A new way to beat Centrelink’s Age Pension assets test limit?
Centrelink’s changes to the Age Pension assets test limit in January 2017 cut off access to the Age Pension for many retirees, when the maximum value of assets owned to obtain the age pension was reduced.
If you’re a retiree and this affected you, you are probably still seething about it. Or, if you are about to retire, you might have only recently discovered that you exceed the asset test limit.
Well, 1 July 2019 might just turn out to be the answer to your problem – provided you are smart with the structuring of your financial position.
Let’s recap quickly. Back in January 2017, the Australian Government decided to reduce the asset test limit that Centrelink uses to calculate eligibility for the Age Pension, from $1,175,000 to $823,000 for a couple who own property. For a property owner who is single, this went from $791,750 to $547,000. Note, however, this asset test limit excludes the value of your primary residence and since then, the asset test limit has been indexed, so today it’s sitting a little higher than these amounts.
For a lot of people who sat close to these limits, they lost access to the Age Pension. The government did provide some grandfathering relief, with a cut-back version to try to prevent Armageddon for retirees, but anyone else just turning the qualifying age for the Age Pension was left in the dark.
Let’s jump forward to 1 July 2019. What’s about to change? Well, the government has amended its superannuation and tax legislation, and part of the new measures that have been released include a range of options for retirees with retirement income streams.
Like most things, with changes to superannuation, old ideas have an uncanny habit of reincarnation. Here’s an example: The Transfer Balance Cap of $1.6 million introduced on 1 July 2018, was really just a new version of the old Reasonable Benefit Limits, which used to be in place back in the pre-Howard era – with a few variations.
Today, the asset test exemptions with the Age Pension, which back then applied to guaranteed lifetime annuities, is making a comeback with a fancy new name: ‘Pooled Lifetime Income Streams’. Welcome back, old friend, it is like it is the year 2000 all over again!
Now like any reincarnation, or as any great tech entrepreneur will try to convince you, this time is it is ‘new’, ‘improved’, and ‘different’. Not really. To be honest we liked the old version, but like any Apple or Microsoft upgrade, we learn to live with the new version, despite transition frustrations.
So, what does this all mean?
If you sit close to the Age Pension asset test limit and you invest a portion in one of these new, bright shiny ‘income streams’, then this could allow you to claim a 60% reduction of the Age Pension assets test limit, depending on a range of factors that you need to meet.
Will this income stream product ever expire? If you manage to hang around as long as one of my favourite sea creatures, the sea turtle, who lives up to 150 years, you will continue receiving an income stream that massively outweighs the money you spent on buying this product. The money just keeps coming in the door and never runs out. We might not be able to match the sea turtle in terms of life expectancy, but if you do have a history of longevity in the family and are likely to live longer than the average life expectancy age, this might be a worthwhile consideration.
So, what are the downsides? Any money you put into this product you may end up saying ‘Adios’ to; it is likely you will never have access to this capital again, and your estate will receive zip too. So there will likely be a need to balance these combined objectives.
The great news is, there are some solutions.
Like any great newfangled investment product or idea, it is really important you don’t dash out and try to do this yourself. This area of investment is incredibly complex and a massive amount of modelling and analysis needs to be done. So before you jump into a change in strategy, I recommend you dust off that Y2K era Motorola Razor mobile phone and give Centrelink a call.
If you would like full financial planning assistance please reach out to our team at AJ Financial Planning.