The real estate agent came. He was here for a good hour and a half and he gave us lots to do if we plan to sell. All were on our list regardless so we will get it done. Paint, new carpet in some areas, new curtains ditto (not a problem as I buy from Spotlight on sale), oil the deck, etc. If we do go to market we will have to hire furniture to return the front room from my craft dumping ground space to a formal area, move Himself's desk into my study area and probably store my desk along with other bits and pieces like all our personal stuff.
The price he gave us was about what we were expecting. Now I just need to see if there is somewhere in Lakes that will give us a changeover without costing any extra. Otherwise, we stay put.
I then had to tackle Centrelink. Nothing that I had inputted (is that a word? it is now) was on my account which means we have probably been getting more than we should for a few months even though it appears on the tax dept site all of which is supposedly under the one umbrella of mygov which is supposed to mean the various departments talk to one another. And if the ATO could get annuity information then surely Centrelink could, too. It knows about his superannuation pension account.
One question was when did I purchase my superannuation investment product. What the holy fuckfuck does that mean? I have never purchased a superannuation investment, I just paid my super when I worked and added when I got an inheritance. It said that information would be on my statement. Couldn't find it. Rang the super fund. Some twatwaddle from god knows where had no idea what I was asking about. I have been with this fund for over 30 years. So I tried to contact centrelink to ask exactly what they meant.
It was at this point I was seriously in need of strong liquor but it was only 2 in the afternoon.
First of all trying to find a contact number on the centrelink website was a challenge as they encourage you to use online platforms. When we finally did find a number we had to play games with the automated answering voice person who told us to be nice when we spoke to a real person or our call would be terminated and then told us we had to wait for an hour.
By now I had decided I would do what I could and if we have been overpaid we will just have to deal with it. Thank god robodebt has been scrapped.
I filled in the form for my super to draw a pension from that. I had to attach a scan of my driver's licence along with a photo of me holding said licence.
Oh god, I look old. Every one of the 24,278 days I have been on this earth are showing. That's 582,672 hours. It doesn't seem that long somehow. I guess we should make sure every single one counts.
And I thought our Centrelink experience was difficult!
ReplyDeleteTry explaining that even though I lived in an overseas country - being only 12 yrs old I paid no tax and couldn’t apply to that government for a pension. Same applied to other countries where I happened to live as a ‘military’ dependant. (Daughter plus wife)
And then of course there’s the UK age pension that was taken into account - super was the least of our problems!
Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly and you aren’t asked to refund any of your hard earned (over the years) cash.
My father claimed a British pension and a Colonial pension all from different countries in the UK (never claimed one here). When he retired from the Vic public service he was told he didn't need to pay tax here. Then they changed the rules. You can imagine potential debt with and penalties(upwards of $750K) and the rings we had to jump through. Trying to talk anyone over there was a nightmare. The worst was the 1 year anniversary of his death and I was speaking to someone in Glasgow about the department based in Newcastle with a postal address in Cardiff and even though I had explained the situation (trying to get some of the double paid tax back from UK as instructed by our beloved ATO) she kept asking to speak to my dad. You can understand my frustration and terror!!
DeleteI have absolutely nothing to do with Centerlink and I like it that way
ReplyDeleteI don’t know why you have to do all that extra work to sell a house. I’m pretty sure people can see past those things. And as for painting and carpet most people will do those things to their taste when they buy a new house. What a load of twaddle. I say
Our house is half finished and the areas that haven't been touched are obvious. It won't be a huge amount but we would be doing it anyway so I'm not fussed.
DeleteI selfishly don't spread this around but there are companies around that for a few hundred dollars do all the Centre Link paperwork for you, and it is ongoing. You give them a little info, and from there they take over and do everything. R will say it was the best money ever spent. The company also sorted our ABI Brother's carer's pension and Mother's after she sold her home.
ReplyDeleteI am stubborn. If, however, this latest issue costs us I will have to swallow my pride and consider using them.
DeleteRobodebt sounds like a nightmare, including suicides. Wow. Did anybody get fired over this?
ReplyDeleteNo, Pixie. We are talking government here. The chap who was minister of the department responsible became our prime minister some years later. And the cost of all the investigations and commissions into the disaster has cost taxpayers so much money. At least it's been scrapped now but they still hound you if you owe them money - and there are many people who rort the system and get away with it. It's like they go after the vulnerable as they are easy pickings.
DeleteWell, I guess if you do make those home improvements and don't end up selling, you'll have made your home more livable anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs to dealing with that system- GOOD GOD! I am so sorry. I would definitely try to find out more about what Andrew was talking about.
It was partly my mistake for not triple checking as I do know how bad their system is. Let's hope they just adjust stuff and leave us alone.
DeleteThe hoops people have to jump through, not just where you live but all of the world, we have to go around so much crap to get anything done. If, that is a big, if, you can understand the person you are talking too. Good luck on getting it all sorted out.
ReplyDeleteYou home is going to look so nice when everything you have mentioned is done, maybe you will not want to move. Good luck in that regard also.
Every time we have fixed a house up to sell I have asked why we didn't do it sooner! I really think we will stay here. The logistics of moving are overwhelming.
DeleteEither way, fixed up or not, the house will sell, if you decide that way. I'm with Angela on not doing a lot in order to sell. I see people going through agita, spending a lot of money in order to improve the sale price. When my friend died, her daughters spent $45k overhauling her house. And sold for 45K more than the estimate. Which seemed s great outlay of effort to little purpose. In this school district everything sells.
ReplyDeleteWe are only doing cosmetic stuff that really will make a difference. And if we decide to stay then I have finally got what I wanted!
DeleteThe Stalker.
ReplyDeleteUncle Andrew is right ..get help
We have a financial planner…$ 3500 and worth every penny . she had been our accountant..and her practice has been linked for many years with education and also had knowledge of govt super schemes we had. We chose not to take a pension from our super scheme but can withdraw if necessary. Haven’t had to do much of that except for reno work
She did all the paperwork for us to get bits of pension as my partner recently retired but works up to 3 days a week for the moment. …it’s part of our retirement plan.
We use the Centrelink app which is easy to report on ..and never go near their office… and we do the occasional hotline calls we leave the call on speakerphone and get on with what we are doing . We tried going the office a couple of times but they are either overworked or not up to date or incompetent
By the way you get quite a lot of discounts for utilities , drivers licences etc It’s very generous.
I don’t have a conscience about receiving some pension since I worked until I was 63 and didn’t even get a sniff of the pension until I was in my 70s
Good luck with Centrelink. If they send you to prison I will make you a boiled fruitcake and put a file in the middle🤣
Thank you, Stalk. Make sure you use whiskey over sherry, please!
DeleteWe have managed all the centrelink stuff without issue for years since Himself retired in '14 and I was on newstart and working part time. It's the transition from me to age pension and having money in super that has caused the glitch. And Himself starting an annuity which I KNOW I told them about but it didn't appear in our assets.
I am really looking forward to that cake!
Ugh, Moving... Selling, Buying, seems to get more complicated as we Age. We did it for hopefully the last time recently and it seems forever to get settled back in and downsize completely when you intentionally try to live smaller and simplify life as you become among the Retired. Good Luck, hope it works out the way you want it to and you find that Forever Home?
ReplyDeleteThe last two homes have been our forever homes!
Delete