A Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) cardholder pays a concessional price for prescriptions under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The card is available to Australians of Age Pension age who don’t receive the Age Pension and earn less than the income threshold for the card.
The following articles refer to Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) and superannuation.
Q: Apart from a Public Sector PSS Super account, I have a superannuation account with AGEST to which contributions were made solely through salary sacrifice arrangements. I am about to retire from the Public Sector (age 60) and I am able to draw down a lump sum from AGEST which [...]
Q: Can you please confirm whether the assets held in a self-managed super fund (SMSF) count towards the Centrelink asset test/income test?
Trish’s response: I can provide you with an overview of how superannuation benefits are treated by Centrelink, although you’ll need to check with Centrelink about your personal situation, and how your super benefits are [...]
Q: I was wondering what you know about salary sacrifice super being included in FTB family income calculations from 1 July 2009 onwards? This was indicated as a new measure in the 2008 budget but I’m having trouble locating confirmation of this for our 09/10 planning.
Trish’s response: Yes, from 1 July [...]
The question is a popular one among prospective retirees, and the answer can be best explained by dividing the question into four parts.
A. What is the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)?
The CSHC gives you access to cheaper prescriptions via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, bulk-billing rates for doctor appointments, and an [...]
Contrary to pre-Budget announcements, the Government is not proceeding with the measure to include gross tax-free superannuation pension income in the adjusted taxable income test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
The Budget papers use the term ‘gross tax-free superannuation income’ so I assume that lump withdrawals are also excluded from [...]
Note: This article is no longer current. In the 2009 Federal Budget, the Government announced that super pension income from a taxed source would not be counted for the Seniors Health Card income test. You can find out about this change in the article Super pension income excluded from health card test.
Q: [...]
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