Federal Opposition's announcement of the pensioner guarantee has led to confusion.
The Federal Opposition’s announcement of the pensioner guarantee has led to confusion about who is considered a pensioner and who is exempt from the no-cashback policy on dividend franking credits.
On 1 January 2017, the doubling of the pension asset test taper rate caused tens of thousands of part-pensioners to lose their eligibility for the pension.
In October of that year, those affected got their Pensioner Concession Card back. With it came eligibility for state concessions and cheap meds.
Now that the federal Opposition has announced it will exempt pensioners from its no-cashback policy on dividend tax credits, the question arises whether those former part-pensioners would also be exempt.
Unfortunately, the answer is: no.
CPSA pressed the Office of the Leader of the Opposition for an explicit response to that question and this is what it received:
“… concession card holders who do not also receive a pension or allowance will not fall under Labor’s Pensioner Guarantee. The threshold is the receipt of a pension or an allowance such as the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment, Parenting Payment, Newstart and Sickness Allowance”.
