Thinking about making the big move full time on road. A bit scarey,can someone. tell me about rent assistance do you have to stay caravan parks all the time as we like freedom as well thanks
Best to talk to Centrelink , There is a move by Centrelink to class your rig has a home for asset test , Have a friend who had money in Super and found he was worst off by claiming Rent Assistance . But Centrlink will be able to give you the right Information has everybody is different .
You can only claim rent assistance while paying rent, as in a CP. We only claim if staying in a CP for more than 3 days as you have to get the form signed and sent or scanned off to C/link.
Our van is our full time home on the road and is not counted towards assets to reduce your claim, but any investments, money in the bank etc. is.
We do not have a large super fund though so that could affect it also if you do. Best to visit C/link get a rent assistance form and photo copy it so you have them ready to fax off, or scan into their very good smartphone/ipad app.
We claimed Rent Assistance when we stayed 7 weeks in a showgrounds ($125 per week )
We each got about $11 a fortnight.
Not before being told by one Centerlink guy that our 'van, as a full time home was an asset so couldn't claim rent assistance.
Then told by the next one that the 'van was an asset but not a house so we were able to claim rent assistance.
When we moved on to free camp some more it took an email,a fax then a phone call (50 minutes on hold ) to get them to stop paying us rent assistance.
Just our experience.
Every little bit helps or way too much mucking about for the benefit. Something to ponder.
Hope you have better service than we struck.
Centerlink is the only place to get the right answer----hopefully.
As long as you don't own a home and don't have a huge Super Fund you can claim rent assistance. We claim it at CP's when we stay for a week or longer. We have a blank form which we can print out and fill in, once the CP has signed it we take photo of the two pages with either Smartphone or Tablet or Ipad. We then send it off to centrelink via the MyGov site which is part of Families App or Seniors App. When we want to advise Centrelink we are not claiming, we just print out page 1 fill in our details and then in big letters we write across it Please Cancel Rent Assistance and then do the same and send it off. Works for us all the time.
The blank form we have is one we got sent to our mailing address, we whited out the date and place and then scanned it into our laptop.
What has been happen Asset test to receive full pension for a Homeowner couple is $286500
Asset test to receive full pension for non-Homeowner couple is $433000.
If you claim rent assistance they are calling your rig your home and treating has a home owner like they do when you live in a over 50 village and own your house and pay rent for your site and claim rent assistance , So do your sums first the rent assistance may not be worth it if you lose pension .
thanks all looks like another grey area as we are currently and some get it others don't as it is in the wording of your lease , if it is body corp. you don't if it is site fees you get it , o well we will investigate when we decide,
spoke with Centrelink today. Currently staying in a CP costing us $125 a week. Centrelink will pay us $7-8 - not worth the effort and the confusion it causes at Centrelink when you get casual payments
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
I think that a wise call Bruce and Bev , My friends wish they had not claim rent assistance and lost more pension than they got in rent assistance , Because change in asset test change .
