Ethnic communities have been angered by a Herald Sun front page story on Thursday, which implied that $100 million might be paid every year to finance the ‘holiday lifestyles’ of numerous disability pensioners who live overseas.

It would be highly discriminatory for Australian citizens who want to spend their last days in the country of their birth to be denied of their rights to social security.
– George Zangalis –

Official figures revealed in the Herald Sun indicated that 7,313 disability support pensioners are living overseas, costing Australian taxpayers $99.9 million a year.

The most popular destination of pensioners was Greece, where 1242 disability support pensioners live; followed by Turkey – 849, New Zealand – 870 and Croatia – 506. The figures also revealed that 82,000 pension payments, mostly the age pension, go to people overseas.

The news came as the Abbott government is preparing to announce its first budget on May 13, that has been heralded by warnings of health, family and pensioners payments cuts.

Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) Chairperson, Joe Caputo, told Neos Kosmos that the Herald Sun article is one more in a row of articles ‘clearly designed to inflame parts of population against various groups – weather it be ethnic or other groups.

“If there is an eligibility of pensioners, then people can go wherever they want to live, as long as they are not defrauding the state.

“The real question is – are these people eligible for certain rights? If they meet the criteria, than the fact that they live in Broadmeadows, or Brighton or Greece, is irrelevant. And not only it’s irrelevant, but it’s very nasty – the fact that they mentioned those 3,4 groups shows it’s playing on the race card,” Mr Caputo said.
On Thursday, Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews told News Corp he has asked for information clarifying residency requirements for disability support pensioners, saying he was concerned that some pension recipients may be choosing to live overseas for lifestyle reasons at the expense of taxpayers.

In order to clarify the isssue Neos Kosmos requested a response from the Ministers office.

“The Disability Support Pension (DSP) provides income support for day to day living for people with disability who cannot support themselves, and to qualify for DSP, a person must normally be an Australian resident.

“The vast majority of people who are on DSP are abiding by the law and in rare cases I have asked the Department to provide clarification on the residency requirements for DSP. The thousands of overseas DSP recipients doing the right thing have nothing to worry about,” said Minister Andrews in his response to Neos Kosmos.

Minister Andrews explained that disability support pensioners who had indefinite portability under the legislation before July 2004 are covered by grandfathering provisions in the legislation, and are able to come and go from Australia as they wish as long as they do not resume residence in Australia.
“Many working-age social security payments, including DSP, are generally only payable overseas for up to six weeks. This was reduced from 13 weeks on 1 January 2013. Before this change, some people did seem to be trying to maximise their arrangements by living overseas and returning briefly to Australia every 13 weeks,” he said.

George Zangalis, a steering committee member of the Fair Go for Pensioners Coalition, described as ‘outrageous’ the attempts to look at what can be taken and saved from pensioners.

“They are preparing the grounds, as they normally do, and the vulnerable and the weaker are becoming the targets. They are raising the question without any facts and figures, again to try and blame the others. And the others being the non-Anglo Australians and the others being ‘by and large’ – in terms of economic income – immigrants.

“It’s just preposterous to look at what little crumbs are provided for people who are entitled to Australian pension. They have every right to spend a bit of their time or the rest of their life in other country.”

Mr Zangalis said that it’s not the first time that the workers and the foreigners are to blame when there is a difficulty in the country.

In the 1980s, the pensions scandal arose, accusing Greeks of exploiting the social security system. After three years in court, the Government had to compensate the victims considerable amount of money, he said.

“It would be highly discriminatory for Australian citizens who want to spend their last days in the country of their birth to be denied of their rights to social security,” Mr Zangalis said.

“They are playing the game of blaming the victim. In a nutshell, it is an attempt to shift the problem from those who have the money to those who haven’t and playing an anti-migrant card.”

Minister Kevin Andrews told Neos Kosmos that in some circumstances DSP is payable indefinitely overseas – if a person has a terminal illness and is planning to return to their country of origin or to be with family for care and support.

Disability support pensioners with a severe and permanent disability and no future capacity to work can also apply for indefinite portability of their pension. Indefinite payment of DSP is also available to pensioners who are classified as severely disabled and paid under an International Social Security Agreement.
Further information on the agreements can be found at www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/international/international-social-s…