I'm on Disability Support Pension, what can I expect from 2018 Budget?

As per the title of my topic, I receive a Disability Support Pension. Anyone know if I am better or worse off under the new 2018 federal budget

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It all depends:

  • If you are on the pension you wouldn’t pay tax and wont benefit from the tax cuts in 2019,
  • If you don’t have a job on the side the extra income allowance won’t mean anything,
  • If you don’t need mental health care or services, and
  • If you don’t need any of the new PBS medications
    you don’t won’t benefit from the 2018 Budget.

And don’t forget the Government is committing $316M to data matching to catch more pensioners out with “robo-debt”.

So it depends on your circumstances as to whether you will be getting anything from the 2018 Budget.

Yet for some reason pensioner are touted to be one of the big winners.

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The Superannuants are a group that may benefit from the lower fees etc, so it may have some benefits if you also tap into superannuation pensions or investments.

Really it is just the huge tax cut for businesses, and banks are going to get a good part of this tax benefit. Pensioners are easy targets as are unemployed to show how the Govt can shave money off them.

A group that is about Age Pensioners and Retirees has looked at the budget. I am providing a link to one of their posts about the budget but they do link to a number of articles at the end of their post about more things in the budget. If you go to the comments it can be a reall toss up if reading them is worth it but they might interest you.

https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/are-we-being-fattened-for-the-kill

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The ABC has this useful summary, so does Choice:

If it isn’t mentioned, it is possible there is no change.

All the budget papers can be found here:

https://www.budget.gov.au/2018-19/content/documents.html

and you can search for key words in these papers to see what the changes are. Try searching ‘disability’ or ‘disability pension’ (if this is the exact name Department of Human Services uses) and see it it appears and what information is provided which may affect you. Also search other terms for government services/interactions/subsidies you may currently have and/or use.

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just in particular to DSP recipients:
The energy rebates will continue
If you are on NDIS, it will continue to be fully funded under this government without having to
charge more on the Medicare levy.
If you have other income then you may receive the tax refund cash back at the end of the 2017-2018 financial year.
I think all other changes affect everyone

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Thank you all for your replies and links.
As I don’t have Super or Shares and cannot work at all it seems people in my position will not benefit from this budget.
Fingers crossed for next time


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