DSP IN AGREEMENT COUNTRIES

[baranghope]

The Oz Fed game is up . . . we can now say no DSPer can live indefinitely offshore in a non-Agreement country because of Centrelink's con with the JCA process. There is nothing left now but to canvass the politicians and media about the cruel and imprisoning residency factors . . . which in the present political climate will get nowhere.

There is one specific area though where Centrelink are vulnerable, very vulnerable, as they are reneging on the goodwill they have in mutual Social Security agreements with other countries. Incidentally, many of these countries, pay more into the Oz economy that Oz contributes to them, already.

Applicants who wish to repatriate to their SS Agreement country must now pass the JCA. MEANING THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LIVE ABROAD, PERIOD. This will mean Agreement countries will now get nothing in return from Australia. You cannot leave therefore Centrelink will not pay you offshore in an Agreement country. Whereas the Agreement country is still paying its expatriates. Kapisch?

So it strikes me the only way to attack the JCA process for portability applicants generally, is to point this inequity out to offshore Agreement countries. Australia has de facto broken its Agreements.

[Banjo]

You should certainly go down and see your local MP baranghope, I know of at least one other DSPoverseas member who has been giving Mr Butler a hard time...

[baranghope]

Yes, it is a no-brainer really. Until early this year CL had informed me that I was free to return to my birth nation and receive the full DSP having spent a working life period of over 30 years here. This appealed for two reasons: first, I was going to actually receive a higher DSP rate than the citizens there. But my main thought was my birth country (not having a strict imprisonment ethos) would not give a damn where I lived, and thereby I could dodge Centrelink and still go to a Non-Agreement country of choice to live. After all, almost all other countries have borders which you can go over and return from, without much cost. Not prison island.

I left my run too late. By about May 2012 CL shut the door, demanding that we now "apply" rather than just move . . . and UNDERGO A FULL MEDICAL REVIEW AND JCA. FURTHERMORE THEY CL DEMAND A "CERTIFICATE OF RESIDENCY" from the Agreement country. In other words, you cannot move because you cannot pass the JCA. And even if you did the gaolers here want to watch your every move overseas.

THIS IS PURE EVIL AND INSANE GIVEN THE GOODWILL OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY JOINT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS. Why not just tell the MP to read what I have written here and respond? Face to face meetings should not be required really. It will become patently obvious to offshore social welfare departments that Australia is reneging and trying to rort them.