Dudded part- pensioners to regain entitlements
MORE than 90,000 former pensioners will have their concession cards given back to them today.
The Turnbull Government faced a backlash late last year when it overhauled the pension assets test.
It lifted the threshold for ac- cess to the full pension to $ 250,000 for a single homeowner and $ 375,000 for couples, and reduced payments for every $ 1000 in assets above the threshold.
The changes meant about 92,300 pension recipients stopped receiving their partpayments. The former partpensioners will be given their pension cards back from today. Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the reforms were still a crucial step in ensuring Australia’s pension system remained “sustainable and affordable for future generations”.
“Those reforms increased the assets limits at the lower end, providing increased pen- sion to people with lower levels of assets, whilst reducing the upper limits, meaning some part- pensioners with high levels of assets lost access to their part- pensions,” Mr Porter said.
“As a consequence, those with higher levels of assets also lost their PCC ( Pensioner Concession Card) and, as a consequence, lost access to a range of state/ territory and local government and private sector benefits, such as discounted council rates or rail travel. The benefits of the card vary from state to state.”
People expecting a reissued card do not need to do anything to receive it – the department will send it to them automatically.