DC10

My parents aren't getting any younger and we are thinking about assisting them to retire to be near us in Australia. Dad is 68 and mum is 62. Both are NZ citizens (mum also has an Irish passport) who have been living in the UK for about 15 years and NZ for all their lives prior to that. They have always worked and paid taxes and/or NICs.
Dad has been retired and collecting the full UK state pension for three years on the basis of his combined residency and work in the UK and NZ. Mum is still working but has had enough.
Is the following assumption correct:
If they moved to Aus, dad could either continue to collect the UK pension (albeit at a 'frozen' rate), or alternatively could collect the Aus aged pension on the basis of his years spent working in NZ. Mum would be eligible for the Aus aged pension on the same basis when she reached 66.5 years.
I know there are asset and income tests for the Aus aged pension - put that aside for the purposes of this question.
Thanks

quoll

They won't get anything from Australia until they've been resident for 10 years. It's not a "pension" it's a Centrelink benefit.
http://www.humanservices.gov.au/cust...nk/age-pension

DC10

Thanks but I think it's more complicated than that. "If you have lived or worked in a country with which Australia has an international social security agreement[2], it may help you meet these residence requirements." NB the link you refer to calls it an "aged pension"

Pollyana

Every benefit here is called a pension. Single mothers get a pension, for instance, so you need to be very clear which 'pension' you are referring to - in this case the aged one.

Remember that if they can't qualify for PR visas, and come here just as NZ citizens, they will only ever be temporary residents here, which has other drawbacks.

And although you didn't want to get into the means testing, I suspect that could play a bg role in cancelling out most of any state benefit here.

NickyC

I believe you're correct in that their time spent in NZ will contribute to the residency requirements.

However, they don't have an either/or situation as you've outlined above. There is only one possible scenario from Centrelink's point of view. Centrelink will ensure that all potential pensions from other countries are claimed for before they will pay your father anything. So your father will have to continue to collect his UK pension (he won't get any choice in the matter) and any Australian pension will be reduced accordingly and only used to make up the difference. This assumes, of course, that he qualifies for an Australian pension on the basis of income and assets.

Centrelink are not daft - they will always get other countries to pay their way before handing over Australian taxpayers money.

Pollyana

Thanks! I did wonder about that as I hadn't ever heard of it being optional to take UK or Aus benefits - I was always led to believe that even if you don't claim the UK one, they will count it.

DC10

Interesting indeed - and presumably very complicated if you had one half of a couple receiving the UK pension and the other an Australian one. Thanks everyone for the helpful replies - lots to think about!

BEVS

Question:

Where does this leave said parents over health care and visa status ?

Pollyana

If they are in Australia solely ont he basis of their NZ citizenship, then they are temporary residents.
Not sure what access to Medicare NZ people get -someone like Buzzy-bee would know, but there are a lot of benefits to which they would not be entitled as they will not get permanent resident status.

DC10

As far as I can ascertain there are few implications for retirement-aged Kiwis here, unless you are jailed (in which case you face deportation) or enjoy being forced to vote.

Buzzy--Bee

New Zealand citizens get full medicare access as if they were Australians.

Spouses of NZ citizens are a different matter. In a very complicated case, my friend was denied ANY medicare benefits because although he was British (and therefore qualifies under the reciprocal agreement) and had a spouse who was an NZ citizen, he had lived in New Zealand for 18 months in between living in Britain and living in Australia. This removed his eligibility to medicare.

There are a few other "gotchas" for NZ citizens in Australia. I believe retirees would not be affected by most of these, however I understand that certain kinds of insurance specifically exclude anyone who does not have PR/Citizenship. So you could buy insurance for 10 years, in the 10th year need to make a claim, and you receive no payout because you are an NZ citizen and therefore a temp resident. Also some government payouts exclude temporary residents (eg disaster aid).

But having said that, there are 1000s of retired New Zealanders who reside in Australia for all or part of the year, and on a day-to-day basis, they would not be affected by these exclusions.

BB