card

The pensioner concession card is automatically issued to Centrelink pensioners and is the most valuable of the cards, as it provides the greatest number of benefits and concessions.

The Low income health care card is not age based but is subject to an income test.

The Commonwealth seniors health card is available to self funded retirees who have reached age pension age and meet an income test.

Deeming is a set of rules Centrelink use to work out the income created from your financial assets. It assumes these assets earn a set rate of income, no matter what they really earn.

The deeming rates are different for single people and couples and are as follows:

Single

Couple

If you’re in a living arrangement with your partner and only one of you is eligible for the Age Pension, Centrelink will treat you as a couple and count your combined income and assets to determine how much age pension you are entitled to.  There are some assets which are not counted by Centrelink, which include your home and any money invested in superannuation where the owner is not of age pension age.

If you’ll be away overseas for longer than six weeks (for example, if you’re going on an extended trip or planning to move overseas permanently), then you must inform the Department of Human Services (via Centrelink).

You can continue to receive the base rate of the age pension while you are overseas but if you are away for an extended period of time, you may not be entitled to the pension supplement and energy supplement payments.

If you were born after 1 January 1957, you will be eligible for the age pension when you reach age 67.  If you were born before this date, the age you qualify depends on your date of birth:

The bring-forward rule allows you to bring forward two years of non-concessional cap therefore you can contribute a maximum non-concessional contribution of $300,000 (instead of the $100,000 annual cap).

To be eligible you must meet the following criteria:

• You must be under 65 at some point in the triggering year (there is legislation currently proposed to lift this age to under 67)
• Your total super balance at the beginning of that year must be at no greater than $1.5 million

The available amount and period of bring-forward is also determined by the value of your total superannuation balance:

• Total super balance greater than $1.6 million has no available non-concessional cap
• Total super balance between $1.5 million and $1.6 million has the standard cap of $100,000 and no bring forward period.
• Total super balance between $1.4 million and $1.5 million has a cap of $200,000 with a bring forward period of 2 years.
• Total super balance less than $1.4 million has a cap of $300,000 and a bring forward period of 3 years.
• The applicable total superannuation balance is measured as at 30 June of the previous financial year.