Are there any Australians receiving an Age Pension living Cyprus
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Hi to any fellow Australian Pensioners living in Cyprus.
Not sure if there are any. We will be when we move over next March but in case there are any effected Aussies the following is taken from a series of Newspaper articles on the OLD AGE PENSION subject & you may find them of interest. If it affects you please write a letter of protest to the Australian Government in support of getting a more realistic pension.
Cheers & looking forward to joining you all next March.
Ann
Aged pensioners need help now: Labor MP
September 9, 2008, 10:44 am
Labor backbencher in pension revolt
September 9, 2008, 7:37 am
I could not survive on pension: Gillard
September 8, 2008, 12:57 pm
NSW Premier may reform govt departments
September 8, 2008, 2:17 pm
Opposition calls for immediate pension boost
September 8, 2008, 1:50 pm
A federal Labor MP has broken government ranks by suggesting aged pensioners need immediate help.
The government is delaying a decision on providing seniors with more financial assistance until its review of pensions and carers payments is finalised in February next year.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner have all admitted they couldn't live on the $546.80 a single pensioner receives each fortnight.
That payment will be adjusted for inflation on September 20.
But Mr Swan has ruled out a more significant increase until after the Henry review of taxes on work, investment, property, savings and consumption and their impact on individuals, families and retirees is handed down in February.
In the May budget, the government provided a $500 bonus and increased the utility allowance to help pensioners.
Queensland first-termer Brett Raguse says pensioners should need help now.
"The review on pensions is very important and I'd like to see it run its natural course," he told ABC Radio.
"But I think we probably have to give special attention to that group of people who are really feeling the pinch right now."
Australian Greens leader Bob Browns believes that the admissions by senior government ministers are "cruel".
"It's quite cruel of the ministers who recognise that they can't live on the pension, to say to pensioners across Australia, you can wait another nine months in a situation we wouldn't contemplate being in ourselves," Brown told Sky News Tuesday.
"That's not what representative democracy is about.
"The government can afford it ... it has in this current budget signed up to a $30 billion cut in income taxes for people who are much better off than pensioners."
Meanwhile, former Australian Democrats leader and Labor MP Cheryl Kernot has entered the debate over pensions, saying that Australia compares badly to the UK.
Ms Kernot, who has just returned to Australia after five years in the UK to take up a social studies role at the University of New South Wales, said Australian politicians are dismissive of pensioners.
"They think pensioners are powerless," Ms Kernot told ABC Radio in Brisbane.
"I heard about a month ago a pensioner crying on late night radio.
"He said if he didn't have his son to support him he couldn't live, and I just thought: In this country, when I look out the window here and I see the homes and the cars and the standard of living here it is not OK that pensioners should struggle to go to the dentist - they can't afford to go to the doctor if they can't find bulk billing.
"That's not what we're about in Australia."
She said British pensioners fared better.
"In the UK you don't have to think if you can go to the doctor, or the dentist ... there's a different level of, I think, a social contract in the UK."
Ms Kernot said retirees in Australia, and those about to retire, needed help.
"There is one generation that has not had the opportunity to invest in superannuation, and it's those people who are at the end (of their careers) and about to retire, and on the pension now," she said.
"I think they have a right to some decent way of living with dignity."
I could not survive on pension: Gillard
September 8, 2008, 12:57 pm
AAP © [Enlarge photo]
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Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard admits she couldn't survive on the age pension.
On Sunday, Treasurer Wayne Swan admitted he couldn't survive on the aged pension but ruled out any significant increase until next year.
From September 20, the single aged pension will be around $560 a fortnight, an amount which Mr Swan said was "totally inadequate".
In recognition of that, the government provided a $500 bonus and increased the utility allowance in last year's budget, he said.
Ms Gillard agreed that the pension was too low and like Wayne Swan, she could not live on it.
"No, I don't ... I would agree with Wayne Swan," Ms Gillard told reporters in Brisbane Monday.
"I think it's very tough for people to make ends meet on the single aged pension.
"They are obviously there facing cost of living pressures. We know the price of food has gone up. We know the price of oil has gone up."
Ms Gillard said the government had provided some relief in the May budget by delivering the cash bonus and utilities allowance to help pensioners with quarterly bills.
"And on September 20, we will deliver indexation to the pension which will give single pensioners around $15 more a week," she said.
But she acknowledged that even with the bonus relief payments, pensioners faced difficulties and cost pressures and further measures were being considered by the Henry commission of inquiry into tax.
Ms Gillard also laid some blame for pensioners' financial problems on the previous government.
"At the time of the Howard government, we did not see any profound changes in our pension system," she said.
"Pensioners, particularly single pensioners, have been doing it tough for a long period of time.
"That didn't start last November - it started a long period of time before that."
Pensioners living on dog food: Fielding
ABC - September 8, 2008, 9:35 am
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Family First Senator Steve Fielding says it is unacceptable for Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan to acknowledge that he could not survive on the pension and then refuse to immediately boost the payment.
Yesterday Mr Swan said the pension rate was totally inadequate but he ruled out increasing the payment until a Treasury review reports back by February next year.
Senator Fielding says it is not good enough and the pension should immediately be boosted by $70 a week.
"We've had pensioners ringing our office and tell us that they're living on dog food," he said.
"That's disgraceful given that these are fellow Australians and we all know the pension is too low.
"What the Rudd Government's response is, they're telling pensioners to stop complaining and wait around another 300 days before they get any increase."
_Just forgot to mention if any of you ever worked for any periods of your life in Australia & paid income tax then you could also be entitled to a part pension from Australia.
Centrelink (are responsible for all pensions) & they have a very informative web site including how you can claim a part or full Australian pension if moving to a country that has Bi-lateral Agreements with Australia. However the Australian pension is payable to you wherever you live in the world if you are entitled to it.
But as many of us have moved around during our working lives & have worked & paid taxes to several countries then you are entitled to claim a part payment from these other countries & this helps if you do not have full pensions from your own country. The Centrelink website is www.centrelink.gov.au & if you look you should find answers to your situation if not ask me & I will try & find an answer for you.
Cheers,
Ann09 Sep 2008, 04:28 ann
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