Can I live Overseas and Get the Australian Aged Pension?.
The basic answer to this is YES, an Australian can get the Aged Pension while living overseas, but there are some restrictions, with maybe more to come.
Australian residents can claim an Age Pension on returning to Australia after a period working overseas provided that they had lived here for ten years before going overseas.
The prime statement regarding this issue is shown at: dss.gov.au
A person arriving in or returning to Australia (1.1.A.320) must satisfy the Act’s definition of Australian resident in order to lodge a proper claim for a pension. A former resident who returns to Australia and is granted a pension (Age, DSP, WP, WidB, BVA), or who transferred under SS(Admin)Act section 12 to Age CANNOT take that pension outside Australia if they leave again within 24 months after having again become an Australian resident.
The purpose of this legislation is to discourage people from coming to Australia just to get an Australian pension to take back overseas.
Note that last sentence, and consider what may happen in the future if more pension payments begin to be sent overseas. How will governments react when Australian taxpayers are paying more to send pensions to people living overseas?
The two year restriction is to cover situations such as this example:
Immigrant to Australia leaves Australia at age 40, and returns home. Comes back to Australia at Pension age (65’ish) and claims aged pension, then returns home (overseas) with a permanent aged pension from Australia.
They must now LIVE IN AUSTRALIA for TWO years to get the ability to receive that pension overseas.
There are already Reduced Aged Pension Rates for anyone outside the country for 6 weeks or more.
The information on this is is shown at: www.humanservices.gov.au These reduced rates are assessed FOUR times each year.
In reply to the comment on 21 Oct 2015
Australian working life residence.
AWLR refers to any and all periods from the age of 16 to age pension age when a person was an Australian resident.
This gives the total Australian Residency period to be used for various Welfare benefits including the following payments: age pension, wife pension, widow B pension, parenting payment (single), disability support pension, and carer payment.
In general you need to have been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least 10 years, or for a number of periods that total more than 10 years with one of the periods being at least 5 years, to be eligible for the aged pension. www.humanservices.gov.au/../age-pension
A theoretical example of this could be: Born before 1950. Lived in Australia: 1985 to 1990 (6 years) then 3 months in each year for the next 20 years 1991 to 2011 (5 years, which adds up to 10+ years in total). Then return to Australia today, and claim aged pension tomorrow.
However: To continue claiming; the claimant must stay in Australia for the next two years.