Top five wins for retirees …  …in 2022 and beyond What were the changes/issues that most affected retirees income in 2022? It’s easy to feel rattled such frequent headlines of interest rate rises and galloping inflation - particularly when you are...

Centrelink rules in action Disappointing scorecard We often mention the 80/80 rule of retirement income. For a good reason. This is a reminder that, by their eighth decade, 80% of Australians will be on at least a part Age Pension. A significant majority...

 PART TWO Your home, your retirement:1 January changes to deeming and downsizing Last week we covered the new 1 January rules for downsizing and super.This week we are looking at the way downsizing is treated within the Centrelink means test.This is a...

An easy win We don’t know what we don’t know. And this can seem really unfair if we miss out on something purely because we had no idea it was available.This can happen if Centrelink counts your land as an asset, but there is the possibility that it should...

 Is the Age Pension fair? Do the rules work for you? What seems fair to one person may seem the opposite to someone else. So when the national government is the major source of retirement income for those aged over 66 there are often varying perceptions...

Energy Rebates update: How they will be applied? Two weeks ago we reported on the new Energy Rebates for retirees. At the time, they had yet to pass both houses of Parliament, but this has now happened. Whilst we loved being thanked for this information by...

How we’ve helped in 2022: Reassurance, income and health prioritised At this time of the year our thoughts often turn to giving. So this week we asked our frontline team – Nicole, Sharon and Steven – if they would take time out to share how they believe they...

With seven out of 10 older Australians currently on an Age Pension you would think the rules would be relatively easy to understand. Unfortunately complexity is a feature of our retirement income system - another feature is the frequency of changes to rules...

And answers for 2022 With over 100,000 members who are at or near retirement, the Retirement Essentials’ Customer Service Team answers a LOT of questions on a weekly basis. Given that nearly 70% of Australians are on a full or part Age Pension, many are...