The government has announced a number of measures to assist older Australians through the pandemic. Below we provide a summary of the measures and how they will apply.
Reducing ABP minimum drawdowns
The minimum drawdown requirements for Account-Based Pensions (ABPs) and similar products will be reduced by 50 per cent. The reduction will apply for the current income year (2019-20) and the 2020-21 income year.
If a member has already drawn the reduced minimum in the current income year they will not be required to take any additional payments. Please contact us to discuss the process for reducing your minimum pension payments.
$750 support payments
The Government is providing two separate $750 payments to social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders.
Eligibility for the first $750 payment
To qualify for the first payment, an individual:
must be residing in Australia, and
must be receiving one of the following payments, or hold one of the following concession cards, at any time from 12 March 2020 to 13 April 2020, inclusive (or have lodged a claim during this period and the claim is subsequently granted):
Age Pension
Disability Support Pension
Carer Payment
Parenting Payment
Wife Pension
Widow B Pension
ABSTUDY (Living Allowance)
Austudy
Bereavement Allowance
Newstart Allowance
JobSeeker Payment
Youth Allowance
Partner Allowance
Sickness Allowance
Special Benefit
Widow Allowance
Family Tax Benefit (including Double Orphan Pension)
Carer Allowance
Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) holders
Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders
Veteran Service Pension; Veteran Income Support Supplement; Veteran Compensation payments, including lump sum payments; War Widow(er) Pension; and Veteran Payment.
DVA PCC holders; DVA Education Scheme recipients; Disability Pensioners at the temporary special rate; DVA Income support pensioners at $0 rate.
Veteran Gold Card holders
Farm Household Allowance
Eligibility for the second $750 payment
To qualify for the second payment, an individual must meet the following criteria on 10 July 2020:
must be residing in Australia, and
must be receiving one of the payments or hold one of the concession cards that were eligible for the first payment, except for those who are eligible to receive the Coronavirus supplement.
Individuals who are eligible to receive the Coronavirus supplement are not eligible for the second $750 payment.
The ‘Coronovirus supplement' is a $550 per fortnightly payment to both existing and new recipients of the following eligible payment categories:
Jobseeker Payment (and all payments progressively transitioning to JobSeeker Payment including those currently receiving Partner Allowance, Widow Allowance, Sickness Allowance and Wife Pension)
Youth Allowance Jobseeker
Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single)
Farm Household Allowance
Special Benefit recipients
Reduction in deeming rates
On 12 March 2020, the Government announced a 0.5 percentage point reduction in both the upper and lower social security deeming rates. The Government will now reduce these rates by another 0.25 percentage points.
As of 1 May 2020, the deeming rates listed in the table below will apply:
If you would like to discuss how any of the above applies to your circumstances please do not hesitate to contact us on (03) 9584 2277 or via email.