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Post by Banjo on Jan 2, 2017 9:47:44 GMT 7
NATIONAL BREAKING NEWS
Call to restrict pension to the poorest
Senate crossbencher David Leyonhjelm wants Australians to drop their sense of entitlement to the aged pension.
The Liberal Democrats senator believes the pension should only be paid to poor people and claiming it should be "nothing to be proud of".
"The intention of the pension system is not to help you leave your money to your kids, you're supposed to sell down some of your assets," he told ABC Radio on Monday.
"Some people get very niggly about that."
His comments come in the wake of furore over the federal government's recent changes to the pension assets test which came into effect on Sunday.
The amount of assets (excluding the family home) someone can have before pensions are hit has increased but pensions will cut out more quickly for those with assets exceeding $375,000 for homeowner couples, $450,000 for single non-homeowners, and $575,000 for non-homeowner couples.
An estimated 330,000 Australians had their pensions cut and 90,000 of them lost it entirely after the tighter assets test came into force.
But 170,000 pensioners will get about $15 a week extra because their assets will no longer affect their pensions.
Labor opposed the pension assets test changes.
"Pensioners right across the country are going to have their household budgets cut," Opposition frontbencher Doug Cameron said in a statement.
The government argues that 90 per cent of pensioners will either benefit or be unaffected by the changes.
It reiterated the family home remains exempt.
Ashtralian
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 10:49:01 GMT 7
Yup, the bastards want to take/steal more, more & yet more, yet no mention of the filthy rich...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 11:14:07 GMT 7
Make the Politicians practice what the preach I bet they change their tune when it hits them Example Joe Hockey get A$360 000 As US Ambassador Then can still Get a A$99 000 Pension Am i missing something Here!!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 11:32:57 GMT 7
Isn't David Leyonhjelm the same bloke that left poor people in the lurch when his building company collapsed?
Or have I confused him with another honourable member? And so it continues, welcome to 2017.
Cheers bear
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 15:07:47 GMT 7
Xx Make the Politicians practice what the preach I bet they change their tune when it hits them Example Joe Hockey get A$360 000 As US Ambassador Then can still Get a A$99 000 Pension Am i missing something Here!! Double dipping!!
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Post by warren1969 on Jan 2, 2017 17:26:56 GMT 7
It’s so typical of the Political system of the current era that the Politician’s wail that we as a “Country” need to tighten our belts and do what is needed for our deficit and to bolster our budget so let’s do what’s right for all and then look at the double standard’s coming from the Politician’s within our country from all parties for that matter. They get life time Pensions that nobody can touch, they can access their Superannuation early unlike the general public where the age seems to be creeping further & further up. It’s time we tell them all enough is enough we the public are sick of it all.
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Post by nomadic on Jan 2, 2017 19:07:42 GMT 7
All here have known for years how they treat the poor. They want people to be ashamed of getting welfare when they get millions. How can 170,00 be better off? $15.00 a week extra is exactly the same as zero $. 3 pots of beer a week perhaps. No difference to overall standard of living. Beans on toast as usual for many. GGGRRRRing again.
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Post by krystal on Jan 10, 2017 13:37:44 GMT 7
"The intention of the pension system is not to help you leave your money to your kids, you're supposed to sell down some of your assets,".
Okay Mr Leyonhjelm, so you mortgage your house to fund your retirement.
This would mean that if every pensioner mortgage their house to fund their retirement (something they worked to buy their whole lives), instead of being able to leave it to their kids (fair split between 4 children?) and keeping the wealth within the middle class what ...
Wouldn't this mean that every mortgaged pensioners house would be owned by (depending on who holds the mortgage) the government, a bank or an investment company, the kids get nothing and then, in turn, have to find the money/get a mortgage to buy a house off the very same government, bank or investment company.
Well isn't that a fine little rort. You're not in the property market business by any chance are you?
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Post by Denis-NFA on Jan 10, 2017 14:58:32 GMT 7
Wouldn't this mean that every mortgaged pensioners house would be owned by (depending on who holds the mortgage) the government, a bank or an investment company, the kids get nothing and then, in turn, have to find the money/get a mortgage to buy a house off the very same government, bank or investment company. krystalBack when I was a 'wee laddie' somewhere back in the early 1980's I read a book by some subversive type that described us as Tax Slaves. Us being all normal people. Some folk invent or create 'things' that deliver to them enormous wealth. I actually do not care which political party is in office because at the end of the day they all seem to be turned by 'the dark side of the force'. Many, many years ago I came to a reaslisation that the pursuit of power is the most pernicious drug of all.
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Post by latindancer on Jan 10, 2017 15:37:12 GMT 7
Make the Politicians practice what they preach I bet they change their tune when it hits them. Example : Joe Hockey get A$360 000 As US Ambassador Then can still Get a A$99 000 Pension Am i missing something Here!! Apologies if this has been posted previously. It's an idea currently doing the rounds: This is one idea that really should be passed around because the rot has to stop somewhere. Proposals to make politicians shoulder their share of the weight now that the Age of Entitlement is over: 1. Scrap political pensions. Politicians can purchase their own retirement plan, just as most other working Australians are expected to do. 2. Retired politicians (past, present & future) participate in Centrelink. A Politician collects a substantial salary while in office but should receive no salary when they're out of office. Terminated politicians under 70 can go get a job or apply for Centrelink unemployment benefits like ordinary Australians. Terminated politicians under 70 can negotiate with Centrelink like the rest of the Australian people. 3. Funds already allocated to the Politicians' retirement fund be returned immediately to Consolidated Revenue. This money is to be used to pay down debt they created which they expect us and our grandchildren to repay for them. 4. Politicians will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Politicians pay will rise by the lower of, either the CPI or 3%. 5. Politicians lose their privileged health care system and participate in the same health care system as ordinary Australian people.i.e. Politicians either pay for private cover from their own funds or accept ordinary Medicare. 6. Politicians must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Australian people. 7. All contracts with past and present Politicians men/women are void effective 31/12/16. The Australian people did not agree to provide perks to Politicians,that burden was thrust upon them. Politicians devised all these contracts to benefit themselves. Serving in Parliament is an honour not a career. Our politicians should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
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Post by murphy on Jan 10, 2017 16:40:06 GMT 7
Haha Denis. They're all Sith.
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Post by clay on Jan 20, 2017 7:34:25 GMT 7
My first post as a brand new member - my wife and I are mid 70's, well within Assets test limits, we earn zero income except nominal fragments of interest that may not cover bank interest and account charges, have been surviving for years by selling down precious assets, have been waiting 4 months so far after applying for Aged Pensions. Waited way too long to apply. Centrelink have just asked for tax returns - but the ATO has told me early 2016 that we do not have to file tax returns anymore. I just wonder if anybody knows - does Centrelink have power to demand tax returns when the ATO does not require them to be filed?
Re David Leyonhjelm - those of us in NSW know at least one Senator NOT to vote for.
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Post by Banjo on Jan 20, 2017 12:41:02 GMT 7
Welcome to the forum Clay.
I was thinking similar thoughts about my 90 year old mother who sold up to go into a care facility and also cashed her super. The movement in her bank accounts will very possibly excite some Centrelink attention as well.
They can demand what they like and you have two or three weeks to either come up with it or explain why you haven't got it, in the meantime they will insist you start paying it back and then you have to get it back off them later.
I have a news article elsewhere from the dishonorable Allen Tudge explaining how good this is for the country and what a lot of whining wretches we all are.
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Post by Denis-NFA on Jan 20, 2017 15:36:50 GMT 7
My first post as a brand new member - my wife and I are mid 70's, well within Assets test limits, we earn zero income except nominal fragments of interest that may not cover bank interest and account charges, have been surviving for years by selling down precious assets, have been waiting 4 months so far after applying for Aged Pensions. Waited way too long to apply. Centrelink have just asked for tax returns - but the ATO has told me early 2016 that we do not have to file tax returns anymore. I just wonder if anybody knows - does Centrelink have power to demand tax returns when the ATO does not require them to be filed? Re David Leyonhjelm - those of us in NSW know at least one Senator NOT to vote for. clayC/Link do not have the 'power' to make you do a tax return. They do, of course, have the 'power' to make you produce a tax return. Technically that you earned interest income meant you should have filed a tax return even though, as you say, the amounts you earned were negligible. Do you still have the advice from the ATO releasing you from having to furnish a tax return?
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Post by Banjo on Jan 20, 2017 16:11:57 GMT 7
We've been over this before, each department works differently, that the ATO says you don't need to do a tax return will not mean that Centrelink wont say that they want to see one.
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