The Australian Social Security Must be equal.

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, now we are writing posts about social issues. We have started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business, we want to talk about social issues that can affect all of us. We will continue with Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. Today we are going to talk about the Australian Social Security and the problems that some people find, when they want to use it.  

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

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit link, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

This is one of the Australian Social Security offices, where people come to apply for the pension, unemployment benefits and other help from the federal government. There are various ways that they can help, and there are many rules that apply to receive help. But some people cannot get help, because they belong to certain categories that excluded from this help. Sometimes we wonder why.  

The Australian Social Security Must be equal. 

Welcome to our article, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

In our previous articles, we have talked about the farmers that cannot cat help from the government, and also some property owner that find hard to receive the right help from the government. So, we are looking for a better social security system, where everybody gets a minimum payment, which is equal to the minimum pension or unemployment benefit.

Dear readers, we believe that the Australian Social Security System must be equal for everybody, but it is not, as we have said in our previous articles, which had something to do with the Australian social security system, starting with, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, then, Australian Social Security, then, The Australian Parties, then, Australia can do better than this, and then, The Assets Test Dilemma, now in these articles we were talking about how the Australian Social Security System works and helps people. So, we have found that the Australian social security system, is good but not perfect, since some people cannot receive it for one reason or another; therefore, the social security system needs to be changed, to fix these unforeseen failures to help. Australia cannot claim to have a good social security system, when it fails to deliver help to those that need help.

Having said that, now we need to study the situation and try to come up with an answer for this issue, because we believe that the Australian Social Security system, must be equal for everybody. We believe that everybody in the community must be given a minimum of help, when they need help. So, we are going to write and suggest our views, hoping that somebody important reads them and does something about it.

Now, what we want to write here is not going to be popular, because it criticizes the existing social security system, since it says that it is not good enough, they need to avoid what is happening to the farmers, so, they must put in place a better system, where people in need are helped. So, let us imagine and talk about a social security system that can guaranty that.

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Talking about the ideal social security setup

What we are writing hereunder is an idealistic way for the social security system to adapt, if they can. I said if they can, because it is unlikely that this system can be approved now, because Australia cannot afford it today, however, it is important that something like this exists. We hope that future politicians, start working on this idealistic social security system that we are talking about.

We believe that all legal citizen that are unemployed or don’t have any income, must be granted from the government an amount of money that is at least equal to the minimum government unemployment benefit or pension, it would be like receiving a small wage from the government. Now, we believe that this is what is needed in Australia, and we believe that one day can be done, if we can get organised ourselves to achieve that, after all Australia is a rich country, so, we should be able to do that. I know that it is going to cost a lot more than we can afford, but if it is well planned, it can be done. Now let us see how this will affect the community and which group of people will benefit from this change.

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The people that can benefit from the change. 

The people that will benefit from this change, are those people that today don’t receive any payment from the government, and those people that don’t receive enough, so, they are forced to live below the poor threshold. In this case the poor threshold is set, as equal to the minimum government pension that today is about, $900 per fortnight for a single person, or $700 each for a couple. This is the minimum of money that people need to live, and we believe that it must be equal for everyone.

As things stand today, there are people that must live with less than the minimum government pension, because of the anomalies in the system. One of those anomalies is caused from the assets test, where the pensioners receive a smaller pension, the rest of their earnings is supposed to come from their assets, which are supposed to earn about 7.8 %; but most of the rental properties, can only earn about 2.5 to 3%, as we have shown you in our previous article, The Assets Test Dilemma, where a house valued at $650,000 did only make $8500 in a year, which is about 1.3%. So, we believe that the assets test on rental properties must be set according to what they can earn, if the government believes that we need mum and dad to invest in rental properties and keep the Australian real estate market the way it is today.

You see, today people believe to invest in rental properties and it is the way to go; but soon they will become aware that to own a second house, can be a problem when they apply to receive their pension, because the assets test will reduce their pension more than what they can earn from their assets; once the people know that they cannot make any money from rental properties, when they become pensioners, they will stop investing in rental properties.

My views are that the assets test on rental properties, must be set at a level, where it is possible for the owners, to earn at least as much as they loose from the pension. Now my views are that the assets test on rental properties should be one third of what they are now, so that the pensioners will lose one dollar per thousand, instead of three dollars per thousand. But even this might not be enough, you see if you have a property valued at one million dollars, you cannot receive any pension. The question here is; will this property earn the owner about $24,000 per year net. I don’t think so. Anyhow, these are our views.

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The property owners’ other problems. 

As we have seen in this article and our previous articles, to own a rental property is a problem and not a benefit, because people lose their pension or unemployment benefits, so, to own a second property is not the way we should plan for better retirement, since the assets test reduces the pension payments to more than what you can earn from your properties.

But there are more negative things in owning a rental property, the worst of all is the land-tax. The land-tax in Queensland is $1.7 per thousand, this means that if you have land valued it one million dollars, every year you must pay $17,000 to the government just because you own this land. They don’t give you anything at all, you just must pay, because they need the money.

Some people still believe in owning properties, because their price go up all the time, so, they think that they are better off having properties, you see, they don’t realize that there is this gain tax that will take away all their earnings and more, let me give you this example.

You own a rental house that you have bought several years ago for $250,000, which was the right market price, today you must sell the rental house, because you need to move to another town, where houses are about the same value, so, you think that it will be easy; you sell the house for $650,000 and you buy another one about the same price. But that is not going to happen, because the $400,000 dollars that you have gained is taxable. This is called the gain tax, which may well be around $100,000, it is hard to be more specific. So, in this case you may lose $100,000 dollars because of the gain tax.

The figures in this article, might not be correct, but they are close enough to what they are supposed to be for showing our views.

This is all I can say today; this setup is not fair for anybody that owns properties, because those properties in the assets test, cannot earn half the money that they will receive from the government pensions or other benefits, if they had no properties. So, for them it would have been better to have no properties; since the assets test affects the pension and other benefit adversely, starting from the farmers, as we have said in, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business.

So, people are discouraged to own properties and to save for rainy day, because there is no benefit to own them, since they are going to lose and not to gain. Here we are asking for a chance that the scale in the assets test for properties, be set in a way that gives the property owners a chance to earn at least as much money as they lose, from the government benefit. It is not fair that people lose money because they have worked hard and saved money.

Now we are talking about money, so, if you have money instead of a property, today you are not better off, because the interest that you can receive from the bank, is not equal to the money you lose from your pension. 

Anyhow, this is all what I can think about today. I believe that at least I have pointed out what in my views needs adjustment. Because we believe that, the Australian social security system must be equal for everybody. I hope that somebody in the government reads my articles, and then thinks what can be done to make them fair for those people that have worked hard. 

To see more click on this link, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

Dear readers, we have written several articles about social issues in Australia, today in this article we have said what we believe needs to be done. Anyhow, we believe that it is not going to be easy to achieve that, because of what is happening around us. So, let us look at what is happening and at the same time, when we can remind our readers about our idealistic Social Security setup.

See you in next article, Australian elections 2019.

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The assets test problems in Australia.

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, now we are writing posts about social issues. We have started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business, we want to talk about social issues that can affect all of us. We will continue with Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. Today we are going to talk about the assets test problem, because the assets are a problem, when they cannot produce enough income.    

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

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit links, Assets and pension cuts, The Assets Test Dilemma.   

Farmers own their land and own many farm machines, so, they have lots of assets; but when their farms cannot produce anything, they become as poor as people that do not have anything. But there are other people that have the same problem with the assets test, and this is what we are discussing here. 

The Assets Test Dilemma  

How the assets test affects property owners.  

Welcome to our article, The Assets Test Dilemma. 

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 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 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 government assistance since they are self-employed. But when one cannot make money for a long time, 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 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 does not 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 that, 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 Labor 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. 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 do not get much pension, because of the assets test. The Smith couple thinks, 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 government, 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.

There are a few more details at this link, The Assets Test Dilemma. See you soon. 

Assets and pension cuts.

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, now we are writing posts about social issues. We have started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business, we want to talk about social issues that can affect all of us. We will continue with Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. Today we are going to talk about the Australian pensioners are alarmed, because there is a pension cut coming.  

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

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit links, Australian pensioners alarmed, Assets and pension cuts.  

People that are on the government pension, are upset because they will receive less money, after the assets test that started the 1st of January 2017, there are a lot of pensioners that lament the way this government has treated them, because some of them will get less money, and others can even be cut off the government pension. 

Assets and pension cuts.   

Welcome to our article, Assets and pension cuts . 

Dear readers, 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 according to the pensioners, because any politician in his position, must consider first the effect of the budget it will have on the people.

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 now, 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 favor, or the way you want it to work, 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 do not 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 money, so, they must start thinking about a different set up, so that they can receive 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, 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 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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The Australian pensioners are alarmed,

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, now we are writing posts about social issues. We have started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business, we want to talk about social issues that can affect all of us. We will continue with Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. Today we are going to talk about the Australian pensioners are alarmed, because there is a pension cut coming.  

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

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit links, Australian pensioners alarmed.

The Australian social security is called Centrelink, this is where people go to see if they qualify to receive the pension, or other help from the federal government. Because there is a cut in the pension there will be lot of people calling on this office. But let us see what is this all about. 

Australian pensioners are alarmed. 

Welcome to our article,  Australian pensioners alarmed. 

Dear readers, for this article to make sense, you have to think that it has been written a few years ago, when these things happened. Now let me continue. 

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

But let us talk about the man that brought in this disaster budget, that the Australian pensioners did not 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. Now, let us see how the expert 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 cross-bench, pensioners, economists, the union movement, students and welfare, community, and disability groups with some taking to the streets in protest. The budget included changes which were contrary to the-election commitments and promises made by the Liberals in opposition. Critics argue that every one of the following 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.

(Now, 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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The X Australian treasurer Joe Hockey

Now, this is the photo of Joe Hockey the x Australian treasurer. Somebody that is very upset has placed his photo in Facebook. They have given him the name of fat cat, not only because he is fat, but also because he earns too much money. So, we believe that it would be fair, if his pay can be cut. 

 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 that. I admit that I am not an expert in politics and government matters, however, when we use our common sense and things do not work out, we want to have our say. So, let us talk about the Australian politics and what affects us directly. Anyhow, 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, at this point of time 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.

See you soon.

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