Financial Care Services Newsletter
Volume 11 Edition 2 – 27 February 2021
Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles
Would you like Rent Assistance with your Age Pension?
Rent assistance is an additional fortnightly payment from Centrelink for Pensioners who are not ‘homeowners’.
The amount of your Rent Assistance payment depends on who you live with and how much you pay each fortnight for your accommodation.
Who can be paid Rent Assistance?
To qualify for Rent Assistance you must be paying rent to a private landlord or community group. In practice, your landlord could be any person or business that provides you with a place to live.
For example, you could claim Rent Assistance when you lease a home-unit as your permanent residence. You would then have a lease agreement to show Centrelink as part of your Rent Assistance claim.
You could claim Rent Assistance if you pay a fee for board and lodgings.
Consider Sue who is permanent resident in a private seniors guest house, called a Supported Residential Service. Sue pays a weekly fee of $1,200 which covers her meals in the dining room and the use of a bedsitter with en-suite bathroom.
Sue’s bill does not split out the costs of renting her serviced apartment from the costs of her meals, laundry and electricity to the apartment.
Centrelink could accept that Sue’s “rent” is two-thirds of her total package cost. Thus Centrelink could pay Sue the maximum Rent Assistance because the lodgings part of her accommodation package cost is $800 per week, $1,600 per fortnight.
A granny flat resident who paid only a small ingoing amount could claim Rent Assistance when she pays her hosts a fortnightly contribution to household expenses.
Consider, Pam who could not afford to stay on in her rented apartment after she retired from fulltime work. Pam contributes $50 per day nearly 85% of her Age Pension, to her daughter’s household budget in exchange for living with her daughter and family. Centrelink could pay Pam the maximum Rent Assistance for a home sharer.
You could also claim Rent Assistance if you own the structure that you live in but not the land underneath it. Your regular lease payments could attract Rent Assistance provided that you are not a ‘homeowner’ at Centrelink.
Yes, you could claim as ‘rent’ the mooring fees that you pay to keep your houseboat permanently moored in a long stay marina, if the houseboat is your ‘principal residence’.
Another Pensioner might have a modest manufactured home parked in a lifestyle community. The regular payments of site fees could count as rent at Centrelink provided that the purchase price of the manufactured home is below the ‘homeowner’ threshold.
Who cannot claim Rent Assistance?
You cannot claim Rent Assistance if you are a ‘homeowner’ at Centrelink.
You are a ‘homeowner’ if you live in a property that you own or are buying with a mortgage.
You would be classed as a ‘homeowner’ if you paid more than $214,000 as your ingoing payment for a ‘granny flat interest’ or retirement village unit.
You might be a ‘homeowner’ at Centrelink if you paid more then $214,000 to buy the ‘right to occupy’ an assisted living apartment even though you pay a substantial weekly fee for services.
Similarly you would be classed as a ‘homeowner’ if your manufactured home, houseboat or motorhome has a market value of over $214,000.
Rent Assistance is not available to Pensioners who live in public housing. Public housing rents are assumed to be subsidised on a needs basis.
You cannot claim Rent Assistance if you live in a Commonwealth regulated residential aged care facility.
What is the maximum Rent Assistance?
A single Age Pensioner who lives alone in a rental apartment could receive the maximum Rent Assistance of $139.60 per fortnight if her rent was not less than $310.73 per fortnight, $155.37 per week.
Alas, few suburban private rentals are offered at rents below $250 per week, $500 per fortnight. But charities and community groups do provide some permanent places at ‘concessional rents’.
Consider Anne a single senior who has a small car and $5,000 of savings. Anne was able to secure a modest independent living apartment in a not-for-profit retirement community. As an Age Pensioner, Anne was offered 'social community housing' at a ‘concessional rental’ of 25% of the Age Pension plus the maximum Rent Assistance.
Currently as a single Age Pensioner with few other financial resources, Anne is paying $177.40 per week, $354.80 per fortnight, for a modest independent living apartment in a not-for-profit retirement community. She has the remaining 75% of her Age Pension plus the Pension Supplements, to cover all of her other expenses.
Rent Assistance is payable at lower rates to Centrelink Clients who live in shared accommodation. The maximum Rent Assistance rate at February 2021, is $93.07 per fortnight to a single pensioner who shares kitchen and living areas with another adult.
Remember you cannot be a ‘single’ at Centrelink just because you and your partner choose to keep your finances separate.
The total combined maximum Rent Assistance rate payable at February 2021 to a couple living together is $131.60 per fortnight.
A member of a ‘couple separated by illness’ could be eligible for the single rate of Rent Assistance.
Am I eligible for Rent Assistance?
Rent Assistance is payable to Centrelink or DVA, Pensioners and people who are receiving Jobseeker, previously New Start Allowance, from Centrelink.
You must be a ‘non-homeowner’ at Centrelink and making regular payments for your ongoing accommodation to qualify for Rent Assistance.
Help is available. Christine at Financial Care Services helps clients apply for Centrelink Pensions.
A consultation with Christine at Financial Care Services could help you look at if you are eligible for a Centrelink Pension and/or Rent Assistance. Contact Christine to obtain her Client Services Guide and the Financial Care Services Age Pension Illustration data form.
If your elders appear more fragile or more stressed than last summer start applying for additional support.
An ACAS Assessment early in 2021 could generate an entitlement to a ‘Help to Stay at Home’ package and access to Respite Care in an aged care facility. The Respite Care allowance could be held in reserve for when the younger generation are away on holiday or otherwise unavailable to help.
The ACAS assessment process could reveal that the seniors are not coping well at home; they might just be good at covering up their frailty. Memory problems and declining decision making skills make living alone more hazardous.
Ask Christine at Financial Care Services for illustrations of the full costs of aged care entry before selecting a placement. The aged care marketing team might gloss over the Additional Charges when selling you the benefits of their facility.
Remember that Melbourne has more aged care beds available than frail seniors wanting immediate entry to permanent residential aged care.
Other States have more balanced numbers of vacant beds and potential aged care residents.
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.
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.
Assistance with completing Age Pension Claims and the Commonwealth aged care means testing forms is available to clients of Financial Care Services.
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.
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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
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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.
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