How to claim Age Pension if you are overseas

Age Pension is one of the main sources of income for majority of retired Australians, so no wonder rules around eligibility and level of payments are so very complicated and keep changing from year to year.

If you are preparing for retirement and your plan is to be eligible for Age Pension, you are in the right place, as this channel is full of videos dedicated to the topic of Age Pension.

You can discover what means testing is, legal ways to improve the Age Pension benefit as well as explanation of many financial strategies that can be implemented to improve your overall retirement income, value of your assets and your money longevity.

Just recently I prepared an article and a video: “How to prepare an application of Age Pension”.

They are based on many situations I experienced personally while dealing with Centrelink on behalf of my own clients, therefore I believe it can be very helpful when you are trying to deal with the office directly yourself.

However that information is designed for people applying for the Australian Pension benefit while here in Australia.

But I know there are many Australians retiring overseas that are following my YouTube channel and read my articles, so today’s video is for you if you plan to retire overseas or if you are overseas already and wish to apply for Age Pension payments from another country.

If you wish to retire overseas you need to first find out if the country you wish to move to has a Social Security Agreement with Australia or not, as the process, rules and eligibility is different.

Today I will go over the steps to take when retiring overseas in countries that have The Social Security Agreement with Australia.

I already prepared couple of videos and articles on the topic of retirement overseas: Retirement and Living Overseas and Retirement overseas and Age Pension. Have a look to better understand your choices.

To recap quickly, Australia has an agreement with the following countries:

• Only three countries in Asia: India, Japan and Korea.
• Over 20 countries from Europe – Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland.

Please be advised that the agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) ended on 1st March 2001.

• Three countries in America: Canada, Chile and United States of America
• and New Zealand.

Under the agreement with those countries, you can claim the benefit regardless if you are in Australia or the other country at the time of your application.

If you are making the claim while in Australia, just follow the steps and suggestions from: “How to prepare an application of Age Pension“.

If you are making the claim while you are in another country, but I repeat again, only in the country that has the Social Security Agreement with Australia I would recommend the following steps to make the process easy and successful at the same time. And your success is in your proper planning.

1. Before you even leave Australia, set up your MyGov account so you can make the claim online while overseas

2. If you have never visited Centrelink before, please make sure you do this prior to you leaving Australia, so you can provide a prove of your identity. If you have a partner, you both should do this together.

3. then while you are overseas, and you took all the previously listed steps, it will be so much easier to make your claim online through MyGov

If however you have not taken the above listed steps and you are already overseas, the process is a bit more difficult and you have the following choices:

• You complete the correct form designed for the country you moved to. Centrelink has created specific forms for each of the countries previously listed, so please make sure you pick up a correct form from the Centrelink website.
• you can call the social security authorities in the country you reside now.
• or you can apply via international services line 131 673

Make sure you provide the supporting documents and follow all the other steps the way I described in “How to prepare an application of Age Pension“.

Providing details about your overseas assets is also essential.

You have to disclose all your cash accounts, any other financial holdings and support it with statement or other documents. Please do not undervalue the properties you might be holding in the other country.

Remember there is an agreement between those two countries in place and Centrelink can check the validity of your information quite easily.

If your dream is to live overseas during your retirement, watching those videos and reading some of my articles might help with your decision, but do not forget to receive the full financial planning advice, before you jump on the plane, and it is too late to organise your money properly and to your best advantage.

Retirement is a Journey not a Destination, so be well prepared for the Ride