I DON’T GET IT?

As the latest batch of stimulus goodies starts to hit grateful recipients’ bank accounts this week there has been much debate –and Government concern –about how people will spend their $900 windfall. Will you spend it here? Will it be spent on Australian-made products? Will it be spent on overseas holidays? Will it be spent at all or hoarded –like the last one – for a rainy day. Or a jobless day.

Well, we now know where some it is has been going. Overseas. And the Government is directly responsible. Nearly 70,000 people whom live overseas and are paid part-pensions from Canberra received the $1400 payment in December or $2100 for a couple.

People in 21 countries –mostly in New Zealand, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain. Even if they only lived and worked here for a short time.

A classic example is a very happy Barbara Tokley a British-born Auckland resident. She worked in Australia for five years in the 1960s. She gets the $950 –like she collected the $1400 in December. Even though she hasn’t lived or worked here for forty years!

It is true we have reciprocal pension deals with some countries. And the argument is ‘well, I lived and worked there for a while and paid taxes so I am entitled’ but surely that shouldn’t apply to one-off bonuses.

In the United States you have to live and pay taxes –including a specific Social Security tax – for ten years. And when pension time comes around, if you live overseas, you are only entitled to a small portion based on your last
earnings in the U.S.

And compare Barbara Tokley’s windfall with the plight of Sean Rawson here in Melbourne.

He’s a single father, a low-income earner, getting just over $11,000 a year. That $900 will come really handy, right? Wrong. He’s not eligible.  Sure he earns less than the $80,000 limit for the full refund but he also earns less than $15,000 which the Tax Office has set as a ‘tax offset’ limit.

Didn’t hear Santa Claus Rudd talking about that. If Sean Rawson was unemployed and getting a dole cheque he’d get it. If he was on New Start he’d get it. If he was a pensioner living in New Zealand last December he would have got it. But he’s a genuine battler. He doesn’t get it. And frankly, I just don’t get it.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009