Moving to Australia from New Zealand?
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Multiple New Zealanders who have moved to Australia have advised me that there is a backlog of pension applications. If you pass the income and asset tests, it’s important to apply as soon as you arrive. You can lodge an Age Pension application up to 13 weeks before you reach eligibility age (between 66.5 and 67).
A claim for the age pension is meant to have a “timeliness standard” of 49 days, but in December last year, the average processing time was 91 days, up from 61 in August and 35 days in the 2021-22 financial year.
Your application will be backdated to the date of your application. However, the NZ pension is way more generous and has not been income- and asset-tested. Therefore if you are not eligible for the full Australian Age Pension, you are best to wait until you have received your NZ pension for 26 weeks and then apply for the Australian Age Pension.
Many aged pension claimants are waiting months for their claims to be assessed as Centrelink grapples with a staffing shortage.
Centrelink currently has 34,000 age pension claims waiting to be processed, and the average processing time is 72 days. That was on February 9, 2024. I cannot find a more recent assessment of their current situation.
Centrelink has been funded to hire 3,000 additional staff who are currently receiving training to ease the wait times and backlog. Source: ABC News.
Hopefully, this has already happened, as it is now April, and they are trying to clear the backlog.
Another factor delaying some applications is that the applicants do not supply all the necessary information or have complex financial affairs.
Complex financial affairs include trusts, shares and other investments, all of which must be appropriately assessed.
Sometimes, they need to get third parties to confirm the required information, which can lead to delays.
If you are currently waiting for your application to be approved and are experiencing financial hardship, then you should visit a Centrelink office in person if possible. Please note there will be cues, so please plan ahead to wait in line. Or even better, call Centrelink International on 131 673. A visitor said they were really helpful and sorted out their issues promptly.
Please ensure you have submitted all necessary information and documentation to ensure your claim is assessed as quickly as possible.
You can lodge an Age Pension application up to 13 weeks before you reach the pension age of 67.
First, check if you’re eligible to receive the payment. The eligibility rules also include income and asset tests. You can read more about these in my Australian Age Pension post.
Incomplete paperwork is the biggest reason Age Pension claims are delayed, so please double-check that you have included everything. The information you need to provide is outlined in your claim form and includes proof of identity, residence status, income, and assets. That could include bank statements, super statements, tax returns, and statements for your shares.
If you earn more or you have assets greater than the eligibility threshold, then you are best to wait until your 26 weeks of receiving your NZ pension is up. Otherwise, your application will be backdated to when you applied, and you will be sent a bill from the NZ Department of Social Welfare. No thanks!
Income test – your assessable income must be less than $63,351 if you’re a single person or $96,865 if you’re a couple.
Asset test – if you’re a homeowner, singles can have up to $674,000 and couples $1,012,500. If you’re not a homeowner, singles can have up to $916,000 and couples $1,254,500.
There is more information in the news articles I read when researching the delay in processing Australian Age Pension applications, which you may find helpful:
Find out more about the Australian Age Pension in my post, which includes everything you need to know as an older New Zealander moving to Australia. Ages, eligibility, income and asset tests, how to apply, Australian benefits you may be able to receive, transferring your KiwiSaver and more.
The below posts might interest you:
If you’ve read the above content and the answer to your question isn’t there, please write a comment below and I’ll research the answer for you.
If you need advice on moving to Australia from New Zealand, I’ve created a helpful little questionnaire to point you in the right direction. It takes less than 30 seconds, so give it a go!
Hi… I’m JJ Smith.
I’m the creator and editor of Moving to Australia and have been for 15 years! I know everything there is to know about New Zealanders moving their families and life to Australia. Either from first hand experiences and research or through the questions from visitors to this website… and I’m here to help!
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Hematlal
April 9, 2024 at 10:36 amCan you advise to qualify for the Australian pension, the period of residence. The criteria of residence of 10 years during the period from 20 to 67 years of working life. Although, I am a citizen of New Zealand, I am short of 10 years as I lived in UK from 1962 to 1977. Please advise.
JJ Smith
April 11, 2024 at 12:12 pmHi Hematlal,
Thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, I am not a financial adviser and cannot advise you on your individual circumstances or eligibility for the Australian age pension.
Please use the age pension calculator on Retirement Essentials to check your eligibility: https://retirementessentials.com.au/age-pension/eligibility-calculator/.
They are also able to help you if you need further advice.
George
April 7, 2024 at 5:55 pmHi there,
We were recently granted the Australian pension (having moved from NZ) – after waiting 7 months from our date of application.
We only got dealt with in this time after making formal complaints; prior to this, while on a phone call to Centrelink (one of many) it was mentioned that some people are waiting up to 10 months – this by way of explaining to us that we weren’t really an urgent case and could expect to wait much longer!
We know of others who have gone through the process with similar delays. It’s almost unbelievable.
Kind Regards
George
JJ Smith
April 10, 2024 at 12:53 pmThanks for sharing your experience George.
Keith Prokop
April 4, 2024 at 6:27 pmHi again, and thank you for your informative newsletters. I have a question regarding the latest offering that warns people regarding processing times of Aussie pensions. I noticed that you say : “Please apply as soon as you arrive and have a backup plan in case your Australian pension is delayed. It will be backdated, and you will receive your NZ pension for 26 weeks after you’ve moved to Australia.”
Does that mean that if the Aussie pension is back dated, do recipients have to pay back any NZ pension payment that they might have received during that 26 weeks once they get the back payments? Or do the two governments sort it out between themselves? Otherwise, applicants will get double payments, which seems highly unlikely. I have tried contacting Centrelink but had no luck speaking to a human! TIA.
JJ Smith
April 5, 2024 at 12:10 pmHi Keith,
Thank you for reaching out for clarification.
After I sent that newsletter I had a very informative reply from a subscriber, who gave me the answer to your question.
Yes there are delay’s, but because the NZ pension is more generous than the Australian one, you want to make sure you are eligible for the Australian pension before you apply, otherwise you will be sent a bill from the NZ Department of Social Welfare. This is exactly what happened to the subscriber.
If you earn more or you have assets greater than the eligibility threshold, then you are best to wait until your 26 weeks of receiving your NZ pension is up. Otherwise, your application will be backdated to when you applied, and you will be sent a bill.
Income test – your assessable income must be less than $63,351 if you’re a single person or $96,865 if you’re a couple.
Asset test – if you’re a homeowner, singles can have up to $674,000 and couples $1,012,500. If you’re not a homeowner, singles can have up to $916,000 and couples $1,254,500.
I have updated my post to include this information, but will also add it to my Age Pension post when I have finished replying to visitor comments.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to set the facts straight. It can be really hard finding all the information online and I would hate to put someone wrong.
Thanks, JJ Smith
Anonymous
April 4, 2024 at 5:36 pmHello JJ,
Thank you for this, but a word of caution about your advice to apply for the pension as soon as you arrive in Australia. My wife and I arrived from NZ a year ago and applied immediately for the pension but that has proved to be the wrong thing to do.
You are absolutely right about the delay in processing applications, but the pension is backdated to the day of your application. This is important, because the NZ pension is much more generous than the Australian one and Centrelink uses an assets- and income-based appraisal of what they will pay and Social Welfare is guided by Centrelink’s calculations. What this means is that NZ paid the full pension to us for the first six months ($700-odd per fortnight) that we were here, but Centrelink has determined that our assets are too great (yeah, right!) and they’re paying about $40 – yes, forty dollars per fortnight. Now NZ’s Dept of Social Welfare have decided they paid us some $7000 too much and are deducting that from the Centrelink payments. Which means that the next payment is precisely zero. All with no communication about how they do their calculations, of course!
My advice would be to advise emigrants to apply the day before their six months in Australia expires. Yes, there is a huge delay in the processing, but at least they won’t have to pay it back. We have looked back through the information provided to us before we left NZ, but this little gem is missing. Just an oversight, obviously. Not!
In a general sense, Centrelink is severely dysfunctional and our interactions with the organisation have been a complete and unmitigated nightmare. We are highly educated, we’re assertive, we speak English as our native language and we have had a lot of experience in being part of (as well as dealing with) bureaucracies, but Centrelink remains a mindless and opaque monster. No wonder many people simply give up.
I really do think that this part of your advice is not in the best interests of people emigrating to Australia, unless they have essentially no assets and no income.
Keep up the good work.
JJ Smith
April 5, 2024 at 12:19 pmHi,
Thank you so much for your comment!
Age pensions has been a really hard subject for me because I can only go off information online and visitor feedback.
I have added this valuable information to the above post and I will now add it to Australian Age Pension post.
You have saved a lot of Kiwis thousands of dollars and made my content complete. Thank you!
Lorraine
April 4, 2024 at 5:29 pmHi JJ
The planned move to Oz becomes less seamless everyday!
I would be interested to know if there are others planning to sell their nz home and purchase in oz without delay on arrival who rely on pension for their sole income…
It is my understanding that it would be pointless applying for Australian Age pension with house proceeds in the bank ruling me ineligible due to assets!
So I would have no choice but to wait to apply for pension until I have purchased a home and thereby reduced my assets to eligible level – the current waiting time is a real concern.
I would value any comments you may have to share on this particular scenarios.
Many thanks
JJ Smith
April 5, 2024 at 1:39 pmHi Lorraine,
Thank you for your email.
You are right, because with your NZ home you will not receive the full Australian pension, so you are better to sell and buy in Australia before applying.
The current wait time is a concern, but they Australian Government have it as a priority, so hopefully the processing time will be reduced back to normal (35-49 days) within the year, but who knows.
Unfortunately, I can not put you in touch with other visitors at this stage, but I am working on creating a Moving to Australia community Facebook page, so please keep an eye out for this. I will send an invite through my newsletter when ready.
I hope the above has helps.