Qualifying For the Australian Age Pension.

[Banjo]

Qualification for age pension

(1) A person is qualified for an age pension if the person has reached pension age and any of the following applies:

(a) the person has 10 years qualifying Australian residence;

(b) the person has a qualifying residence exemption for an age pension;

(c) the person was receiving a widow B pension, a widow allowance, a mature age allowance or a partner allowance, immediately before reaching that age;

(d) if the person reached pension age before 20 March 1997--the person was receiving a widow B pension, a widow allowance or a partner allowance, immediately before 20 March 1997.

www.austlii.com/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ssa1991186/s43.html


Take note, this clause does not say "ten years residence in total".
In Australia last year I talked to an adviser at Welfare Rights and said I might tell them to stick the DSP and try to go back to work outside of Australia and he said "Don't assume that the age pension qualification means ten years of the last ten, they can make it mean whatever they like".

Might be worth looking at a bit further...

[ronald55]

As far as I am aware a person receiving dsp transfers automatically to the age pension once they reach 65.

[Banjo]

From the Centrelink Website.

If you leave Australia
In most cases you can still receive Age Pension if you leave Australia.The rate of payment may vary after you have been outside Australia for 26 weeks.
If you are planning to travel outside Australia you should contact us to see if your payment will be affected.

[Banjo]

Apr 2, 2010 18:04:52 GMT 7 @ronald55 said:

As far as I am aware a person receiving dsp transfers automatically to the age pension once they reach 65.

From the Centrelink website.

The 10-year Australian resident requirement means you have been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least 10 years, or for a number of periods which total more than 10 years, with one of the periods being at least 5 years.