The following are 2 examples of what happens with age pension applications from two countries – Switzerland and Thailand.
Briefly:
Switzerland
Switzerland has an agreement with Australia that covers age pensions.
Joe has been living and working there since 1977.
Joe and his wife are entitled to a Swiss pension of $AUD42,000 - $24,000 for Joe and $18,000 for his wife.
Joe lived and worked for 6 years in Australia and he wants to work out if he is entitled to an Australian pension, on top of the Swiss pension.
For simplicity sakes, we will assume that he has no other income, or accessible assets, over and above the Swiss pension. This means he may be entitled to a pension of say $246 per fortnight.
This amount needs to be adjusted based on the period of residency - the Australian Working Life Residency (AWLR). The calculation is based on a pro-rata monthly calculation as follows:
- 6 years of Australian working life residency, plus one month : 6*12+1 = 73.
- If he lived in Australia he would be entitled to $246pf age pension.
- the AWLR calculation is = 73 * $246 / 300
- the AU pension is therefore approx. $60 pf Australia pension to supplement the Swiss pension.
Joe’s wife was not an Australian citizen and had not worked in Australia so she did not receive any payment.
This is a very simplistic statement and is only meant to provide a guide to the process.
For reference the Centrelink web page is:
Thailand
Thailand has no agreement with Australia for the age pension.
Peter went through a personal bankruptcy and lost all his savings and home. He had been a frequent overseas traveller and as he was entitled to the age pension in 2 years. Rather than claiming the Newstart allowance he went to stay with a friend in Thailand.
He returned to Australia 2 weeks before his 65 birthday to make the claim for the age pension – as you need to be in Australia to make a claim.
After submitting his claim Peter went back to Thailand to get his things in order in preparation for receiving the age pension. He travelled before the pension was granted!
Centrelink deemed him to be a non-resident and as he had left Australia his claim was rejected.
Peter returned to Australia and re-submitted his claim on his birthday – 2 weeks later - and was then granted the age pension.
If he leaves Australia within 2 years of being granted, he will lose the age pension and will then need to re-apply upon returning!
