Doug PollardWIll Centrelink 'out' elderly same-sex couples?
February 11th 2009 02:33
Hank Jongen, General Manager, Centrelink
The Rainbow Report this Thursday will be a special devoted entirely to YOUR questions and concerns over the implementation of new rules governing benefits for same sex couples.
Centrelink General Manager Hank Jongen will be live in the studio to address your concerns.
On July 1 Centrelink will begin treating same-sex couples the same as hetrosexual de facto couples.
That means two men or two women living together - if Centrelink decides they are a couple - will have their income jointly assessed.
Many elderly same-sex couples who have concealed their relationship from friends and family all their lives fear they will be outed by Centrelink during the process of assessment.
If both are currently recieving a single person's age pension, they will drop to a couple pension.
If one is a pensioner or other claimant, but their partner is in work, then the pensioner might lose their benefit altogether if Centrelink deems their joint income adequate to support the pair.
In the past, when benefit changes were introduced, the changes were 'grandfathered'. That is, existing claimants were left alone, and only new claimants were subjected to the new rules.
In other cases, the changes were phased in over many years, as when the pensionable age was raised from 60 to 65 for women.
Same sex couples have been given six months before the new regime kicks in.
I will be devoting the whole hour of the Rainbow Report this week to a live interview with Hank Jongen, the General Manager of Centrelink.
We can't get into the rights and wrongs of grandfathering: that was a political decision and at the moment it still stands. Centrelink has no choice but to implement the legislation as passed.
But we can raise any specific concerns and questions about your personal situation, or the implementation of these changes in general, direct with Mr Jongen: you can email, sms or phone.
You can do so anonymously or, if you are comfortable providing personal details, one of his staff will be on hand to take your details and look into your specific case and get back to you later.
You can also send me any questions you want to raise ahead of time to journobear@gmail.com. Many of you have already done so, and I will put as many of them as possible to Mr Jongen.
That's The Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9FM Melbourne, streaming live at www.joy.org.au: podcasts at the same address and also via iTunes store.
Join me 7-8pm AEDST every Thursday: call 61 (0)3 9699 2949 / onair@joy.org.au / Txt: 0427 JOY 949
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