Financial Care Services Newsletter

by Christine Hopper
Volume 12 Edition 11 – 30 November 2022

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

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card now available to more senior Australians

The Income Limit for holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card has been increased significantly.
This means that more Australian citizens and permanent residents could qualify for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

Benefits of holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

The main benefit of holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is access to PBS prescription medications at the ‘concession prices’.

Holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card pay the same ‘concession prices’ for PBS medications as Centrelink Pensioners.
In practice, the ‘concession price’ could be around $30 cheaper than the ordinary PBS price for that medication.
You need to show your Commonwealth Seniors Health Card to your pharmacist to claim the ‘concession price’ on your PBS prescriptions.

Another benefit of holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card could be access to bulk billed radiology for some conditions.
You always need to ask about the ‘out of pocket’ amount before you have your radiology services.
You could be pleasantly surprised when your Commonwealth Seniors Health Card generates a lower ‘out of pocket’ amount.
You might be ‘bulk billed’, that is, no ‘out of pocket’ amount for some services.
But please do not fracture your bones just to get the radiology services bulk billed.

The other benefit of holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is the possibility of occasional payments from Centrelink.

For example, holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card received the lump sum ‘economic support payments’ provided by the Commonwealth during the covid period.

Eligibility Tests for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is subject to an Age Test, an Income Test and a Residency Test.
But there is no ‘asset test’ for claiming a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card from Centrelink.

Age Test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

You must have attained your Age Pension Age before you could be issued with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
You could lodge your Claim for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card a few months before you reach your Age Pension Age.

If you were born before 1957, your Age Pension Age could be no higher than 66 years and 6 months.
Anyone born after 1956 would have an Age Pension Age of 67 years.

Residency Test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

The Residency Test requires that claimants and ongoing holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card must be Australian residents.
You must actually be living in Australia to have a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

The Residency Test for new claims for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is that you have lived in Australia for at least four years as an Australian citizen or ‘permanent resident’ of Australia.

Income Test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

The Income Test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card requires that your ‘adjusted taxable income’ for each financial year is not more than the limit for your personal circumstances.

The Income Limits for the Income Test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card increased significantly as from 4 November 2022.

A single person could now have an ‘adjusted taxable income’ of not more than $90,000 without being excluded by the Income Test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

Members of a couple at Centrelink could have a total combined ‘adjusted taxable income’ of $144,000 without being excluded by the Income Test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
Remember, at Centrelink a ‘couple’ is any two adults who share domestic arrangements and present socially as a couple.

Adjusted Taxable Income for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Income Test

The ‘adjusted taxable income’ used for both new claimants and ongoing holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is your actual taxable income as reported on your Income Tax Assessment plus some adjustments.
The ‘adjustments’ are mainly aspects of your income which are not counted for ‘taxable income’.
Below are some examples of the more common ‘adjustments’, these are not the only adjustments that could apply to you.

Foreign income is counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’

Any foreign income that is not taxable in Australia is counted as part of your ‘adjusted taxable income’.
You might be collecting rent from a property you own overseas or a retirement pension accrued when you were working in another country.

For example, Sue worked in Britain for many years before immigrating to Australia.
Sue paid her British National Insurance Contributions and now collects a small British Pension.
The Australian dollar equivalent of her British Pension must be included in Sue’s ‘adjusted taxable income’.

Net Investment losses are added back into your ‘adjusted taxable income’

Any investment losses offset against actual taxable income are added back into your ‘adjusted taxable income’.
You need to separately report your ‘net rental property losses’ and your ‘net financial investment losses’ on the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Claim form.

You would have collated the necessary information about your net losses as part of your annual income tax reporting.

Employer provided benefits over $1,000 per year, are counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’

You, or your domestic partner, might receive significant additional ‘fringe benefits’ as part of your work remuneration The value of these fringe benefits would be counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’.

For example, Mary works at a hospital in a regional area.
Mary is provided with housing at a reduced rent together with a mobile phone which she may use for personal calls.
The annual value of these employer provided fringe benefits must be recorded in Mary’s ‘adjusted taxable income’.

Non-compulsory superannuation contributions are counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’

If you or your partner, are still active in the workforce you might choose to have part of your remuneration paid as superannuation contributions.
Your ‘adjusted taxable income’ would then include the ‘additional’, or ‘non-compulsory’ part of the superannuation contributions that your employer pays.

The compulsory Superannuation Guarantee contributions are not counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’.
But if you ask to have some of your remuneration paid as superannuation rather than ordinary taxable salary then the additional part would be treated like ‘salary’ for your ‘adjusted taxable income’ calculation.

Deemed income on your allocated pension accounts is counted in your ‘adjusted taxable income’

The ‘deemed financial income’ from your own or your partner’s, account based income stream, transition to retirement account or allocated pension account is counted as part of your ‘adjusted taxable income’.

You must tell Centrelink the latest balance in each of your allocated pension accounts.
Centrelink could then calculate your deemed financial income for inclusion in your ‘adjusted taxable income’.

How to Claim the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

Complete and sign the Centrelink form to claim a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

To claim the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card you must complete and sign the Centrelink form “SA296 Claim for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card”.
Your signed form must be submitted to Centrelink together with your supporting documents.

Remember to insert details of your partner if you live with a spouse or domestic partner

Remember if you have a domestic partner, Centrelink would treat you as ‘partnered’ and apply the couples means tests when assessing your Claim for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
Therefore, you must insert your partner’s details into your Claim form even if your partner is not yet eligible to hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

If your domestic partner also satisfies the age and residency criteria for holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card then you could spare yourselves unnecessary Centrelink challenges by using the one copy of form SA296 to jointly claim the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

Insert your CRN

Every Centrelink form requires your Centrelink Customer Reference Number “CRN”.
Each Centrelink claimant must show Centrelink documents that ‘prove identity’ as an Australian citizen or long-term permanent resident of Australia, who has attained the minimum age for the benefits being claimed.

The easy way to ‘prove identity’ is to visit a Centrelink office and show a current Australian passport and a current Driver Licence together with a printout of a recent bank account transaction statement.

The other way to ‘prove identity’ is to locate enough original supporting documents from the Centrelink lists to support your identity as a real Australian.

Complete the personal information sections

You must answer every question.
Then choose your income reporting year and insert your data for the ‘adjusted taxable income’ calculation.

Help is available if you are not confident to complete your Claim form yourself.

Christine Hopper at Financial Care Services helps clients to complete their Centrelink forms.
Call Christine on 03 9808 0338 to make an appointment for help with claiming the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
Christine could check that you could qualify for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
Then together we could fill in the forms for you to sign.

Include details of your superannuation income streams on your Claim form

Question 73 of the form to claim a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card asks if you have an ‘account based income stream’.
‘Account based income stream’ is ‘Centrelink speak’ for superannuation ‘allocated pension account’ and ‘transition to retirement accounts’.

To answer Question 73 you need the correct name of the superannuation fund that pays your allocated pension and your membership number for that fund.
You might not have a membership number if you have a self-managed superannuation fund.

Question 73 then requires you to obtain from the administrator of each superannuation fund that pays you an allocated pension, a statement of your benefits in the format of a Centrelink form SA330.
If you have a self-managed superannuation fund SMSF, then ask your SMSF administrator to provide you with a SA330 statement.
If you are paid from an industry or corporate superannuation fund then you could contact their member services team to ask for a SA330 statement.

Sign the Declaration and submit your Claim for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

You must personally sign a printed copy of your Claim for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Centrelink form SA296.
If you completed the website version of the SA296 form you must print out your completed form and sign the printout in ink.
Then you may scan and submit your Claim online via your MyGov account.

The alternative is to start with a paper form and write all of your answers in ink.
If you have already have your CRN then you could mail your Claim plus attachments to Centrelink.

Visit Centrelink to prove identity and submit your Claim for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

Once you have completed your Claim form and collected the SA330 for each of your allocated pension accounts then you are ready to submit your Claim.
You could visit a Centrelink office to prove your identity and submit your Claim.
“I am here to prove identity” is usually a sufficient reason for you to meet a real Centrelink officer.

Help with checking your situation against the qualification and means tests.

Christine Hopper helps clients check their situation against the residency and means tests for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and other Centrelink administered benefits.

Contact Christine for the relevant Financial Care Services data form to prepare for your ‘personal financial factual information‘ consultation with Christine.
You will also receive the Client Services Guide for Christine Hopper that gives you essential information about how Christine works with her clients.

You could then meet with Christine to look at your personal situation.
Christine could explain how Centrelink could calculate ‘income’ for your situation.

If the means tests would exclude you from any Pension then you could consider a Low Income Health Card and/or a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
You could ask Christine for the Financial Care Services Commonwealth Seniors Health Card illustration data form to help you collect the data needed to estimate your ‘adjusted taxable income.’.

A younger partner might be eligible for a Low Income Health Card when the older partner has an Age Pension or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

If you have not been excluded by the age or residency qualifications and you hope that the means tests would not exclude you then you could apply for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card or an Age Pension.

Christine helps clients to complete the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and Age Pension Claim forms.

Christine at Financial Care Services your independent adviser

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

Christine at Financial Care Services is here to answer your Health Card and 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.

Assistance with completing Age Pension, Low Income Health Card and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Claims and the Commonwealth aged care means testing forms is available to clients of Christine at Financial Care Services.

Christine charges fees based on the work involved in advising you about health cards, 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.
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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 info@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.