Centreline payments

[Guest Ollie2011]

His everyone,

just wanted to ask if our estimated centreline payments sound about right. We are still in the uk in the process of applying for our PR visa and having a look at budgeting for the month and our monthly outgoings. After looking over some spreadsheets and looking at what others spend on things on a monthly basis we realised we will probably be eligible for some centreline payments. Have gone onto the website and entered what I think we will be earning and it has estimated the following payments per fortnight:

 

Family tax benefit part A. $315

Family tax benefit part B. $146

Clean energy part A. $6

Clean energy part B. $3

Rent assistance. $127

 

i based this on my wife staying at home with our 2 young children and me earning 55000 per year as a mechanic. Can anyone tell me from there own experience if these payments sound about right? Don't want to assume these will be part of our budget if I have gone to the wrong centreline page or not put things correctly!

 

We are not eligible for any kind of help in the UK except child benefit so this is all new to me!

 

Thanks everyone

[guspjmh]

His everyone,

just wanted to ask if our estimated centreline payments sound about right. We are still in the uk in the process of applying for our PR visa and having a look at budgeting for the month and our monthly outgoings. After looking over some spreadsheets and looking at what others spend on things on a monthly basis we realised we will probably be eligible for some centreline payments. Have gone onto the website and entered what I think we will be earning and it has estimated the following payments per fortnight:

 

Family tax benefit part A. $315

Family tax benefit part B. $146

Clean energy part A. $6

Clean energy part B. $3

Rent assistance. $127

 

i based this on my wife staying at home with our 2 young children and me earning 55000 per year as a mechanic. Can anyone tell me from there own experience if these payments sound about right? Don't want to assume these will be part of our budget if I have gone to the wrong centreline page or not put things correctly!

 

We are not eligible for any kind of help in the UK except child benefit so this is all new to me!

 

Thanks everyone

 

 

Difficult to to say exactly, but sounds about right. Family tax benefit is a very generous bit of government assistance!

[Guest Ollie2011]

Thanks for the reply, not going to assume and rely on this amount but would b good to know if this is an approximate based on my predicted salary!

[Guest Guest12727]

Hi Ollie,

I wouldn't count your chickens before they are hatched. We did move here 10years ago, so things may have changed, but this is our experience.

 

Family tax benefit is means tested based on the previous financial year. When we came to Oz, they used our UK incomes for the previous year with a direct exchange rate to AU$ and we exceeded the threshold so didn't receive anything, even though neither of us was working at that stage. It wasn't until the next year when we had a lower income that we were able to get anything. I would work it out based on your UK combined incomes initially.

 

I thought you had to be on a really really low income to get rent assistance, such as single mum living on benefits. Not sure that a family who has been able to afford to migrate fits this category.

 

If Tony Abbott has his way, the clean energy bonuses will be gone before you get here and I doubt very much that the price of energy will decrease.

[Blossom]

You can get rent assistance on that income.

 

You have me a bit worried there howde. I'm pregnant and had gone by the calculator on the centerlink website by what we would be earning with one wage. We'll struggle if we are not entitled to anything until the next financial year.

Although a girl I work with was telling me she has an app she has to put in her and her partners income every fortnight and her payments are then paid. Maybe it has changed?

[Guest Guest12727]

You can get rent assistance on that income.

 

You have me a bit worried there howde. I'm pregnant and had gone by the calculator on the centerlink website by what we would be earning with one wage. We'll struggle if we are not entitled to anything until the next financial year.

Although a girl I work with was telling me she has an app she has to put in her and her partners income every fortnight and her payments are then paid. Maybe it has changed?

 

I think you are okay Blossom, as you are already here. It was different for us as we were newly arrived.

[Guest Cara_]

Hi guys

 

Can someone please explain this to me. Fromt he above it seems that as soon as you arrive in oz you can claim benefits? is this correcT? My husband and I along with our two daughters hope to move over in 2016 - he will be working as a carpenter and i will be a stay at home mum - so is it possible to claim benefits or have I got this completely wrong. The above info is the first i have ever heard of it.

 

Any info is appreciated! Thanks!!

[Blossom]

Well lots if people have claimed family tax benefits and rent assist, but howde struggled. Maybe we need someone who has arrived recently to let us know how they went?

[Guest Ollie2011]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Howde- this is also the first I had heard of this, thanks for highlighting that this might happen! I know that we are unable to get unemployment benefits etc but was under the impression that we should get family tax benefit and rent assistance as we are classed as permenant residents . Obviously I'm not relying on it to get by as I don't expect to just be given benefits as a new immigrant but just trying to work out what our monthly $ might be so we can work out a budget and I'm hoping il be able to get a job fairly quickly as a mechanic.

yes, perhaps anyone who is newly arrived can shed some light on this and let me know if they have experienced the same rules as Howde?

:err:Slightly confused now!

[guspjmh]

Well lots if people have claimed family tax benefits and rent assist, but howde struggled. Maybe we need someone who has arrived recently to let us know how they went?

 

 

We are still waiting to hear back from centrelink, so my tip is don't budget for it to happen quickly. We put our claim in weeks ago and were advised we qualified because I stopped working in October last year and Kate only worked part time in uk and not at all here.

 

We will get less next year as I am working full time here now.

[Guest Ollie2011]

Guspjmh- so did you have a couple of months off work before going out to oz? Do they take this into consideration when assessing your claim? Was probably going to have a month off before we go to sort everything out. Do they tell you there and then how much you will be getting?

[Guest vikkiann]

When we moved over in 2012 we qualified, we then had to estimate our income for the tax year 2012/13 which we over estimated based on what we thought hubby would earn.

We filed tax returns in August 2013 and we were way under on estimated earnings and got nearly 3k back from centrelink.

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

It is based on your estimate of the current year's income. We arrived here in the January so they want to know all your income from the previous July which included what we had earned in the uk from that point. They give you an exchange rate to convert it. Always best to overestimate a bit though and get the extra back at the end of the year than to end up owing them! It can take a while to get it too - it took us 14 weeks although it was all back dated when it did finally get sorted.

[Guest Ollie2011]

So just for clarification guspjmh and vikkiann, did they use your yearly earnings in the uk to gauge if you where eligible for family benefit and rent assistance?

[Guest Ollie2011]

Thanks mrs Bon jovi, our messages posts were written at the same time!

[Guest vikkiann]

Yes Ollie, it was based on our uk earnings for the previous year, we also took time off before moving here, I think you need it.

[Guest Ollie2011]

Does the financial year run July to July then?

[Guest Ollie2011]

It is based on your estimate of the current year's income. We arrived here in the January so they want to know all your income from the previous July which included what we had earned in the uk from that point. They give you an exchange rate to convert it. Always best to overestimate a bit though and get the extra back at the end of the year than to end up owing them! It can take a while to get it too - it took us 14 weeks although it was all back dated when it did finally get sorted.

 

 

Can anyone tell me what il need to show them to prove our income from the uk? Did they require payslips or a p45?

[Guest vikkiann]

Lol. Nothing!! It goes on your word.

Tax year is 1st July - 30th June

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

Can anyone tell me what il need to show them to prove our income from the uk? Did they require payslips or a p45?

Nothing! They just took our word for it!

[guspjmh]

They do take your word for it, but if they are suspicious they retain the right to ask for proof from uk - eg tax statements and payslips.

[Guest Guest12727]

Just to clarify from my previous post.

We arrived in Jan. so had worked for 6months of the Aus financial year (July - Dec) and we both worked full-time. So when our 6mth income (plus holiday payout) was converted to $ (the exchange rate was well over $2 at the time) we were over the threshold already for the current financial year. I tried to argue the case with them, but got nowhere. When the new financial year kicked in the next July, we were able to put our income for that year in and started to get some Family Benefit Part A.

As some-one else said, we never claim Part B until the end of the financial year. I work casual and never know what my income will be, so it is safer to wait until the end of the year and get a lump sum, rather than have to pay it back.

[SWMBO]

Just to clarify from my previous post.

We arrived in Jan. so had worked for 6months of the Aus financial year (July - Dec) and we both worked full-time. So when our 6mth income (plus holiday payout) was converted to $ (the exchange rate was well over $2 at the time) we were over the threshold already for the current financial year. I tried to argue the case with them, but got nowhere. When the new financial year kicked in the next July, we were able to put our income for that year in and started to get some Family Benefit Part A.

As some-one else said, we never claim Part B until the end of the financial year. I work casual and never know what my income will be, so it is safer to wait until the end of the year and get a lump sum, rather than have to pay it back.

 

 

My advice to anyone is claim as a lump sum at the end of the year .Do not rely on it and you will get a nice lump sum to use the following year split weekly or monthly.Or to pay school fees books uniforms books etc.

 

If you claim as you go through the year you run the risk of having to pay back large sums of money after your end of year tax assessment,which is sent to centrelink each year.

[kadina]

It should only take 21 days To finalise things you need to keep on at them the best thing to do is go in the office and speak to someone we only waited around 5 weeks to sort ours as there were delays we were similar to you with the time we had worked in the previous tax year, I did not work at all the previous year and hubby just 4 months of that tax year, we had lived here before as well so no idea about newbies its a while since we did that, this is purely family tax benefits from centrelink you cannot claim any kind of unemployment benefit I think for 2 years (not that we've ever looked at this its just what I know) you cannot rely on the centrelink payments for sure things are changing all the time its swings and round abouts really they give you something in one hand and take it in the other

 

We are still waiting to hear back from centrelink, so my tip is don't budget for it to happen quickly. We put our claim in weeks ago and were advised we qualified because I stopped working in October last year and Kate only worked part time in uk and not at all here.

 

We will get less next year as I am working full time here now.

[Jessica Berry]

I had no idea the benefits were so generous. It is an interesting one that got me thinking...many people that live in the UK are critical of a system that allows migrants that come into the UK to claim for benefits when they have made no financial contribution to that country. I wonder if the people that do not agree with that system, who then migrate to Australia refuse the payments on a matter of principle.