Marriage affecting AU pension

[robert...@inbox.com]

I am an Australian citizen with British heritage.

I came to Australia in 2007 on an aged parent visa. Am now an Australian citizen, my wife is Australian born and receives a part pension from Centrelink.

Does the marriage affect her AU pension or my UK pension?

Does anyone know of any benifits or pitfalls?

Thank you in advance for any help and constructive comments.

Regards

Rob Hughes 

[Steve Symmons]

Citizenship has little to do with pension entitlement 

It revolves around:

Assets

Income

Length of permanent residence 

Complete Contribution years (UK)

And if you are part of a couple, your partner’s Assets and Income are taken into account.

You need 10 years permanent residence to qualify for an Australian pension. However, if you subsequently remain overseas for longer than six weeks it is reduced to the proportion of your years residency divided by 30 (eg: 20 years residency will reduce to 2/3 the rate).

UK only pays for a minimum of 10 complete fiscal years NI contributions divided by 35 - anywhere. But without the annual inflation based increases in Australia, of course.

After that it revolves around the Assets and Income tests, which exclude other Centrelink payments to either partner. Superannuation accounts are treated as assets. UK state pensions are income. Whichever gives the least Australian pension outcome is the one they use.

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