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Is it time to apply for the Age Pension?

On 1 February 2019, many people will turn 65 years and 6 months. Why is this important? For those people who turn 65 years and 6 months, it means they have reached age pension age.

Just over 70% of these people will be eligible for either a full age pension or a part age pension. The first step in the process is applying for the age pension – sounds simple doesn’t it?

A person’s age pension entitlement is based on, not only their age, but also on their personal situation, their income and assets.

Regardless of what we may think, the government is not aware of many aspects of your financial position. This means you need to complete an Application for Age Pension which consists of 25 pages and asks a total of 94 questions. In addition to this form, you also need to complete an ‘Income and Assets form (Form SA 369)’, which consists of 18 pages and 60 questions.

Depending on the answers you give to the questions asked on the Income and Assets form, you may have additional forms which you need to complete.

Sounds like a very long and exhausting process. The good news is that you do not have to wait until you turn 65 years and 6 months to apply for the age pension. You can lodge your claim 13 weeks before you turn the qualifying age, which means for those people who turn 65 years and 6 months on the 1 February 2019, you can lodge your application on the 2 November 2018.

Once you have completed the required forms, you can lodge the application in several ways:

  1. Online via your ‘myGov’ account. This needs to be linked to your Centrelink account which you need to set up with your Customer Reference Number (CRN).  If you have received payments from Centrelink previously you will have a CRN. If not you will need to apply to Centrelink for a CRN.  Centrelink will also need to confirm your identity before you set up your account.
  2. Via post to the Department of Human Services in Canberra. If you choose this method I would suggest photocopying all the documents you intend on posting and using registered mail to ensure you have a record of the application being sent.
  3. Lodge your application in person at your local Centrelink service centre.

To assist you in this entire process there is another form Ci006 ‘Information you need to know about your claim for Age Pension’, I also suggest a visit to the Department of Human Services website is a must – https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/age-pension

If this all appears a little daunting, talking to an expert and paying them for their assistance could be the best option.

 

Source:  Mark Teale | Centrepoint Alliance

How expensive is retirement?

When talking about the costs of living in retirement, we refer to the figures published by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, known as the ASFA Retirement Standard. The latest figures for the June 2018 quarter have just been released. They show a small increase in the overall costs of living in both the ‘modest’ and ‘comfortable’ lifestyles for retirees.

The budgets published assume that a retiree owns their own home and is otherwise free of all debts, including car loans, credit, and store card debts.

The figures provided by ASFA are a guide.

How do the latest figures stack up? I have included the full rate of age pension for a comparison.

 

The figures shown are for a full year.

Notwithstanding health and aged care costs, as people age, their living costs tend to reduce. ASFA estimates that for a single person, or couples, their living costs will reduce by around $2,000 per year, or $4,000 for a couple living a comfortable lifestyle, from around the age of 85.

For those of us approaching retirement, the big question is: ‘how much money do I need to support my preferred lifestyle?’

ASFA has estimated the amount of money that you will need to have available to fund the retirement lifestyles.

For those living a modest lifestyle, and assuming they don’t have significant investments and other assets, will generally qualify for the full rate of age pension. That being the case, both a single person and a couple will only need around $70,000 of investable funds to make up the shortfall over the age pension.

Anyone aspiring to live a comfortable lifestyle is going to need more.

Whether savings are held in superannuation, or invested outside super, a much larger sum will be required to support the lifestyle. As savings increase, the rate of age pension reduces due to the impact of the assets test.

A single person will need around $545,000 of investable funds, and a couple will need $640,000 between them if seeking a comfortable retirement lifestyle. If a couple has $640,000 in super and their other assessable assets were relatively modest, they would still receive around $12,750 of age pension between them. They would, therefore, be drawing down approximately $47,850 from their super each year to support a comfortable lifestyle.

However, a single pensioner with $545,000 in super will not qualify for any age pension. Therefore, they will be relying on their own resources to provide for their retirement income.

Living in retirement is all about choices.

These choices will often be influenced by the decisions we make during our working life. Whether we choose to save and put more money in super or spend everything we earn on our journey towards retirement, will dictate what our retirement will look like. Sadly, many people find that once they retire, there simply isn’t enough money to allow them to live the lifestyle they have always dreamed of.

 

 

Source:  Peter Kelly | Centrepoint Alliance

Age Pension and the question of residency

To qualify for an age pension, you first need to reach the necessary qualifying age, which depends on the year you were born.

You also need to be an Australian resident. According to the Social Security Act, this requires you reside in Australia and be either an Australian citizen or the holder of a permanent visa.

In addition to residing in Australia when you apply, you also need to have resided in Australia for a continuous period of 10 years or have resided in Australia for several periods that total more than 10 years with at least one of these times for a continuous period of 5 years.

For those people who may not necessarily have the required period of Australian residency, there is one further avenue available to assist you in qualifying. This will depend on whether you have previously resided in a country that Australia has an International Social Security Agreement.

What is an International Social Security Agreement?

They are international treaties which modify the social security law of the countries which have entered into the Agreement, enabling the special provisions of the Agreement to override the social security legislation in certain situations.

Australia’s Agreements are based on the principle of shared responsibility. That is, each country pays a benefit which reflects the person’s association with that country’s social security system.

These Agreements improve social security for people who move between countries, particularly the following groups of people:

  • those in Australia and the Agreement country who do not otherwise meet minimum residence and/or contribution requirement for pension from either or both social security schemes;
  • those in the Agreement country who qualify for an Australian pension but cannot claim one because they are not an Australian resident

Australia has Social Security Agreements with 16 countries, which include Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

What does this all mean?

For example, if an individual has lived in Australia for a period of seven years and has reached the appropriate qualifying age pension age, they would not be entitled to the age pension because they haven’t met the necessary residence requirements. However, if they also have five years of contributing to (say) the Italian social security system, these two periods can be combined, and they would meet the residence qualification for an Australian age pension under the Social Security Agreement that Australia has with Italy.

Be careful as not all Agreements are the same and years of residence in another country, even if Australia has an Agreement with the country, may not count in the same way as the Italian Agreement used in this example.

The Agreements don’t allow someone who has lived overseas for many years to return to Australia and claim an Australian age pension, and then return to their actual place of residence overseas and continue to receive the Australian age pension, regardless of how long they may have lived and worked in Australia before moving overseas.

 

Source: Mark Teale | Centrepoint Alliance

Budget 2018 – What does it all mean?

What does this year’s budget have to offer?

With a federal election clearly in the wind, the budget contained a little bit of something for almost everyone.

Unlike the 2016 budget that included massive changes to super, this year’s budget was a lot lighter in terms of super announcements. However, there were a few including:

  1. Allowing people aged between 65 and 74 to make voluntary contributions super in the year after they cease working, without having to meet the work test. This will apply from 1 July 2019.
  2. Increasing membership of self-managed super funds from four to six, from 1 July 2019.
  3. Moving to a three-year audit cycle for SMSFs with good record keeping and compliance history. This will commence from 1 July 2019.
  4. The ability for younger people and those with less than $6,000 in super to opt-in for life insurance cover inside their super. This differs from the current system where they have to opt-out if they don’t want life cover.
  5. Some relief from the risk of breaching the concessional contribution cap for people earning more than a combined $263,157 from more than one employer.

The budget also contained some immediate tax relief for low to middle-income earners with the introduction of a Low to Middle Income Earners Tax Offset of up to $530. This will apply from 1 July 2018 and will be paid as a lump sum at the end of the financial year once an income tax return has been lodged.

There will be tax cuts across the board, however, significant changes, particularly for higher income earners, won’t come in to effect until 1 July 2024.

On the good news front, the planned increase in the Medicare Levy that was due to come in from 1 July 2019 is no longer proceeding.

The big winners from the budget were older Australians with considerable funds being directed to the delivery of residential and in-home aged care services.

The budget makes proposed changes to the Pension Work Bonus to take effect from 1 July 2019, which allows people to earn more from employment and self-employment in retirement without it affecting their age pension, and an expansion of the Pension Loans Scheme. The Pension Loans Scheme enables people to access a government-sponsored reverse mortgage scheme to top up their pension payments.

 

Source:  Peter Kelly | Centrepoint Alliance

A comfortable retirement: what and how achievable is it?

According to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) numbers, released for the September 2017 quarter, a couple will need $60,457 per annum to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, assuming they own their own home and have no debt and a single person would need $44,011 per year.

So how can the income required for a comfortable retirement be funded, and how much should be put aside each year prior to retirement to accumulate the funds required to fund a comfortable retirement?

Funding a comfortable retirement

ASFA calculates that $640,000 is sufficient to fund a comfortable retirement lifestyle. Their calculations assume a couple owns their own home and will receive Government age pension support when they retire.

It is assumed that $640,000 is held in a superannuation fund and used to commence an account-based pension. However if the funds were held outside super in joint names, there wouldn’t be any significant change in the outcome, as the couple are unlikely to pay any income tax on the portfolio returns. It is also assumed that the couple’s home contents and car are valued at $25,000.

The couple, both aged 67, would only draw what they need from their superannuation account-based pension to top up their age pension income to the required level for a comfortable retirement. The level of income needed, based on ASFA’s model, decreases from approximately $60,000 per year prior to age 85, to approximately $55,000 per year – this reflects a relatively less active lifestyle as age increases.

Although their age pension entitlement is just $12,000 (approx.) per annum in the first year, that entitlement grows over time as their assets reduce – the couple become entitled to the full age pension from age 91.

This analysis indicates that the income needed could be maintained until age 99, well beyond the life expectancy of a 67 year old female (age 87.3 years) or male (age 84.6 years). The couple’s account-based pension would run out by age 101.

This outcome is sensitive to the earnings rate assumption (6.7 per cent per annum). ASFA’s assumption of 7.0 per cent per annum increases the age to which the income level can be maintained by a year, to age 100.

Other sensitive assumptions include the amount of non-financial assets ($25,000) and financial assets, for example cash holdings ($nil). These assumptions may affect the couple’s age pension entitlement, hence the amount of pension payments that need to be drawn from the account-based pension. Note that financial assets may have a net positive impact due to the additional income produced.

Saving for a comfortable retirement

Taking ASFA’s numbers ($640,000 for a couple, $545,000 for singles) as appropriate funding targets, then a natural question is:

How much should be saved each year to reach the relevant funding target?

We are focusing on a single person reaching the $545,000 (in today’s dollars) funding goal by age 67, which is the Government age pension eligibility age for those born on or after 1 January 1957.

A key feature of retirement funding for Australian employees is the compulsory superannuation contributions employers are required to make on behalf of certain employees – the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) system.

The current SG rate is 9.5 per cent of an employee’s Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE). Generally, OTE relates to ordinary hours (excluding overtime), and includes commissions, shift loadings and certain allowances. The 9.5 per cent rate will increase by 0.5 per cent per annum from 2021 to 2025, ultimately to 12 per cent.

The Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) for the October 2017 quarter was $1,567.90 or $81,755 per year. In our modelling we have used $80,000 per year. Employees with this amount of income will have SG contributions of 9.5 per cent ($7,600 per year, paid quarterly) paid by their employer to a superannuation fund. These contributions are generally taxed at 15 per cent, so $6,460 is available to be invested by the superannuation fund each year.

Table 1 below shows that a 30 year old with earnings of $80,000 per year may accrue $536,000 in superannuation between now and retirement at age 67 from their future SG contributions alone, assuming no breaks in their employment. This amount is only slightly short of the comfortable retirement target of $545,000.

Table 1: future SG contributions accrual to age 67

Current age Current Ordinary Time Earnings
$40,000 $80,000 $120,000
       
20 $419,000 $837,000 $1,256,000
30 $268,000 $536,000 $804,000
40 $159,000 $319,000 $478,000
50 $81,000 $163,000 $244,000
60 $25,000 $51,000 $76,000

 

Table 2 below shows the amount the same individual in Table 1 would need to contribute to superannuation on an after-tax basis (non-concessional contributions) to reach the funding target of $545,000, assuming they have nothing in super currently. The 30 year old individual considered above would need to contribute only $124 per annum

Table 2: After-tax super contributions per annum to reach retirement goal at age 67

Current age Current Ordinary Time Earnings
$40,000 $80,000 $120,000
       
20 $1,109
30 $3,773 $124
40 $8,723 $5,114 $1,495
50 $20,024 $16,506 $12,988
60 $64,940 $61,765 $58,587

These charts show that many Australians may be in a position to achieve a comfortable retirement, based on ASFA’s definition and assumptions. The Australian Superannuation Guarantee system is a significant part of achieving this outcome, which relies on the currently legislated increases in the SG rate to 12 per cent.

Before making any financial decisions you should seek personal financial advice from an Australian Financial Service licensee.

 

 

Source:  Macquarie