Superannuation

[Ab]

Let me get this straight...

- eligibility age 65
- NZ citizens and permanent residents who have spent both at least 10 years since aged of 20 and five years since age of 50 in NZ.
- A floor so that the pension for a couple after tax is no less than 66% (and a ceiling of 72.5%) of the average ordinary time earnings after tax.
- The single living alone rate is 65% of the couple rate
- Inflation adjusted annually
- No income test
- No asset test

I think I'm about 9 months short of 10 years since the age of twenty. So all I have to do is move back to NZ at the age of (edit) 59 years and 3 months and I qualify upon hitting 65?

Sweet.

PS: fucking crazy.

[Bent]

Indeed. They should at least provide some financial incentives to work longer. It always amazes me the number of "uncles and aunties" out working here in Singapore, but I guess there are just as many who have saved enough or get help from the kids. I no longer expect to receive any help at all from the government by the time I hit 65 and am planning appropriately.

[A Corpse]

Paid how? Haven't they suspended govt. deposits into the super fund anyway?

[chiQ]

Plus five years after turning 50, but yeah, pretty easy.

[Cyberbob]

Move at 59 and 3 months, on your 65th birthday you'll be eligible..done?

Assuming those two age restrictions can be fulfilled concurrently?

[Cyberbob]

Orrrrr... Move at 50, live there for 5 years, go elsewhere, come back at 65, win?

[Ab]

Originally Posted by chiQ

Plus five years after turning 50, but yeah, pretty easy.

Last time I checked, the age of 60 could only be reached after having reached the age of 50. Thus living in NZ from 60-65 would count as spending 5 years in NZ after 50.

[MoP]

Originally Posted by Bent

I no longer expect to receive any help at all from the government by the time I hit 65 and am planning appropriately.

What Bent said. By the time we actually get to retire, there won't be any money left over after we're done paying for the baby-boomers' retirement

[Ab]

Especially after they vote themselves a few super upgrades. No political party has the balls to piss off the boomers.

The Government has moved quickly to appease pensioners concerned their SuperGold card privileges may be eroded because of the scheme's escalating costs.

The Government announced yesterday it was reviewing the free off-peak transport scheme for pensioners that is provided by the card because usage was increasing and budgets were likely to be exceeded.

That was met with concern by senior citizens lobby group Grey Power and opposition MPs who said it could lead to the elderly losing some of their travel privileges.

Grey Power went public with concerns this morning, but national president Les Howard said he had since received assurances from the office of Transport Minister Stephen Joyce that the card's free transport scheme would not be discontinued or cut.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...SuperGold-card

Hell no, can't threaten free travel to those second homes on Waiheke:

The card has proved particularly attractive to elderly residents of Auckland’s Waiheke Island and their contemporaries in Auckland who fancy a harbour cruise. Pensioners, or rather the Government on their behalf, spent $2 million on Waiheke Island ferry travel in a 12-month period. That’s 11 per cent of the $18m spent on the scheme in total.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post...ly-daytrippers

[xor]

The problem with the NZ pension is that you have to stay in NZ at least 6months of the year. Can you handle that, mari guy?

[Rince]

my father-in-law relies on his supergold card (he's normally in Blenheim) when he's staying with us - free offpeak travel into Wellington.....

But my mother-in-law (from the 09) had her's rejected by the train ticketing dude.....

weird

[Saladin]

Originally Posted by Rince

But my mother-in-law (from the 09) had her's rejected by the train ticketing dude..

Probably the old excuse of "we're not an off-peak train, we're just running in off-peak time because we're an hour late"

[Juju]

So you are expecting to live in Aus for the majority of your life, then come back to NZ at the last second and claim super?
Does NZ get paid out by Aus for your super? If not, that's kinda gay.

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Ab

Last time I checked, the age of 60 could only be reached after having reached the age of 50. Thus living in NZ from 60-65 would count as spending 5 years in NZ after 50.

Yeah, but you said you were 9 months short of "10 years since 20yo", so you'd need to be here from 59 years 3 months.

[Cynos]

Don't forget the bonus payments from the government to fix your leaky investment properties! Pretty much an additional superannuation payment considering the demographics of property investors.

[Ab]

Bump for a funny Baby Boomer post. Well, a link to one. It's American, but still good.

AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE BOOMERS TO THEIR CHILDREN
Dear people between the ages of 25 and 40,

As we near retirement, Mom and I wanted to write you kids to share a few thoughts about the lives we've lived and the world we've left behind for you. We feel this is necessary because at first glance it might seem like we are a generation of narcissistic, spoiled assholes who freeloaded off of the magnificent world our parents built for us and then cashed out before handing it over to you. This is an unfair characterization. It disregards the fact that we earned the right to do those things. We earned them by being awesome.

http://www.ginandtacos.com/2010/04/0...their-children

[Ab]

Dum de dum, more of the same.

(I)f there was an elephant in the room during (the) speech and others during the day-and-a-half-long gathering of academics, economists and others, it was the Government's refusal to engage in the retirement debate.

While it has tasked many other thorny debates to private sector working groups to thrash out since coming to office 20 months ago – think Tax Working Group, welfare and capital markets reform – retirement policy is a no-go zone.

Summary: who cares if the economy is in a death spiral, if it will lose us elderly votes we ain't touching it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/pers...rement-tsunami

[chubby]

^^ you see and acknowledge all this, and yet you still give your support to the architects and beneficiaries of this 'fuck you yoof' path.


stupid kids.

[xor]

And you think labour will?

[chubby]

no.
no i dont, dummy.

but we're talking about the government.

[fixed_truth]

I found myself agreeing with Brash.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment...ectid=10660560

He suggests, as have many others, that the age of entitlement should be raised from 65 to 67. But he would also allow people to retire earlier or later on different superannuation rates.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by chubby

^^ you see and acknowledge all this, and yet you still give your support to the architects and beneficiaries of this 'fuck you yoof' path

The problem is, the architects and beneficiaries of this "fuck you yoof" path are EVERY PARTY.

Not one of them has the balls to alienate the baby boomers. Because they know that that would result in instant electoral destruction.

[fidgit]

I wonder if there's enough voters that I could start a party purely on "fuck old people" platform, and get in...

[chubby]

....so you give your support to the most egregious example of the problem- a party whose answer to everything is 'easy money,now'.
no thought to future survival, let alone comfort.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

The problem is, the architects and beneficiaries of this "fuck you yoof" path are EVERY PARTY.

That's very Gramsci of you

[MrTTTT]

Originally Posted by fidgit

I wonder if there's enough voters that I could start a party purely on "fuck old people" platform, and get in...

This would be AWESOME.

[Vrtigo]

would also be awesome to watch fidgit get old and still in charge of the party.

[Ab]

Hoo boy, we obviously need some welfare reform. That DPB is obviously fucking the country.

Chart stolen from Dim-post.

[fixed_truth]

That DPB is obviously fucking the country.

You think National's approach of making it harder to access childcare and further education/training is going to help the evil solo mums get to work?

This is welfare bashing plain & simple.

[Fx.]

surely you spotted the sarcasm, its almost the same as "other"

[cyc]

Originally Posted by fixed_truth

You think National's approach of making it harder to access childcare and further education/training is going to help the evil solo mums get to work?

This is welfare bashing plain & simple.

You are a bit dim, aren't you?

[fixed_truth]

You're the one who supports the party doing this cyc, so go figure.

'Welfare working group' lol

[cyc]

Fixed_truth, your one-liners are so cutting and intellectually impressive. I bow to your greatness.

[fixed_truth]

*yawn* If you want to discuss the merits of the welfare working groups report or what the govt. should or should not be doing about welfare etc that's great, but I can't be bothered with your usual small penis syndrome shit.

[Cynos]

Fuck's sake fixed_truth, you totally missed Ab's sarcasm.

My $0.02 on this (used to work for WINZ some years ago):

• DPB does need to be work-tested at some point, to be honest. But, just remember that the government's first welfare policy decision was to limit the Training Incentive Allowance - a subsidy paid to sole parents undertaking training and/or study, presumably with the intention of doing better things in life. Or becoming a homeopathic practitioner. But that's okay, because Paula Bennett was a solo Mum once and look how she turned out.
• Sickness benefit is the prime benefit of choice for malingerers, no doubt. But Work and Income already have a mechanism to weed out malingerers - designated doctor assessments. One well-planned purge over 2 - 3 years would a) dramatically decrease SB numbers and b) dramatically increase UB numbers as correct entitlements were assessed.
• Revert Invalids Benefit to the old system of needing a designated doctor's assessment to get on it, and problem solved. IB is designed for people with chronic and severe illnesses. Anyone talking about getting people off IB and into work is an ideologue.

Basically, yeah, there's improvements to be made. But discarding the whole system and introducing a new is not the way to fix it, it sounds far more like an ideological choice than a rational one. Also, all this talk of an insurance based scheme sounds like fancy-talk for "We're going to tax workers twice".

Although, shifting a component of tax into a levy and calling it a 'tax cut' is a good strategy.

[Saladin]

Call it a Temporary Refund Adjustment

[Ab]

Originally Posted by fixed_truth

You think National's approach of making it harder to access childcare and further education/training is going to help the evil solo mums get to work?

This is welfare bashing plain & simple.

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by Saladin

Call it a Temporary Refund Adjustment

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

You are completely right, I must be going senile

[JP]

The war on the poor is getting pretty old.