Volume 10 Edition 5 Financial Care Services Newsletter

Volume 10 Edition 5 – 29 May 2020

online at https://financialcareservices.com.au/vol-10-ed-5

Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles

Pensioner Concession Card benefits

Government funded Pensioner Concession Card benefits

Pensioner Concession Cards are issued to people receiving long term ‘income support benefits’ from the Commonwealth via Centrelink or DVA.
The Commonwealth provides most of the funding for the concessions that State and Municipal authorities provide to Pensioner Concession Cards holders.

Here is my list of the government funded benefits for holders of the Pensioner Concession Card.
As you scan the list below you might realise that the Pensioner Concession Card offers substantial savings on basic costs of living in retirement.

Please remember that Christine at Financial Care Services does not have a Pensioner Concession Card so she does not know every concession that you can get with it.

You could help complete the list with other government funded concessions that you have used.

Many private businesses also choose to offer Pensioner Discounts.

The Commonwealth government provides Concession prices for PBS medicines.

The main benefit that Pensioner Concession Card holders obtain directly from the Commonwealth is the higher Concession rates of subsidy under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)

Pensioner Concession Card holders purchase PBS medicines at Concession rates generally $6.60 per prescription.
Pensioner Concession Card holders who have reached their Safety Net receive ‘free’ PBS medicines for the remainder of that Safety Net year.

Beware you could be asked to pay more than the PBS price if you are provided with a more expensive medicine than the basic version of what your doctor prescribed for you.

Australia Post offers Pensioner Concession Card holders

• Postage concession stamps
• Mail redirection fee concessions

Pensioner Concession Card benefits for Victorian residents

Victorian State based concessions for Pensioner Concession Card holders

Stamp duty concession on transfer of a modestly priced residential property.
Beware other States offer none or very different stamp duty concessions to Pensioner Concession Card holders.

Vic Roads concessions on
• Driver Licence renewal
• Motor vehicle registration
• Transport Accident Commission (TAC) levy collected with your motor vehicle registration

Fire Services Levy concessions, collected with your Municipal Council Rates

Access to ‘community health services’
for dental and ongoing allied health treatments at ‘concessions prices’

Concession fares on public transport: suburban trains, trams and buses

Your local Municipal Council provides concessions on
• Municipal Council Rates on your home, but not your holiday house
• Domestic animal registration fees
• Gym memberships and swimming pool entry fees at ‘public’ facilities

Ambulance Victoria ‘free’ emergency assistance and transport to a medical facility

Your local water authority concessions on
• Water and sewerage service charges, excluding usage related charges
• Parks levies collected by regional Water authorities

Basic utility connections from commercial providers for your home
• concessions on electricity charges
• Winter gas usage credit

Claiming the Pensioner Concession Card holders’ concessions

You must ask for the Pensioner Concession Card holders’ concession from each biller.

You might need to complete and sign a complex form to claim your Pensioner Concession from VicRoads or a Municipal Council. But other billers are happy to accept your details by phone and then check your eligibility with Centrelink.

Your regular billers might be willing to record your Pensioner Concession Card number and then check your continued eligibility before sending each bill. Your bills would then show where the Pensioner Concession amount has been deducted.

Remember, you can have your Pensioner discounts applied to your last twelve months of billings for each account if you forgot to quote your Pensioner Concession Card number when you first qualified for this account.
Beware, some billers require you to provide your Pensioner Concession Card details each time you need to pay them.

Who is eligible for a Pensioner Concession Card

Pensioner Concession Cards are issued to recipients of Centrelink Income Support benefits including
• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension
• Carer Payment, the means tested income support payment not just the $131.90 fortnightly Carer Allowance

Seniors who have attained age 60 years and been on ‘NewStart’ for at least 9 months are also given Pensioner Concession Cards.
Your NewStart benefit might now be called JobSeeker Payment or Sickness Allowance or Widow Allowance.

DVA issues Pensioner Concession Cards to recipients of Service Pensions and DVA Age Pensions.

DVA War Widows Pensions do not come with a Pensioner Concession Card. To be eligible for the Pensioner Concession Cards you must not be wealthy.

You are only issued with Pensioner Concession Card if you have some ‘Income support supplement’ attached to your ongoing DVA compensation income benefit. For example, a War Widow who has very little other income or assets could get some Income Support Supplement in addition to her War Widow compensation pension and thus be eligible for a Pensioner Concession Card.

Am I eligible for a Pensioner Concession Card

You could be eligible for an Age Pension and Pensioner Concession Card if you are a long term Australian resident who has attained age 66 years and you are not excluded by the Asset Test or the Income Test.

Read more about the Age Pension in the Financial Care Services Age Pension Guide

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 ‘$99 Special Age Pension Illustration Short Consultation’ with Christine Hopper of Financial Care Services.

If the Income and/or Assets Tests would exclude you from the Age Pension, Christine could help you check whether you would qualify for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. Alas holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card do not qualify for the full range of concessions that come with the Pensioner Concession Card.

Christine Hopper of Financial Care Services offers Short Consultations for ‘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 of Financial Care Services.

Alternatively you could search through the Centrelink website for clues about Pension rates and means tests then do the sums yourself.

Christine at Financial Care Services your independent adviser

Financial Care Services is an independent advisory service specialising in retirees of modest means and aged care entrants.
Our core values include working with clients in claiming DVA and Centrelink entitlements.

Financial Care Services is open again.
Christine is back in the office and ready to help you. Alas, Financial Care Services was unexpectedly closed for two weeks last month while Christine was gaining lived experience of the local acute and rehabilitation hospitals.

The team at Financial Care Services are here to answer your Age Pension questions and guide your understanding of aged care costs.

Help with Centrelink challenges is available from Christine Hopper at Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles.

Christine has neat handwriting just right for inserting your data into small printed spaces. She helps clients complete Centrelink forms.
Christine could help you with collating your supporting documents and then mailing your form to Centrelink.

Christine charges fees based on the work involved in advising you about pensions and aged care fee solutions.

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.

______________________________

Christine Hopper
Financial Care Services Pty Ltd
Independent aged care, strategic lifestyle and Social Security advice for seniors in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Telephone – call +61 3 9808 0338
Email – contact info@financialcareservices.com.au
Address – mail to 172 Warrigal Road, Camberwell Victoria 3124
Website – visit financialcareservices.com.au
LinkedIn – connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinehopper1
LinkedIn Company – follow https://www.linkedin.com/company/financial-care-services/
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.