Disability Pension Indexation
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ADJUSTMENT OF VETERANS DISABILITY PENSION RATES
The Federal Government has stated it understands the impact of rising costs of living and the importance of ensuring that entitlements do not erode in value. It says it is committed to making sure that our disabled war veterans have their pensions adjusted to take account of "not just the cost of living but also the standard of living".
The Harmer Review of Pensions (2009) confirmed that at certain times, the rate of change in out of pocket living costs experienced by age pensioner households has moved faster than the rate of change in living costs of households as measured by the CPI.
In 2007 the Parliament recognised this in relation to Veteran Disability Pensioners and provided a "one off" catch up increase and also brought their indexation arrangements into line with the other pensions.
This "one off" increase did not fully recover the erosion suffered by Veteran Disability Pensioners particularly in the previous 10 years when revised indexation arrangements were introduced for Age and Service Pensions.
Changes to the Age Pension announced in the 2009/2010 budget were designed to address particular concerns for our most disadvantaged elderly community members and these have our support.
The exclusion of the Veterans' Disability Pensions from the 2009/10 Budget initiative, further accentuated the existing disparity for Veterans' Disability Pensioners who have suffered a disability as a result of their service to the Nation and has meant that the relative value of Veterans' Disability Pensions measured against the other pensions has diminished.
Proposal: That the Government remove the remaining level of erosion to the value of Veterans' Disability Pensions by adjusting Veterans' Disability Pensions (including general rate, EDA, intermediate rate, temporary special rate and special rate) to reflect increased community living standards since 1997, as it has for Age and Service pensioners.
RSS
Pedro don't believe these detractors you have it spot on. although it may not have been windbag Whitlams fault. The real problem came later when Keating the time "the worlds greatest treasurer" took the money from the fund and put it into consolidated revenue in order to produce a budget surplus.
Fair adjustment of veterans pensions
Where is the RSL in this fight. They were certainly NOT behind us when we returned from Vietnam and I am yet to here any public comment from RSL leadership so far.
Where is the RSL in this fight. They were certainly NOT behind us when we returned from Vietnam and I am yet to here any public comment from RSL leadership so far.
Disability Pensions
Pedro Whilst I agree that our disability pensions have to be adjusted properly as our campaign claims, there is little point in blaming Gough Whitlam or indeed any individual. The ignoring of our rightful claims has been done by A:LL governments Liberal and Labour so to simply denigrate Labor shows that you are politically motivated rather than seeking justice. Have you forgotten the "core and noncore' promises of the Howard years, when the country had a comfortable surplus, thanks to the "never ever" GST ? When you hear politicians promises, you are listening to hot air. This clown in charge of the Libs at the moment is a moron who was stupid enough to state on TV that his word could not be taken unless it was in writing ! He has contradicted himself over and over. There is no doubt in my mind that if he is elected he will remind us that his first job is to get the country back into surplus, so I'm afraid that adjusting pensions will go on the back burner---again With an idiot like Hockey in charge of the treasury, a man who can't come up with a believable budget, do you seriously think that the answer to our problems will come from a Liberal government? at the moment our country is travelling very comfortably during a time when most of the developed nation are in deep deep shit and you want to throw out the government who led us through it, just because they haven't fixed our particular problem so far? Not very rational thinking Pedro ! It will take an agreement by all ESO's, the
RSL's in all states, the Vietnam Veterans Association, RAR Association, RAAF Associations, all the Naval associations even we Korean Veterans Associatons to present a Charter signed by the heads of all of them to the government of the day and also the Opposition to the effect that should the government or the Opposition fail to honour the agreement within twelve months (in the case of the government) or within twelve months of being elected, they will face a combined rejection of all ex service personnel and their families. Something of that magnitude is what will be required before the words of any politician can be trusted to honour their promises. Forget rubbishing political parties. That only divides us. Fight the Government of ANY colour which does not honour their promises to us.
So far I've seen little to convince me that the Liberals will be paragons of virtue as far as keeping promises goes. I am an EDA pensioner myself Pedro so I'm not against you, only against politicing for one side or the other. During our service we served Australia and its government not a political party. Both sides have demonstrated that the cannot be trusted so take whatever promises are made with a big dose of salt. Cheers.
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Pedro Whilst I agree that our disability pensions have to be adjusted properly as our campaign claims, there is little point in blaming Gough Whitlam or indeed any individual. The ignoring of our rightful claims has been done by A:LL governments Liberal and Labour so to simply denigrate Labor shows that you are politically motivated rather than seeking justice. Have you forgotten the "core and noncore' promises of the Howard years, when the country had a comfortable surplus, thanks to the "never ever" GST ? When you hear politicians promises, you are listening to hot air. This clown in charge of the Libs at the moment is a moron who was stupid enough to state on TV that his word could not be taken unless it was in writing ! He has contradicted himself over and over. There is no doubt in my mind that if he is elected he will remind us that his first job is to get the country back into surplus, so I'm afraid that adjusting pensions will go on the back burner---again With an idiot like Hockey in charge of the treasury, a man who can't come up with a believable budget, do you seriously think that the answer to our problems will come from a Liberal government? at the moment our country is travelling very comfortably during a time when most of the developed nation are in deep deep shit and you want to throw out the government who led us through it, just because they haven't fixed our particular problem so far? Not very rational thinking Pedro ! It will take an agreement by all ESO's, the RSL's in all states, the Vietnam Veterans Association, RAR Association, RAAF Associations, all the Naval associations even we Korean Veterans Associatons to present a Charter signed by the heads of all of them to the government of the day and also the Opposition to the effect that should the government or the Opposition fail to honour the agreement within twelve months (in the case of the government) or within twelve months of being elected, they will face a combined rejection of all ex service personnel and their families. Something of that magnitude is what will be required before the words of any politician can be trusted to honour their promises. Forget rubbishing political parties. That only divides us. Fight the Government of ANY colour which does not honour their promises to us.
So far I've seen little to convince me that the Liberals will be paragons of virtue as far as keeping promises goes. I am an EDA pensioner myself Pedro so I'm not against you, only against politicing for one side or the other. During our service we served Australia and its government not a political party. Both sides have demonstrated that the cannot be trusted so take whatever promises are made with a big dose of salt. Cheers.
.
Maintaining Parity of Veterans\\\' Disability Pensions
Quote :
Just to clarify.
The 2.7% mentioned by John K. Murray is actually 2.7% of MTAWE.
In the 2009 Budget the benchmark for major government pensions was lifted from 25% of MTAWE to 27.7% of MTAWE.
Therefore the 2.7% increase amounts to 2.7% of MTAWE.
That 2.7% increase in MTAWE equates to 11.4% in cash terms (DVA's figures).
In other words every disability pension has lost parity with other government pensions to the tune of 11.4%.
That 11.4% loss amounts to approximately $3300.00 pa of the Special Rate (TPI) and approximately $1200.00 pa of 100% of the General Rate.
All other DPs are affected pro-rata by the same 11.4%.
The really disgraceful fact is that in order to exclude veterans' disability pensions from the 2009 Budget increases the Rudd/Gillard Government had to make special provision in its 2009 legislation to bypass existing legislation.
Without that underhanded bypassing of the existing legislation (enacted Sept. 2007) the 11.4% increase would have applied to disability pensions automatically.
In the lead-up to the 2007 election Labor sought the support of the veteran community and supported the Sept 2007 Coalition legislation unanimously. Within 18 months Labor baulked at the first hurdle and betrayed disabled veterans.
Considering Labor voted unanimously in favour of the Sept 2007 legislation this betrayal of disabled veterans is nothing short of an act of political bastardry.
This blatant betrayal together with more recent actions clearly indicates that the present Labor Government is less-than-veteran-friendly.
Quote : The PM is being dishonest when she states that no one will be disadvantaged by the carbon tax. Regasrdless of the compensation paid to disabilty pensioners ALL Service disability pensions will continue to be at least 2.7 percent behind pension payments made to CentreLink disability pensioners.
For reasons they have never revealed Labor chose and chooses to discriminate against Ex-service men and women who are disability pensioners.
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Allen Lewis August 19, 2011 at 11:44 am:
We must keep fighting for what we are entitled, and change any differences to care for us after we gave our selves to serve our country, as I am ex-Navy our motto is,
EACH FOR ALL = ALL FOR EACH.
Just to clarify.
The 2.7% mentioned by John K. Murray is actually 2.7% of MTAWE.
In the 2009 Budget the benchmark for major government pensions was lifted from 25% of MTAWE to 27.7% of MTAWE.
Therefore the 2.7% increase amounts to 2.7% of MTAWE.
That 2.7% increase in MTAWE equates to 11.4% in cash terms (DVA's figures).
In other words every disability pension has lost parity with other government pensions to the tune of 11.4%.
That 11.4% loss amounts to approximately $3300.00 pa of the Special Rate (TPI) and approximately $1200.00 pa of 100% of the General Rate.
All other DPs are affected pro-rata by the same 11.4%.
The really disgraceful fact is that in order to exclude veterans' disability pensions from the 2009 Budget increases the Rudd/Gillard Government had to make special provision in its 2009 legislation to bypass existing legislation.
Without that underhanded bypassing of the existing legislation (enacted Sept. 2007) the 11.4% increase would have applied to disability pensions automatically.
In the lead-up to the 2007 election Labor sought the support of the veteran community and supported the Sept 2007 Coalition legislation unanimously. Within 18 months Labor baulked at the first hurdle and betrayed disabled veterans.
Considering Labor voted unanimously in favour of the Sept 2007 legislation this betrayal of disabled veterans is nothing short of an act of political bastardry.
This blatant betrayal together with more recent actions clearly indicates that the present Labor Government is less-than-veteran-friendly.
Pensions
As a EDA Pensioner. obviously I am in favour of the pensions being adjusted as this campaign proposes. What I deplore is the efforts of some who use the campaign as a reason to lambast the Labor Government alone for the neglect of all government who have avoided doing the right thing. The promises of those aspiring to government are as feathers in the wind. In fact Tony Abbott is on record as stating that nothing he says can be taken as the truth or a firm commitment, so let us keep the pressure on all governments to accede to our requests, but be wary of promises made by those in no position to deliver. My belief is that if all ESO's can be brought together to submit our request to the government of the day, by sheer weight of numbers we could carry the day. By making it a political matter we run the risk of offending those of differing political beliefs.( Pedro's rant against Labor is a case in point.) During my service life we discouraged the discussion of religion and politics for the very reason that by their very nature, they can cause division between those who otherwise might be the best of friends, so let us leave the
airing of political bias aside. Neither sides of politics has delivered anything other than promises, so I place little faith in the word of politicians of any colour.
As a EDA Pensioner. obviously I am in favour of the pensions being adjusted as this campaign proposes. What I deplore is the efforts of some who use the campaign as a reason to lambast the Labor Government alone for the neglect of all government who have avoided doing the right thing. The promises of those aspiring to government are as feathers in the wind. In fact Tony Abbott is on record as stating that nothing he says can be taken as the truth or a firm commitment, so let us keep the pressure on all governments to accede to our requests, but be wary of promises made by those in no position to deliver. My belief is that if all ESO's can be brought together to submit our request to the government of the day, by sheer weight of numbers we could carry the day. By making it a political matter we run the risk of offending those of differing political beliefs.( Pedro's rant against Labor is a case in point.) During my service life we discouraged the discussion of religion and politics for the very reason that by their very nature, they can cause division between those who otherwise might be the best of friends, so let us leave theairing of political bias aside. Neither sides of politics has delivered anything other than promises, so I place little faith in the word of politicians of any colour.
Disability Pensions
Just to clarify.
The 2.7% mentioned by John K. Murray is actually 2.7% of MTAWE.
In the 2009 Budget the benchmark for major government pensions was lifted from 25% of MTAWE to 27.7% of MTAWE.
Therefore the 2.7% increase amounts to 2.7% of MTAWE.
That 2.7% increase in MTAWE equates to 11.4% in cash terms (DVA's figures).
In other words every disability pension has lost parity with other government pensions to the tune of 11.4%.
That 11.4% loss amounts to approximately $3300.00 pa of the Special Rate (TPI) and approximately $1200.00 pa of 100% of the General Rate.
All other DPs are affected pro-rata by the same 11.4%.
The really disgraceful fact is that in order to exclude veterans' disability pensions from the 2009 Budget increases the Rudd/Gillard Government had to make special provision in its 2009 legislation to bypass existing legislation.
Without that underhanded bypassing of the existing legislation (enacted Sept. 2007) the 11.4% increase would have applied to disability pensions automatically.
In the lead-up to the 2007 election Labor sought the support of the veteran community and supported the Sept 2007 Coalition legislation unanimously. Within 18 months Labor baulked at the first hurdle and betrayed disabled veterans.
Considering Labor voted unanimously in favour of the Sept 2007 legislation this betrayal of disabled veterans is nothing short of an act of political bastardry.
This blatant betrayal together with more recent actions clearly indicates that the present Labor Government is less-than-veteran-friendly.
Just to clarify.The 2.7% mentioned by John K. Murray is actually 2.7% of MTAWE.
In the 2009 Budget the benchmark for major government pensions was lifted from 25% of MTAWE to 27.7% of MTAWE.
Therefore the 2.7% increase amounts to 2.7% of MTAWE.
That 2.7% increase in MTAWE equates to 11.4% in cash terms (DVA's figures).
In other words every disability pension has lost parity with other government pensions to the tune of 11.4%.
That 11.4% loss amounts to approximately $3300.00 pa of the Special Rate (TPI) and approximately $1200.00 pa of 100% of the General Rate.
All other DPs are affected pro-rata by the same 11.4%.
The really disgraceful fact is that in order to exclude veterans' disability pensions from the 2009 Budget increases the Rudd/Gillard Government had to make special provision in its 2009 legislation to bypass existing legislation.
Without that underhanded bypassing of the existing legislation (enacted Sept. 2007) the 11.4% increase would have applied to disability pensions automatically.
In the lead-up to the 2007 election Labor sought the support of the veteran community and supported the Sept 2007 Coalition legislation unanimously. Within 18 months Labor baulked at the first hurdle and betrayed disabled veterans.
Considering Labor voted unanimously in favour of the Sept 2007 legislation this betrayal of disabled veterans is nothing short of an act of political bastardry.
This blatant betrayal together with more recent actions clearly indicates that the present Labor Government is less-than-veteran-friendly.
Fair go campaign
SUPPORTER OF THE FAIR GO CAMPAIGN I like many ex veterans who had no option during our military career at being forced into the DFRB pension scheme that later on thanks to Goth Whitlam’s labour party in the 70’s immediately stuffed it up to and later on the DFRB pension scheme came back to kick us in the guts by locking us into the unfair indexation of this scheme.
This is one of the reasons why I and thousands of other ex-servicemen and their families will never vote for Labour or the Greens who see fit to punish those who served their country in Vietnam and instead of blaming the government of the day took the gutless path and blamed the troops, this persecution is ongoing 50 years later.
As far as I am concerned labour and the greens rank one rung below the sex party and independents on the ballot paper.
Two days ago our county lost 3 more of our finest and these pathetic two faced politicians’ will again turn up at their funerals seeking only to get another photo in the daily, then utter a few well chosen words of bulldust then continue on living their lives counting the day they can live in comfort due to their own lucrative pensions, lurks and perks set in motion during their time in office.
Quickly forgetting that it is the lives and sacrifices of many who made it all possible.
As I said they are naught but a load of Jack merchants that spruke bulldust then do nothing.
SUPPORTER OF THE FAIR GO CAMPAIGN I like many ex veterans who had no option during our military career at being forced into the DFRB pension scheme that later on thanks to Goth Whitlam’s labour party in the 70’s immediately stuffed it up to and later on the DFRB pension scheme came back to kick us in the guts by locking us into the unfair indexation of this scheme.This is one of the reasons why I and thousands of other ex-servicemen and their families will never vote for Labour or the Greens who see fit to punish those who served their country in Vietnam and instead of blaming the government of the day took the gutless path and blamed the troops, this persecution is ongoing 50 years later.
As far as I am concerned labour and the greens rank one rung below the sex party and independents on the ballot paper.
Two days ago our county lost 3 more of our finest and these pathetic two faced politicians’ will again turn up at their funerals seeking only to get another photo in the daily, then utter a few well chosen words of bulldust then continue on living their lives counting the day they can live in comfort due to their own lucrative pensions, lurks and perks set in motion during their time in office.
Quickly forgetting that it is the lives and sacrifices of many who made it all possible.
As I said they are naught but a load of Jack merchants that spruke bulldust then do nothing.
Carbon tax
The PM is being dishonest when she states that no one will be disadvantaged by the carbon tax. Regasrdless of the compensation paid to disabilty pensioners ALL Service disability pensions will continue to be at least 2.7 percent behind pension payments made to CentreLink disability pensioners.
For reasons they have never revealed Labor chose and chooses to discriminate against Ex-service men and women who are disability pensioners.
-------------------------------
Allen Lewis August 19, 2011 at 11:44 am:
We must keep fighting for what we are entitled, and change any differences to care for us after we gave our selves to serve our country, as I am ex-Navy our motto is,
EACH FOR ALL = ALL FOR EACH.
The PM is being dishonest when she states that no one will be disadvantaged by the carbon tax. Regasrdless of the compensation paid to disabilty pensioners ALL Service disability pensions will continue to be at least 2.7 percent behind pension payments made to CentreLink disability pensioners.For reasons they have never revealed Labor chose and chooses to discriminate against Ex-service men and women who are disability pensioners.
-------------------------------
Allen Lewis August 19, 2011 at 11:44 am:
We must keep fighting for what we are entitled, and change any differences to care for us after we gave our selves to serve our country, as I am ex-Navy our motto is,
EACH FOR ALL = ALL FOR EACH.
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Calculate your loss
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Current Developments from Nov 2010
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DFRDB Meeting Ipswich
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EX-MILITARY FAMILIES OUT IN THE COLD
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History of the Fair Go Campaign
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Keep Informed
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Military Superannuation
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Military Superannuation – Legislative History
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Overview
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Paid leave for dads, the Government’s higher priority than for Diggers’ fair military superannuation indexation?
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SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Peter Criss Interview
Here it is, the Interview of Peter Criss by John Carroll
