Has anyone dealt with a similar situation and can give me some idea what to expect when we contact Centrelink? I need some general advice before spending three weeks on hold...
My parents separated approximately 12 years ago. Dad moved out and applied for a single aged pension. On his application, he stated he didn't own any real estate. The marital home is solely in mother's name and she always told him that he had no claim to it because of that. However, they are now going through divorce proceedings, and dad's lawyer has advised him that he does in fact have a claim to the property, and may receive a payment as part of the property settlement.
He knows a property settlement will likely affect his pension moving forward, but does anyone know if his past pension payments will be reassessed?
General Centrelink advice before I call them
General Centrelink advice before I call them
Posted in:
Sisterhood Stories, Money
21 Replies
He hasn't lied if the house was in Mums name so it shouldn't be a problem.
the family home is an exempt asset, however, he wasn't living in it at the time, so it depends. was he getting payments based on non-homeowner thresholds and rental assistance? he will need to discuss this with them, it's not a typical case. in terms of the sales proceeds from the family home, the cash can be exempt for 24 months, to allow pensioners time to sell and purchase a new home.no-one can really answer this for you except centrelink. as an aside, i find it absolutely unbelievable that no-one in the family has a basic grasp of marital assets and the fact that it doesn't matter what name is on the title, when you have been married. i think centrelink, like me, will have a very hard time believing your story and 12 years later, that's insane.
It doesn't matter. I have been in the same boat where I have had to declare assets to Centrelink and as our home is fully in my partners name it is legally right now not my asset, although of course I could try and claim it if we were to split. Also, even if he did put it down as his own asset it probably wouldn't have made any difference to his payments because you are allowed a reasonably high amount of assets before it affects your pension. You can't eat your house. It will only affect him when he turns it into cash but if he gets some good, professional advice he might be able to put it back into his main residence and continue the pension. I don't know exactly but I'm sure it can be done, my in laws have just done it and they get the pension.
Also I think a lot of older couples and older men in particular think they have no rights in a divorce and its a woman's game. It was only the 90's when men were treated as equal in separation by being able to claim child support etc. Its also not ideal for adult kids to get involved in their parents divorce and be telling them what to claim from the other. That's their Mum and Dad! They don't want to get in the middle of that.
i've got news for you love, Centrelink see you as a couple if you're living together, his house is your house in their eyes, they want to know all income/assets between you, so tell them about it. titles, names on bank accounts mean absolutely nothing to centrelink. it will make no difference to your payment if it is your PPR, but tell them. the only time centrelink don't consider partner's income is for child support assessment, for everything else, everything is fair game, all assets/income are pooled.
the issue also is, non-homeowners can have more assets, their threshold is higher, so it all depends on what his other assets are. also, during the time she was living in the house, centrelink may say he should have claimed it as gifting half the house or considered it a deprived asset i.e. it is assessable for 5 years. it's complicated,but will depend on his personal circumstances. oh and if he put a house down as a second property, based on single person rates and house values, it would absolutely affect his payment.
did you know a single non-homeowner and single homeowner can only have assets up to 543,750 and 301,750 before they start losing pension? If assessed as a second property, depending on the value, it would absolutely affect his payments. once assets reach 674k and 916k, you get no pension at all.
They don't class your separated ex partners assets as yours!
i agree, i'm talking about your situation, you said you didn't include your partner's house. also, look up the gifting rules, it doesn't matter who you gift to, kids, neighbour, stranger, if it's over 10k, it counts. bottom line, he had an interest in property and didn't declare it, so hopefully they assess it as ppr and don't collect from him for past payments, but if he's been claiming rental assistance, could be a problem.
If he takes money from the sale then it isn't just his partner's asset, is it? It becomes an asset he didn't disclose. Centrelink don't allow you to say, oh, I have no assets, collect full age pension, then say, oh sorry, turns out I do, oops. How they assess it, second property or ppr and his other assets and changing threshold from non-homeowner to homeowner will determine if he owes money.
OP's question is will it affect his PAST payments? No, it won't.
He was separated when he applied for the pension.
The house is in her name. He couldn't sell it, get rent from it or live in it.
He has to go to court and let them decide if he can get anything from HER asset. It's not like its in his name and they can sell it and he gets the money from it. Its not his asset.
The only thing he (and she) did wrong was wait so long for the divorce.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooo...you don't need to generate income for an asset to be assessable, nor have your name on the title if you legally have a stake, wrong, wrong, wrong. your understanding of this is so limited, you yourself don't declare your own partner's home, so you are non-compliant on a very basic level. i actually have no idea why you are commenting, to be honest.if the courts determine he in fact has a stake in this asset, centrelink will go back and assess his age pension entitlement, based on this new information. whether he owes money will depend on his other assets, whether they deem the home an assessable asset and what payments he has been receiving. it honestly sounds like they made an agreement for her to stay in the house, as her ppr, not assessable and he thought he could walk away, telling centrelink he owns nothing, get maximum entitlement, then sell house at a future date and say oops, turns out i do have something.
The court decision isn't giving him some of her asset, the court is making a decision that he, in fact, has part ownership of the asset and that portion of his ownership will determine how much proceeds he receives. You literally have no idea, why do you continue to comment such stupidity?
Well I can't find anything at all on the services website or on any chat sites which says anything about ex partners assets? So I will gladly be corrected by someone that actually has been through this exact situation or a lawyer but at the moment, you're just as stupid as me and you're assuming everything.
There is a bit on separating AFTER you're already on the pension but nothing about anything else.
Do parents of young kids who leave relationships where everything is in the partners name have to say all that property, cash etc is theirs even though they have no access to it? Does it affect their pension even though its not in their name and can't legally access it? Do they only get the pension once they have finalised settlement so centrelink know how much they are getting? OR do they get the full pension THEN deal with what they get from settlement when they actually get it? What happens there might give an idea of what happens when going for the aged pension....
You can't grasp the very simple concept that if the court gives him some proceeds, it isn't his exes asset, it's his. That portion belongs to him, that's what they're saying.. Centrelink can argue that he walked away from the marital home, so he should have disclosed that and they would have probably assessed it as a deprived asset for 5 years. You can't give your kids 50k prior to claiming age pension without disclosing, because Centrelink will then make 40k an assessable asset for 5 years. As far as Centrelink is concerned, you can't give away assets and have it not count in your assessment. They figure, if you're giving stuff away, that's your business, but they aren't going to fund the shortfall. You obviously have absolutely no idea, so I'm wasting my breath, I think these concepts are well above your level of understanding. So you keep googling incorrectly exes assets and age pension assessment and tell yourself you're right. Oh and please, for the love of God, update your circumstances and tell them about you living in your partners home. No one is that stupid to not to disclose that so I figure, you're probably illegally claiming rental assistance or single parents? Or you're the stupidest person on earth.
I could, but im not going to explain all those examples to you because you just don't get it. You're now mixing age pension with family payments sigh. I do Centrelink entitlement assessments daily at work, I'm not here to give you a lesson.
Op it may be fine, it may not, the less assets he has, the better, too many factors to consider, good luck, hope everything works out.
OK. So I just went through the effort of doing a mock aged pension estimate using OPs Dads circumstances and zero question about an ex partner or THEIR assets and guess what? You can only put in assets that have your name on it or have an interest in (of which is not relevant in this case). Old boy gets 1300 a fortnight if he pays rent, not bad, not bad.
So I am correct, it won't matter until he is on the other side of settlement. Are you grasping that?
AN INTEREST IN YESSSSSSSS, that's VERY RELEVANT. urghhhhhh
he is getting sale proceeds............
You don't even know Op's dad's assets, oh my godddddd.....
As an aside, anyone thinking of gifting assets, do it before age 62, then it won't be assessable when you reach Age pension age (67). Cheers, I'm out.
That's not what an interest in property means.
I'd advise he asks an accountant if he decides to claim. It's dependent on so many criteria & they know the rules & methods to avoid (or minimise) Centrelink pain for your situation.
I never trust Centrelink as any dealings I have had with them I've gotten different answers each time I've called. It caused so many issues it took forever to sort out (their error).