Does anyone know if you marry a Thai girl in a Thai marriage does the Australian Government, specifically centrelink find out? The pension is quite dramatically less if they know you are married!

Im sure you are safe unless someone dobs you in
Mick

My girl will be perhaps disappointed when I retract any past drunken request for marriage.
But she will understand if it means more money for her in my retirement. :-" :-"

But it is a good question and one I might investigate further.

Bloody aussie govt have pushed me out to 67 before I get some money back from them in the form of an old age pension.

A registered thai marriage is recognised by Oz Govt.

Also think Barney you have to.live in Oz from 65 to 67 to qualify. That is if you are a non resodent now

I live in a defacto relationship and have to support a partner and two teenage kids, I sent an email to Centerlink in Aus. waited two weeks for a reply which was phone this number, WTF did I work and pay taxes all my life for to waste money on an oversea's phone call for.

As a retiree living here my pension which is the bare bones basic, if I lived in Aus. there are so many options to scam the Government for.

I love living here and the life I lead and so does the Government because they pay me a sh/t load less money.

Any suggestions fro any other Aus. pensioners.

Hi Wazza, You are correct, you have to be living in Oz for 2 years before your application for pension. There are some exceptions, if you are on another pension, such as disability. and you may be ok if you lived and worked in oz most of your life, but check that one out. Back to the topic, I do not care if they recognize a Thai marriage, I am sure they do if they find out, question remains, will they find out?

They might find out if the Widow contacts the Embassy to have some documentation provided for NOK for release of the deceased from a hospital etc, and she asks about a widows pension ?? - Embassy will only deal with NOK as per passport application details, but if a legal wife appears on the scene, she becomes the NOK and the embassy will only deal with her and not anyone in Oz.

The Embassy will only deal with 1 legal NOK, and if thats a Thai wife. Thats where it finishes.

( info is from my good friend who was 2nd Oz Consulate in BKK for many years )

If she is a widow, i would be 6ft under and not give a damn!!!Most Thai wives will be too young to partner in a married age pension, but if you are married to younger wife you only get part pension.

Centrelink use various ways to identify cases they may be interested in. Robodebt perhaps lol

Immigration / DFAT - Your passport will be showing you in Thailand.

Use of Australian credit cards outside Australia. ( ATM withdrawls in Udon )

ATO - Non Resident for Taxation , but still paying witholding tax on investments, interest on term deposits, dividends, super withdrawls / annuity.

Internet banking for fund transfers over $10 K

Im sure they have more ????

I think I will be living in sin!

I worked in Australia for about 18 months many years ago. I assume i have no entitlement to an Australian pension whatsoever?

In UK now must have minimum of 10 years contributions/credits to get any state pension, and no pension for your wife either.

There is a minimum time you need to have spent working in oz to get pension. If I remember it is 25yrs for full pension then decreasing % of pension for less years

Fatone wrote:There is a minimum time you need to have spent working in oz to get pension. If I remember it is 25yrs for full pension then decreasing % of pension for less years

Your spot on there Fatone, 25 years in Australia for a full pension, if you leave the country to retire you get nothing else in the way of benefits. All of us who grew up in aussie will get the pension except for the latest slight movement of the goalposts with the 2 years at home when you apply. You can have holidays overseas for 6 weeks at a time during this 2 year period, would suit most.
might have to live in a caravan on the beach for a while.....done that before.
Any way by the time I get to the finish line it will have changed again...the govt of any species ain't going to do us any favours from now on to provide us with a positive result. We can only play the ball delivered on the day. No need to stress prematurely.

Hi and I also looked into the current rules and regulations for an Australian Old Age Pension (OAP) and as far as I can make out,

1.You have to be resident in Australia when you apply for that pension. Cant do it from outside Australia
2.In order to get the full Value of the OAP, you need to have worked in Australia for 25 Years plus. Anything less and they have a formula to pro-rata it down (discount that max value)
3.In the last five years leading up to getting the OAP (say from 62 - 67) if you are getting it at 67 years old, you must have lived in Australia for 2 of those last 5 years. The cost of doing this would be prohibitive (unless of course you are already living in OZ). My estimate (for my case) is that it would cost me $25,000 per year say $50,000 in total over 2 years to get what !! in return and for how long. Plus I would loose 2 of the best years of my life (living in Thailand with my squeeze)
4. Financial Disclosures: The number of forms that I would need to fill in and the amount of financial information I would need to disclose (to who) only to have it then all emailed to the ATO and Ex Wife, made me ---- my pants.
5.The part I haven't worked out is if the OAP would even be paid to me when I was overseas. Cant work out what they are actually saying about paying Aussie overseas when they retire to Thailand, which is a country that they do not have a treaty with???

So to use an Australian expression - F... It , those C..ts can go and F.... themselves, and I will take care of myself and let all the immigrants feed of my past paid taxes. =D>

If I have missed anything, important in Points 1 to 5, please let me know

pipoz4444

Not disregarding no' 1 to 4 . Regardless of any agreement in regards pension sharing with another country centre link will in fact send direct to your valid bank acc in any country

Remember , they have had for donkeys years had people that were, and still are, entitled to the pension live inalmost every country in the world. Not just Thailand.

Hope this helps.

But as mentioned all necessary criteria must be met first.

Don't know to what extent being married to a non-pension aged whether Thai or otherwise has on the amount of payment as there are many aspects to how this amount is calculated. What I do know is they are a bunch of money grabbers. Classic example of double dipping......... One must declare any income if still doing any paid work.....so must your partner/ wife. Amount paid depends on combined income amount.... Fair enough....now comes the double whammie..... If you spend your declared income on the nags, booze, gambling, whatever then no problem.....BUT, give a few bob away like my missus does to her mum ( as many do) then records must be kept and amounts going back 5 years must be declared and pension adjusted accordingly with a 5 year cut off of 30g's

Sounds pretty right. They are very evasive about paying us to live overseas but I know of many Aussies living there on the OAP. They have been slowly changing the goalposts and making the commence age later the younger you are. Stupid really, with compulsory super introduced years ago the younger ones will not need full pensions.

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/custom ... -australia

Great topic,

I left Oz in 2002 and my KPMG accountant said then, if i dont plan to return soon, you wont qualify for a pension.

Goal Posts moved, yearly, even for the Super, was 55- now 60, ( minimum for annuity ) all they want to do it make the citizens work at 65.66.67 !!! WTF, then let them draw down on their super first.

I would need $50 K per year, to resettle at 65, as I have no assets, house , car etc, to recover how much from Centrelink, My investments would rule me out for the OAP, most likely. Might get a rebate for the bus trip into the city.

The age of entitlement is over, - Hockey. but canberra cvnts can get their super if they arent re -elected.

" with compulsory super introduced years ago the younger ones will not need full pensions." unless they are allowed to grab it now for a house. and the loose years of compounding benefits.

Plans afoot to discuss making your residence an asset under the OAP ,

We in Thailand are what they want. self funded retirees, with only duties required to service us , with a 10 year passport renewal, or issuing a letter to release our body from the local morgue to nominated NOK.