The Assets Test Problems.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, The Assets Test Problem. 

     Below one typical low set house for rent  

This house is a typical house for rent, let us say in Brisbane that could be rented between $400 to $500 per week. But there are a lot of expenses that the owners have to pay to the local authorities and the Queensland government.

The Assets Test Problem

How the assets test affects property owners

Welcome to our article, The Assets Test Problem. ????++++

Dear readers, we started to write these articles about what is happening in Australia, when we saw that the farmers were having problems to survive, because of the drought, so, we thought that the Australian government should help. But they cannot help the farmers, because they own properties and the assets test exclude them from government help; it is like other property owners that are excluded also. This is what we are going to write in this article.

I believe that we have suggested that the farmers, with some government help, need to make something like a collective farming association, where all the farmers can pool a percentage of their farming products and money, which should be tax free from the government, then this pool can be used to help each other when they need help.

We hope that somebody high up reads our suggestion and then do something about it, we hope they do. We also noted that the farmers cannot ask help from the government, because they are self-employed and because they have properties, so, their property are assets that stops them from receiving help from the government.

The assets test is a real problem and dilemma, because it is hard to know, at what level is the right level to apply it, as we will see as we continue to write about it; but that is only part of the farmers problem, because also they cannot ask any government assistance since they are self-employed. But when one cannot make money for a long time, and here in the case of the farmers we are talking about years, I think that it would be fair to help them. But the farmers are not the only people that are affected from these government rules of the assets test, because there are other groups of people that are affected adversely as well.     

Anyhow, today in this article, beside talking about the farmers, we are going to talk about the assets test for other groups, and above all we are going to talk about the assets test, how it affects rental property owners in a more detailed way than we have done in our other articles, and then, about other unfair government taxes levied on properties. 

 

The assets test punishes rental properties owners.

 

The assets test is a problem and a dilemma for the pensioners, because it does not consider, if it is possible to earn the same amount of money that will be cut off the pension. The main problem here is that, when the treasurer makes the budget, he doesn’t even look at this possible outcome, he just wants to save money and cut the pensions. In fact, nobody is thinking about this negative issue, I would say that the entire population thinks that people that own rental properties are rich people, so, they don’t need the government pension, when rental houses are a real problem with pensioners that own one rental house only, because if they get a government pension, the pension will be cut off so drastically that they would have been better off, if they didn’t have the house at all. I believe that the assets test on rental properties, is set three time as much as it should be for the small property owner to break even, and this is what I am going to show you in this article, where I will make it clear with an example.  

Anyhow, before I write about that, I am going to suggest that to fix this injustice about today assets test, which discriminate heavily against the small rental property owners, because it puts them in a disadvantaged position financially, the only thing that comes to my mind is that whoever makes these budget and laws, must keep in mind that he should give these properties owner a fair go, if he wants to keep the Australian economy going the best way possible, or I should say, at least as good as it was a few years ago, before the assets was changed.

The aim is to achieve the most benefit for the country, I believe that to achieve you need people that are self-starter and work hard, like the small property owners that have worked hard during their lives and have paid their taxes on what they have earned. They saved some money and invested it on a second house, hoping that when they would retire, they could be better off financially, but it did not work the way they wanted, because of the unfair assets test changes that the Australian government has made recently. You see, these self-starter people need to believe that if they work hard, they will be better off in the future.

Here I can only say; what is wrong with the people in Canberra? Don’t they see that they are killing the will of the people that want to progress by working hard? This is the second most important group of people that work physically hard; the first group is the workers that work for a wage. This first group of people politically belongs to the Labour Party, these people are happy to work for a fair wage, and if they own their house they live in, so, they are not self-starters.

The second group of people, the small property owners that are usually hard-working people and self-starters can belong to both parties; so, if the coalition wants more votes from this group and stay in government, they need to fix the mistakes they have made, when they changed the assets test in a way that punishes severally anyone that gets a government pension. I say punishes them severally, as I am going to show you, how the assets test and other things discriminate against the pensioners, so, it makes life very hard for them. Anyhow, read my views about the assets test that discriminate against the small property owners, in the example I am writing hereunder.

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The assets test punishes small property owners.

Now let us talk about how today assets test discriminate and punishes financially the small property owners. To show you that, hereunder we have written an example. So, we have chosen a couple that we call Mr. and Mrs Smith, they are both pensioner and receive a government pension. The figure that appears in this example are all rounded figures, but they are close to the real figures.

Now, let us write this example.

Mr Don Smith and his wife are both on government pensions, but today they don’t get much pension, because of the assets test. The Smith couple thinks, and I believe that, the only way one could describe today assets test is that whoever made these laws are cruel people, because the assets test discriminates against those small property owners that own a house for rent, since it is not possible to live on the money that their property can earn, so, let us see how it works. One of the problems exist because of the deeming setup, where the government calculate that people can earn $3.00 per fortnight per every thousand dollars you have in the bank, or anywhere else including properties. In fact, owning properties is the worst thing you can have, because it affects the owners in a disadvantaged way, like the Smiths that we are talking about here.

The house they rent is valued at $650,000, plus a few more belongings their assets test are nearly 800,000 dollars so, they only get about $100 per fortnight each, because of the assets test.

Now, if they didn’t have their rental property, they would get the full pension, which would have been, $690 each per fortnight each.

Now, let us try to calculate how much the Smiths can earn from their rental property in Brisbane. This property is an old three-bedroom house, on a large block of land that is valued at $550,000, this house is rented at $450.00 PW, so, if they are lucky and the house is rented the entire year, they would collect $23400.00 this is before expenses.

Now, what are the average expenses for this house; The Brisbane City Council rates are $600.00 per quarter; the Urban Utilities average $450.00 per quarter; this will come to $4200.00 per year; the insurance is $1200.00 per year, the land tax (this may vary, but let us say that they have to pay it fully in this example) so, the tax is $6550.00; maintenance can vary, but let us say $1500.00, then there is the fee for the real estate agent say $1500.00 per year.

Let us add this numbers up. So, $4200 to Brisbane city Council rates and water +1200 insurance+6550 Queensland government land tax +1500 maintenance+ 1500 to real estate agent letting fee, it = $14,950

Calculate total net earnings for the year, is $23400 income-14950 expenses=8450

The Smiths have made $8450 net in one year. Do you think they can live on that? Here some people may say that not everybody pays the land-tax, but even without the land-tax, the Smiths will only earn $15,000.00 from their rental property.

This is a lot less than if they were on the government pension, which would have been nearly $36000.00 for both.

But now they only get 20,200.00 at the best, and all the trouble to rent their property.

I believe that these negative things must not happen, it is not right when you have worked hard to put yourself in a better financial position, then suddenly you find yourself worse off. Because some government idiots have made this huge mistake.

I believe that these mistakes must be fixed from the present government, because if they don't the people that have been hurt will vote them out of government.

Well, somehow, I have had my say, and I hope that it is clear enough what I have said. So, see you in my next article, which will be about, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal.

See you soon.

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The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal

The Australian Social Security Must be equal. 

World views diary November 2024

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, My World Views and Diary in November 2024. 

America is voting let the better leader win.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are both good leaders, so, it is going to be hard for the American people to choose. May God guide them to choose the one that can guide America and the rest of the world in a peaceful way.  

 

Welcome to, My World Views and Diary in November 2024.   

Dear readers, every one of us views what is happening around us in different ways. Anyhow, during the month of October 2024, there have been many things going on all at the same time, so, it was hard to say, what is more important to talk about first, there are still wars in the world, that makes us sick to hear about them, and how many people are dying, while they blame each other, for starting and continuing the war instead of finding a way how to live in peace. This is also worrying, especially the war in Palestine between Israel and the Arabic countries that has the potential to escalate in a world war but let us hope they find a way how to end this war somehow.

Anyhow, because this war in Palestine is far away from Australia, I should not worry about it, and instead I should look at what is happening in Queensland Australia, because that is where I live. There are also the USA elections to talk about, and other happenings, that we will talk about in this article.

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My views of the elections in Queensland.

Now let us talk about the Queensland Australia election, hoping that the winning party, is the party that can give us some advantages.  

Now, let us look at the Queensland elections, that have been held the 26^th of October, and if the elections have improved our financial situation, which they have not. So, let me explain what I am talking about here.

Today in Australia, one of the main problems is rental affordability, but they have run the election, and they have not said much about rentals affordability. Because for them there are many other things to talk about. Anyhow the LNP is winning the elections, and this is a change of government, so, we must wait and see, if they find the right way to govern us.

Now, what I have learned in this election, is that they have not done anything to solve the rental problem, but at the same time, the elections seem to have stopped the Green Party that has extremist policies on rentals. You see, the Green Party is supposed to look how to save the planet, and that is what they are supposed to do, but instead of looking after the planet, they preach policies against the landlords, just to gain votes from the have not.

My point of view here is, The Green Party think that blaming the landlords is going to solve the rental problem, but it is not, it can only get worse, we need the landlords, and here I need to add. Most of the small landlords are the mums and dads, and they try to do their best to keep everything running as usual, but in this group there are thousands of small landlords that are financially worse off than the renters, because the assets test cuts their pensions three times more than they can earn from their rental property, so, they should be on the endangered list and helped, if the government want really to solve the rental problem. But the Green Party, with their communist views, stand in the way of any reasonable understanding of the situation, and this is one of the main problems of today. I hope I have explained my views clear enough.

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Who will win the American elections.

Now that the Queensland elections are over, and we know that the LNP has won the election, and there has been a change of government. We can start looking at the Melbourne Cup winners and the American elections that are help the same calendar day. Anyhow, the Melbourne Cup has been won by Knight’s Choice. Of course, the American elections are a lot more important than our Queensland election, and the Melbourne Cup. So, who is going to win the American election, is it Donald Trump, or is it Kamala Harris? We must wait and see and hope that tomorrow the Americans chose the right president.  

Who has won the American elections.    

The American have voted, and DONALD TRUMP has won the elections. I believe that the Americans have chosen the right President, because today there are many problems in the world, so, we need strong leaders like DONALD TRUMP to solve them. Well, these are only my views, and I hope I am right. Anyhow, we have to wait until January, when he will take over from the present government. 

That is all, to see more click on this link, My World Views and Diary in November 2024.

See you soon in our next blog.  

Assets and pension cuts.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Assets and pension cuts. 

How the Australian pensioners are losing money

Now let us just imagine you have this house for rent, so, you think you are doing okay. But since they introduced the assets test in January 2017, there are a lot of pensioners that have been lamenting, how the government has treated them, because they will be losing more pension. In fact, most of them will be losing two or three times the amount of money they can earn from the rent. So, let us look at what is happening. 

Welcome to our article, Assets and pension cuts. 

Dear readers, to make sense of what we are saying in this old article, we must say that this article shows you the way, why today there are less properties for rent. You see, you need to learn what has happened in the past, to know why there are not enough properties for rent today. Now let me go back to tell you what has happened in the past. 

 let us talk about the pensioners and the assets test. Anyhow, in our last article, Australian pensioners alarmed, we talked about the disastrous budget that the treasurer Joe Hockey delivered on the 13^th of May 2014, in this article we are continuing to talk about the pensions cut, and the effect it will have on pensioners. Depending on what sort of pensioner you are, these changes will affect you in different ways. So, there are pensioners that their pension does not change at all, some pensioners that will be losing part of their pension, and some will lose it altogether. So, if the pensioners are upset about this change, they are right to be upset. Because Joe Hockey is an idiot, because any politician in his position, must consider first the effect of the budget it will have on the people, that they are supposed to serve. 

Anyhow, now let us discuss an example, which we have started in our last article, about Mr. and Mrs. Day, who own two houses, they live in one house and rent the other one. Then, we will talk about other cases, and what some pensioner can do, because for every action there is a reaction, so, the pension changes can bring other changes.

Talking about Mr. and Mrs. Day, and what they are going to lose, because of the pensions cut.

Let us talk about, how much pension they received before, then how much they receive now, and then compare this with other pensioner, whether they are being discriminated. Anyhow, we are setting this case, in a way that is easy to understand, so, all figures are well rounded figure, and therefore they have not been worked out mathematically.

So, Mr. and Mrs. Day have about $580,000 worth of assets beside their own residence.

Before the 1^st January 2017 change, they received about $450.00 per fortnight each.

After the 1^st January change, they will receive about $350.00 per fortnight each;

So, they will be losing about $100.00 per fortnight each. Now because they have problems with renting the house. When the house is not rented, it is hard to live on $350.00 per fortnight. One must keep in mind, that a single pensioner that has no assets, receives $873.90 per fortnight, and even they complain about living a modest decent life.

Anyhow, let us talk about owning and renting a house, because Joe Hockey budget, is a budget aimed at ruining the small property investor. So, these small investors must decide whether it is worth to keep things as they are, or they need to change a few things, to live their life at the same level of other pensioners. So, now let us look, how owning and renting a house affects the pensioners, if they can receive a government pension.

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People owning and renting a house. 

People believe that owning and renting a house is the way to go. If you talk to any real-estate agent, they will tell you that it is profitable to own a rental house. But we must ask ourselves if it is profitable all the time, or are there times, when it does not work out in your favour, or the way you want it work out, therefore, owning a second house is not the best thing to have, which is the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day.

As we have said in our last article, today most house owners find it hard to rent their houses, because there are too many vacancies here in Brisbane. So, Mr. and Mrs. Day, had to rent their house for $400.00 per week, which is a low rent if one considers the house value. Anyhow, they hope that the tenants will pay the rent on time and will not damage the house while they are living there. They have worked out that as things are, after paying all the bills, they can average in a year about $200.00 a week net rent. They must estimate a conservative figure, because there are too many vacancies, and there have been times, when their house has been vacant for months.

After going over all this rental stuff, we must start to think whether there is something wrong, with the way’s things have been set up for Mr. and Mrs. Day. So, we should ask. Did Mr. and Mrs. Day make a mistake when they invested in this rental property? Because they were thinking that by having a property for rent, they could be better off when they retied.

But now that the assets-test is changed they are shocked, because their second house investment is more a disaster than a benefit. In facts, they are worse off, because if they had only the house they are living in, they would have received a lot more pension, than what they are earning from their investment. So, they could have more time for themselves, instead of trying to run their property for rent.

Today we can only ask, what sort of government is this? They tell the people to save their money for their old age, so that they can live a better life. But when the people reach their old age, they turn around, change the laws and take away that money from you. But this is not all that we need to say; you see, they make laws that takes away money from the people on the government pensions, but they don’t make laws to cut their own pensions that are huge compared to the rest of us. You see, the means test, and the assets-test does not apply to their politician pensions, so, they can own huge properties or anything else, they can earn anything, and they still will receive their full government pensions and other benefits. So, there is a law for the public and a different law for the politicians.

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What some people could do? 

When the laws change, and those properties that you have worked hard for, they don’t earn what you expected them to earn. You must start thinking many things including about what you want to do, and what you can do with what you have.

In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day, they are losing so much money that they must start thinking about a different set up, so that they can receive a more pension than they are receiving now and live an easier life.

As we have said, Mr. and Mrs. Day, are not on the best terms, they are living together, because divorces and changes are costly, but because of what has happened to their pension, they may have to divorce now. Because now that their pension has gone down more, they have lost that financial balance, which in a way kept them together. So, they will be forced to divorce, because, if they are divorced, they will receive a single pension each. But that is not all, they will own a house each, and live in their own houses, so, they have no more assets, they will not earn any money, so, they don’t have a mean-test or assets-test to go through to receive their pension. therefore, they will receive the government full pension each. Now let us see what difference it will make.

Today they receive about $350.00 per fortnight each.

If they are divorced and live in their own houses, they will receive, $873.90 each per fortnight.

Which is a lot more than what they receive today, the only question left here is will they do it?

Anybody that is losing that much money will certainly do it, to make sure, let us look at those figures again, but this time let us see, how much money they are losing in a year, if we work both pensions together:

Now, they would receive about $700.00 per fortnight, in a year they are receiving $18,200.00.

If they divorce, they will receive 873.90 each per fortnight, which will be $22,721.4 each.

Or 45,442.8 per year. So, they are losing $27,242.8 government pension in a year.

Our own views on this is this.

If people start divorcing to receive a full single pension in the future, you cannot blame them, because they have been pushed from the government to do it. If the assets-test had not changed, this would not happen.

Now, let us talk about pensioners owning properties.

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Pensioners owing properties. 

The pensioners that own a rental property today are in a lot of trouble, because everything has turned against them. The government changes the assets-test and cuts the pensions down. Then the properties cannot be rented unless they rent cheap, and, they cannot sell their properties easily, because there are too many rental properties up for sale; and when a business makes not enough money, it is hard to sell.

But there is more, when their rental property is sold, it is subject to the gain tax, here again the government is robbing what is rightfully yours. They are robbing you, because if you want to buy another property of about the same value somewhere else, you must pay the gain tax, which is based on the difference in price, when you bought the property the first time. If you have bought the property a long time ago, for sure there will be a lot of gain tax. Now, I want to point out, if you need to buy another property of the same value, for personal reasons, why you must pay this gain tax, you really haven’t gained anything at all, because you still have a property of the same value. But the government does not accept this explanation, they work on the difference of the price when you bought it the first time.

Now let us look at some other real-estate problems. Some of you may think that I am exaggerating, because everybody things that the properties are always going up. But I tell you what, the boom on the property market for me is already ended, but people are not aware of it yet. When I drive around the street of Brisbane, there are too many signs of places for rent and for sale, when a few years ago, there were none. So, everybody that owns real estate should brace themselves now, for the rough ride ahead, this will also affect the pensioners that happen to own properties.

Anyhow, we want to conclude this article now, by saying that the pensioners are having a hard time no matter where they turn, they find problems.

Therefore, in the future, they better plan to own just one house, and then collect the full pension from the government.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. So, see you in our next article, The Assets Test Problem. 

To see more click on this link, Assets and pension cuts.   

See you soon.

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Where the rental problem started

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Australian pensioners alarmed 

There are many houses in Australia, but they are not enough. 

Parliament house Canberra is where they can control everything. 

Australia parliament house in Canberra is where politicians talk how to make new laws, and budget the economy, most times they get it right and sometimes they do not. I believe that the shortage of rental properties, has started from one of the budgets in 2014, when the Australian treasurer Joe Hockey, made a disastrous budget against the Australian landlords, that even today cannot be fixed. Read our blogs to see what we mean.    

 

Welcome to our article, Australian pensioners alarmed.

Dear readers, we are going to repost several articles that will show you why this rental crisis is happening now. But we believe that this crisis has been going on for at least the last 10 years. So, let me start with this article. Which is the beginning of the downfall of the rental market.  

Let us start from the beginning.

 Yes, today the Australian pensioners are alarmed, because their pensions can be cut, and some of them may even lose the government pension, because they own rental properties.  

But let us start from the beginning and talk about the man that brought in this disaster, that the Australian pensioners didn’t deserve. Anyhow, this disastrous budget was delivered from the then treasurer Joe Hockey, the 13th of May 2014, today we are still finding how terrible this budget was. Because the 1^st of January 2017, some Australian pensioners have lost some pension payments. But first let us see how the experts have described this budget at that time. So, here I quote:

The grim budget faced widespread criticism and was overwhelmingly rejected by the Australian public as reflected in all opinion polls after its release. Opposition to "unfair" budget measures came from the opposition and crossbench, pensioners, economists, the union movement, students, welfare community and disability groups are protesting. The budget included changes which were contrary to pre-election commitments and promises made by the Liberals in opposition. Critics argue that every one of the following pre-election commitments made by Tony Abbott were broken in the first budget: "No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS." Echos of the "dead and buried" Fightback! policy package from the 1993 election occurred with proposals to defer unemployment benefits for six months for under 30s and the removal of GP bulk billing. Most proposals have since been shelved, dumped or modified.

End of quote.

Anyhow, Joe Hockey, has moved out of the Australian politics, but the politician have given him a good job, with a very good pay. Meanwhile the Australian pensioners are hurt from those changes to the assets test that he proposed. Here we want to ask, if he wanted to save money to the government by cutting the pension, why he didn’t propose to cut his own pay and the other politician pay, at least the same amount that the pensioner will lose, just to be fair for everybody, since they receive a ridiculous high pay for their services. We think that to cut the politician pay is only fair, since we are all in the same boat of Australia. Now, let us talk about the Australian pensioners, because they are alarmed and worried.

(But before we do that, please note that these articles now have been regrouped, so they may not follow each other closely.) 

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 Pensioners are alarmed.   

Yes, dear readers, today the Australian pensioners are alarmed, they are alarmed because they feel that the Australian government is ripping them off. They feel ripped off because the changes that are taking place from the first of January 2017 are unfair to them. We believe that they are right to feel alarmed, worried and upset, because some of them will be forced to live with less than the minimum government pension.

Therefore, we will talk about the Australian pensions, since most of us must be interested about. I admit that I am not an expert in politics and government matters, however, when we use our common sense and things don’t work out, we want to have our say. So, the Australian Pensions are changing, from the first of January 2017. This change is hurting people that rely on the Australian government pension.

Here we are talking about retirees, that have not got enough of their own funds to retire and live a modest decent life, so, they rely on the Australian government pension, for a full pension or part pension. Most of the people that will be affected from this change, are the part pension retirees; some of them will receive less pension, and some of them will lose the government pension altogether, because of the changed in the assets-test.

Now, what hurts most these pensioners that are losing pension money, is that the people that have got no assets, because they have never worked hard and tried to save money, they will still receive the full pension from the government, but those that have worked hard, paid their tax and saved their money for rainy days, hoping to have just a bit extra cash when they retied will have the pension reduced and in some cases completely cut off. We believe that this is not right, because it is the people that have worked hard and saved their money, are the people that have paid most taxes in the past.

Anyhow, here are some figures that have been published on the net.

About 330,000 Australians will find their pension cut from the 1^st of January- 90,000 will be losing it entirely, because of the tighter assets test. I believe that it is not fair, because it is already hard for pensioners to live a modest life peacefully.

So, if the federal government loses next election, because of what they have done, they deserve to lose. Anyhow, let us look at some possible outcome, and how people can react to these pensions cut. Here we are going to write about some imaginary case, about what some people can do, because they feel that they are being discriminated and punished for being good honest citizen.

Anyhow, here we are going to talk about a case or two, as an example. You see, before this pension was cut, this couple had accepted that the government would give them only a part pension, so, they tried to live with that, but now that pension is being cut, they don’t know what to do, because it is going to be hard for them to live a decent modest life.

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Other pensioners’ concerns. 

Here we cannot use real names, so, the name that appear are not their real names.

Mr. John Day and Mrs. Ann Day are two pensioners, they have received a part pension for years, as they are both over 70 years old, so, they are aged pensioners.

Anyhow, let us describe how this change will affect Mr. and Mrs. Day.

Mr. and Mrs. Day own two houses, they both live in the same house, even though they are not on the best terms with each other, and it is said that they will end up divorced soon. Anyhow, they are still living under the same roof as husband and wife, so, they receive their pension as a couple, which is less than if they had the pension paid as single people, so, they start thinking if they are doing the right thing, or they should do other things to improve their financial position. So, let us compare what is happening to their pension.

As we have said, Mr. and Mrs. Day have two houses, one they live in and another one they rent, so, the house they rent is calculated as an asset, the value of the house is set at 520,000 dollars, add to that a few more things they have, they have 550,000 dollars’ assets, so, their pension is calculated on these assets, as it was before they told me that they were getting from the government about 450 per fortnight each, from the 1^st of January, they are going to get about 350 dollars per fortnight each. This is not enough to live with even if you try hard to save money.

The house they rent, today it is rented at 400 dollars per week, because they could not rent it any higher, now, that is not net money, because they must pay all the fixed expenses, like the rates, the water and other urban utilities, the insurance, the maintenance. But that is not all, because sometimes the house is vacant for several weeks until a new tenant is found. So, there are times when in a year, they can average from the house rent, about 200 dollars per week.

Here one needs to ask, where and how the government people work out this new law, about the assets and how much you earn. I believe that it should be worked on a real possibility that you can earn at least as much money as the full pension before they cut the pension.

Anyhow, this is how I believe the rental crisis started, and has continued to get worse, and who knows when it will improve. Now, having said that I believe that this article is becoming too long, so, the facts and figure about this example will be discussed in our next article, Assets and pension cuts 

To see more click on this link, Australian pensioners alarmed. 

See you soon.

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Australian Social Security.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Australian Social Security   

 

The Australian Social security helps people.  

The Australian Social Security is a government system that helps people in need, their staff are very patient people, but they help only up to the point that they are allowed to help. There are a lot of people that go to the Centrelink Offices, to see what help the can get, they can be unemployed people looking for work, they can be pensioners to see what they can get from the government, and others. 

Welcome to our article, Australian Social Security 

The Australian social security fails the farmers.

Dear readers, in this article about the “Australian Social Security”, we start by writing, why the Australian Social Security fails to help the farmers; then we will also discuss other things where they fail. But first let us discuss about the farmer, because as we have said in a previous article Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, so, we want to work out, why the farmers don’t get social security payment from the government, like most other people do.

You see, today the Australian Social Security system is helping lots of people, but it is not helping the farmers, even though the farmers really need help from the government. Therefore, we want to know why this is happening, and then, we can suggest how to avoid this happening again. We believe that the Social Security system in Australia must help anybody that needs help, at least the name itself suggests that. So, we are going to investigate and talk about this issue, in this article and the following articles.

Anyhow, our views are based on what is happening in Australia today, about farming and the drought, so, the first question is; why the Australian Social Security system has failed to help the farmers. We believe that the Australian Social Security can do better than what it is doing now. So, let us see why the Australian social security is failing to help the farmers.

Now, what we are saying here is what we know, but, if you want to know more about the Australian Social Security system, you should follow these links, Social security in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_security_in_Australia, Benefits and Payments - Australia.gov.au, and other links that can be found on the internet.

Anyhow, we believe that the Australian Social Security system that we call Centrelink, has failed to help the farmers, because it has not been planned to help them from the beginning, as we will explain as we write these articles. Anyhow, we are talking about the drought and the farmers that are having a very hard time, so, we were saying that all this hardship can be minimized, if aids from the Social Security System was more readily available to the farmers, but it is not, so, the only thing that we can think about this failure, is why the social security has failed to help? Because it is not fair for the farmers, so, the present Social Security System needs to be adjusted.

So, why the social security has failed to help? Once you ask that question and look for the reasons, you realize that in Australia not everybody is treated the same, from the current social security system. You see, people are treated different because they belong to different categories; there are: the-have and the-have-not; there are the workers that work for wages; there are the self-employed; there are the farmers, which we could say are self-employed, and others; anyhow, when people go to Centrelink the Social Security government agencies for help, the agencies do what they can according to where these groups of people belong, so, let us see some examples how this works.  

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How the Social Security works. 

Let us start from the working people; when people that work for a wage, become unemployed and they are not earning any money, they can go to Centrelink, where they can apply to receive the unemployment benefit from the government; this means that the government gives them some money, until they find another job to go to and can earn their living. This system is called Social Security unemployment benefits, or something like that, and it is good, it is like receiving a small wage to help you survive, so, it helps the workers when they don’t have a job and need financial help, which is good.

But the problem with this system is that all categories are not treated the same, which is not good. So, I believe that something needs to be done, to help anyone that needs help. You see, some categories may not receive help because they belong to a certain category, even if they earn no money and have no money, like the farmers when there is a drought or other disasters, this is the problem with the Social Security system of today.

You see, the farmers cannot turn to the government for help, because they are self-employed, and they are supposed to be rich, okay they are rich, because they own a lot of land, so, the assets test will exclude them from any government help; in this case there is no social security for the farmers. This is the reason why the social security system is failing the farmers, it is not set to help those people that cannot earn money even when they work hard, in the hope they can earn their living.

But I believe that these people must be helped, because they are the backbone of the Australian economy, therefore, we cannot afford to lose them, so, the Social Security system needs to be adjusted to help them when they need help. They must be helped from the government, until the day that something else can replace the government help; like the collection of funds that we have suggested in our last article. Here we need also to say, that today farming is not regulated from the government, but some regulations may need to be placed; so that when things don’t work out, the government will be more willing to help the farmers.

Anyhow, we have worked out that today the farmers cannot be helped from Centrelink, because they are self-employed, and because they have too much property as assets. You see, the assets-test is the main problem here; but I believe that the assets-test in special cases should not override the income test completely, this suggestion does not apply only to the farmers, because the assets-test is also making life miserable to pensioners that own properties, when those properties cannot earn half the money the assets test believe they could. 

So, in my views the assets test needs to be modified. Anyhow, we are going into details later, anyhow, it will become self-explained as we write more articles about it. We want to say now that there are issues that need to be fixed from the federal government. So, this farmer’s problem and the assets-test for pensioner, is going to be a real problem for the politicians, if they want to help the people that have voted for them at the elections.

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 Let us look at the political reasons. 

Anyhow, I want to point it out to you, that in our previous articles we have started to talk about the farmers problems, but slowly we found ourselves to talk about assets-test and politics. Now, what is happening at the Australian federal government level is not right, they need to work better what the people need, and how the people are affected when they make their budgets, I believe that this is one of the reasons why Australia is having problems today, some of these political people that become treasurers are heartless and careless, they have made many mistakes that has affected the public adversely, some of these mistakes need to be fixed, the public is not going to forget easily what they have done, so, they are going to run the risk of losing their next elections, on this issue alone. But let us compare what is happening now to the past. I believe that in the past it was better, at least this is the way I have seen it happen.

Anyhow, in the past as far as I know there was no assets test in the seventies, it was introduced later to stop people that were abusing the system, also because the government needed more money. Now, let us try to see and discuss some of the reasons that apply today, which takes us to see that the federal government is greedy, because they want more money, and that is the problem.  

Anyhow, believe that I have said enough in this article, but we will write more articles that are going to highlight what we believe needs to be adjusted to make a better Social Security System. 

To see more click on this link, Australian Social Security  

See you next blog, when the rental problems started, in Australian pensioners alarmed. 

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