Recent research from financial services provider, AMP, reports that 70% of Australians do not know what an Account-Based Pension is. We doubt this is the case with Retirement Essentials members, but it was a handy reminder that the complexity of many aspects...
Last month Steven (who’s head of our Customer Services Team) answered a series of questions about whether our members should be receiving a single or couples Age Pension. These questions coincided with new Age Pension increases, with many people questioning...
Services Australia workers are gearing up for a 24-hour strike next week, leaving many Australians wondering about the impact on Centrelink payments and services. The strike, scheduled for Monday, October 9, is a response to a government pay rise offer that...
A member recently asked us how long it is reasonable to wait for a response from Centrelink. That’s not an easy question to answer. The short answer is, ‘it depends’. The longer answer is equally complicated, as it still depends on many different aspects of...
The good news this week is that all Age Pension payment and threshold changes are now live. So you can use our Age Pension Eligibility Calculator to check your new payments or eligibility status immediately. And there are two other important changes which...
The expected 20 September Age Pension changes have now been confirmed by Services Australia, the government department responsible for indexation of the Age Pension every March and September. We reported a couple of weeks ago that we expected these changes...
Nearly three-quarters of Australian retirees will receive a ‘pay rise’ on 20 September when the Age Pension is next indexed. This indexation occurs twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September. It is the method by which the payment rates of the Age Pension are...
The end August release of the 2023 Intergenerational Report (IGR) was met with extensive media coverage. And at the conclusion of the launch of this report, Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated that the decumulation phase of retirement will be his next major focus....
How can you make the most of your home in retirement? Last week we looked at the ways homeowners can maximise their retirement income by using this very valuable asset. Our focus was on those who plan to stay put in their ‘forever’ homes. This week we...