Does anyone know how Deeming works ?

For instance pensioners with $40 000
How much deeming does that cost and is that like deducted from their pension ?
Can pensioners earn more interest on their investments than they lose through deeming ?

Considering the majority of (I imagine) forum members are either mid to late twenties these days ~ not including me cause I'm an old fart tho not as old as say term, why don't you ask centrelink?

A quick search on Google lead to the answer on centrelink

For instance pensioners with $40 000
How much deeming does that cost and is that like deducted from their pension ?

For a single person -- 3% for the first $41,000 of their total investments with 5% for any balance over $41,000

For a Pensioner couple (both receiving a pension) or a pensioner/allowee couple 3% for the first $68,200 with 5% for any balance above $68,200.

For an allowee couple (both receiving an allowance) 3% for the first $34,100 of the total investments held by each, with 5% for any balance above $34,100.

Can pensioners earn more interest on their investments than they lose through deeming ?

If the actual income you receive from your investments is more than the deemed income, the extra income is not counted when assessing your rate of pension, benefit or allowance.

hi mate

i work for centrelink,

basically we deem the first 68,200 @ 3% per annumum for pensioners, different for single allowances (as INCOME) so generally if you have a 5.5% ING direct account etc, you are way better off. Over $68k moves to 5%.

So essentially: 68200 / 3% = $2046 income per year that we assume.
Then $2046 / 26 (fortnights) = roughly $79 income that the couple is earning, so this goes into the calculation with all other earnings/investments etc.

Pensioners income free is like $232 a fortnight off the top of my head.

they can earn up to roughly $2500 gross combined (per fortnight) before they lose it

im tired, bed time

i'll add that its best for them just to call us up, we can see exactly what they have right now, plus give an estimate if they "had" the additional 40k cash

Remember to call up at least 3 times. Sometimes you get different answers from different people.

why don't you ask centrelink?

Nah nikolas is from centerlink. For all you bums on welfare, all your issues can be resolved with just a few clicks on your browser.

BendAlink. Bend em hard.

SO as long as the interest they are earning from say a bank is above the Deeming rate they arent going backwards ?

How much cash can a pensioner couple have in the bank ?
How much for a single ?

Just asking on behalf of my parents.
Thx.

My parents are very suspicious of ringing Centerlink and then getting in trouble.
Technology/pensions/centerlink etc can be quite frightening for elderly ppl.

last edited by FaceMan at 15:10:33 28/Dec/08

hi mate

i work for centrelink,

I don't know how you can sleep at night.

What's long, black and smells like s***?

A coffee?

f*** off Spick

centrelink queue?