Financial Care Services Newsletter
by Christine Hopper
Volume 14 Edition 8 – 30 August 2024
Christine at Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles
Spring is coming together with another election season
Voting at Federal and State elections is both a privilege and the responsibility of every Australian citizen.
The local Council elections are scheduled over the next few months in many States.
Then we must have a federal election before June 2025, but possibly as early as October 2024.
You are responsible for your enrolment for your current residential address.
The Australian Electoral Commission “AEC”, maintains the electoral rolls and manages our elections.
Electoral districts are adjusted every few years to try to even up the numbers of voters in each electorate.
A small change in electoral district boundaries could reassign your home and hence your enrolment to a different electorate.
Updating your details to be on the electoral roll at your correct address
If you move home then it is your responsibility to re-enrol with the AEC, at your new residential address.
Therefore you need to re-enrol if you have entered a retirement lifestyle community village or adopted your former holiday house as your principal residence.
The change of address can be achieved online if you have a current Driver Licence.
Just go the AEC Change Address form. Update my details – Australian Electoral Commission (aec.gov.au)
If you are without a current Driver Licence then you can use your Passport number instead.
The form needs to be printed and signed with real ink if you are using your Passport for identification.
If you have neither a current Driver Licence nor a Passport, then you need to have your Change of Address form witnessed by another elector.
This option means that you need to print off the form and then sign your paper form and have another elector sign that they witnessed your signature.
Removing names from the electoral roll
While updating your own enrolment sounds straight forward removing someone’s name from the electoral roll is complicated because Australian citizens cannot exclude themselves.
The State Registrars of Deaths inform the AEC about people who die within Australia.
The family only need to report to the AEC if a citizen dies whilst travelling outside of Australia.
The easy way to inform the AEC of deaths whilst overseas is to use its Notification of Death form.
A more challenging situation arises when a family member is still breathing but no longer understanding what elections are about.
You need to print off the AEC form for removal of a name from the electoral roll. Objection claim that an elector should not be enrolled (aec.gov.au)
The AEC requires this form to be signed off by a medical practitioner who knows the person.
The doctor’s signature is mandated so that you cannot have great aunt Maud removed from the electoral roll to reduce the votes to her favourite political party.
Temporary jobs for election related tasks
A large temporary workforce is needed to make the election happen.
If you are still physically fit to stand or sit, for extended periods and you can lift 12 kg, then you might consider joining the AEC team for the election period.
Every polling place needs a team on Election Day.
Most team members work the full sixteen hours from 7 am set up until after vote counting and pack up is complete.
Additional team members could be required for the busy times when we choose to come and vote.
Longer periods of temporary work are available for the teams who provide for early voting.
Both the Early Voting centres and the mobile voting places that visit aged care facilities and retirement villages need team members for the fortnight before Election Day.
Great patience is required to help a vision impaired person navigate a polling place and the voting papers.
A huge Senate ballot paper is a challenge to anyone with low vision or less flexible fingers.
If you enjoy helping the less physically agile members of your community, you could consider working with these teams.
You could utilise part of your Age Pension Work Bonus credits to offset the Income Test impact of your election work earnings.
You could start your journey to temporary election work now at Up to 100,000 temporary election jobs available – Australian Electoral Commission (aec.gov.au)
Age Pension Work Bonus
The Age Pension Age is set as the minimum chronological age at which a typical senior is considered to be no longer able to work enough hours to generate the income needed for a modest standard of living.
But a senior is free to keep on working.
If you choose to continue in the paid workforce after you attain your Age Pension Age then the Income Test could reduce the amount of your Age Pension payment but you might be eligible for a part Age Pension.
The extra income that you and/or your partner, generate from work counts for the Age Pension Income Test.
But the Age Pension Work Bonus reduces the impact of your earnings from real personal exertion work, on your Age Pension payment rate.
Financial reward for personal exertion qualifies as Work Income
The Age Pension ‘Work Bonus’ can be utilised by Age Pensioners who generate income via personal exertion, that is, work for money.
Your work could be as an employee of your family business or an unrelated business, or you could work as a sole trader or consultant.
Some seniors return to their previous employers and work as ‘casuals’ or short-term contract employees to cover for busy spells and permanent employees taking leave.
Other seniors find new jobs with different employers.
Many seniors are self-employed working as sole traders or directors in their own private companies.
The self-employed could be gardeners, IT gurus, music teachers or any other service you choose.
Remember that you must declare your work income in your annual Income Tax Return to ATO, in addition to Centrelink income reports.
But managing your own, or your family’s, investments does not count as personal exertion work for Centrelink Work Bonus purposes.
Your Work Bonus Credits
New Age Pensioners after 2022 are credited with an initial Work Bonus Credit of $4,000.
Seniors who commenced Age Pension before 2023, were earlier credited with the $4,000 additional Work Bonus Credit.
Ongoing Age Pensioners are credited with $300 of Work Bonus each fortnight.
Thus, each Age Pensioner would be credited with $7,800 of Work Bonus over a Centrelink year of twenty-six fortnights.
Age Pensioners can ‘save up’ some Work Bonus to use later in the year.
You cannot have more than $11,800 of saved Work Bonus at any time.
This limit includes the $4,000 special Work Bonus credit each Age Pensioner was allocated in 2022, or their later Age Pension start date.
Utilising your Work Bonus credits
If you keep on working then over a Centrelink year of twenty-six fortnights, you could accrue $7,800 of Work Bonus.
You could use this accruing Work Bonus together with any Work Bonus ‘saved’ from last year to have some ‘work income’ excluded for Income Test purposes.
You could be earning ‘work income’ from working a few days each fortnight and/or working several days per week for a short period.
The regular Work Bonus credit allows for the first $300 per fortnight of income earned from ‘work’ to be excluded from your assessable income for the Age Pension Income Test.
You must report your employment income to Centrelink every fortnight.
Centrelink then check your total assessable income against the Age Pension Income Test.
If you have enough Work Bonus credits to cover your employment income for this fortnight then your employment income could be excluded from your assessable income for this fortnight.
Once you have used all of your accrued Work Bonus then you can only have the first $300 of employment income excluded from your assessable income for the Age Pension Income Test each fortnight.
Centrelink could allow a self-employed or sole trader, Age Pensioner to report their work income annually.
Centrelink could then spread the annual work income over the next Centrelink year of twenty-six fortnights, to derive your assessable income for the Age Pension Income Test.
Only that Age Pensioner worker can utilise the Work Bonus
Your Work Bonus cannot offset the ‘work income’ of your partner.
The Work Bonus can only be used to offset the ‘work income’ of that Age Pensioner.
If you and your partner are both Age Pensioners, you cannot have your partner’s Work Bonus to offset against your ‘work income’.
You can only have your own Work Bonus offset against your ‘work income’.
If your partner is a recent immigrant and/or too young for an Age Pension, then their work income counts in full for the Age Pension Income Test on your Age Pension.
Help to understand how your situation fits in the Age Pension system
The calculation of your Age Pension amount, if any, can be challenging.
The easy route is to ask for the Age Pension Illustration Personal Data form as a checklist of essential data and then arrange for a ‘Age Pension Illustration Short Consultation’ with Christine Hopper of Financial Care Services.
Christine at Financial Care Services writes these Newsletters.
She can help you to understand your Age Pension situation.
Christine Hopper of Financial Care Services offers ‘personal factual financial information’ in the form of an Illustration of the amount of Centrelink Age Pension you could receive today provided that you satisfied the age and residency conditions for a Centrelink Age Pension.
Contact Christine at Financial Care Services to obtain the Age Pension Illustration Personal Data form.
You will also receive our Client Services Guide that provides essential information about Christine Hopper at Financial Care Services.
Christine at Financial Care Services charges hourly rate fees for helping with Centrelink matters.
Alternatively you could search through the Centrelink website for clues about Pension rates and means tests then do the sums yourself.
To make an appointment for confidential, independent and professional advice about aged care, retirement lifestyle costs, granny flat or Age Pension issues please contact Christine Hopper or call +61 3 9808 0338.
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Christine Hopper
Financial Care Services
Independent aged care, strategic lifestyle and Social Security advice for seniors in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Telephone – call +61 3 9808 0338
Email – contact Christine@financialcareservices.com.au
Address – mail to 2B Thomas Street, Camberwell Victoria 3124
Website – visit financialcareservices.com.au
LinkedIn – connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinehopper1
Past newsletters – see http://financialcareservices.com.au/newsletters/
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Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is of a general nature only and does not constitute “financial advice”.
All eligibility for Commonwealth benefits will be determined by Centrelink or DVA, based on your personal position as documented and the legislation and Regulations in force at that time.
© 2024 Christine Hopper @ Financial Care Services. All rights reserved.