Welfare Recipient Patterns Among Migrants

Welfare-recipient rates for persons aged 65+

For aged migrants who arrived in Australia less than ten years before 1996, and not in the above two categories, the main source of welfare assistance was the Special Benefit available to persons not residentially eligible for the Age Pension. The great majority of these persons would have originally migrated under the parent visa category.

In the initial two years of residence in Australia, a parent would not normally seek access to Special Benefit because during those two years he or she would be subject to an Assurance of Support.

The amount of any Special Benefit received by the parent while the Assurance of Support was in force would become a debt, owed by the assurer (usually the adult child who sponsored the parent) to the Commonwealth. Any such debt would be recovered in the first instance from the bond (lodged by the assurer as a condition for granting the parent's visa). If the debt was larger than the bond, the balance would be recovered directly from the assurer.

However after two years residence elapses parents do often seek the Special Benefit for those not residentially eligible for the Age Pension. To be eligible, the applicant must attest to Centrelink that he or she has little or no income and tiny accumulated savings (defined as possessing less than $5,000 in accessible funds). There is no means test applied to the adult child who sponsored the parent to Australia.

If parents live independently of their children after two years residence in Australia, then Centrelink pays no regard to the circumstances of the sponsoring children. This situation would change if the legal period of the Assurance of Support was extended beyond two years (as was proposed by the Coalition Government in April 2000).

However, where it can be proved that the parent or parents continue to receive support from the child (for example where a parent is living with the child) the Special Benefit may not be paid, or the rate may be reduced in order to take account of the board and lodging provided.

Another important source of welfare assistance, which is only available for women is the Widows Pension Class B and Widows Allowance. Women aged less than 60 who are eligible for these benefits can remain on the benefit until they become eligible for the Age Pension. That is, like the Special Benefit, these benefits are not subject to the ten-year residence rule applying to the Age Pension.

Table 8 gives an indication of the extent of dependence on these Special Benefit and Widows allowances for aged persons who have resided in Australia less than ten years and are from countries where there is no pension agreement. Though not shown in the table, only a very small proportion of the men and women from the countries listed had entered under the humanitarian program, which would have made them eligible for the Age Pension prior to ten years residence in Australia.

Table 8 shows that near half or more persons over 65 from the countries listed were receiving a benefit. The figure for 1991-1996 arrivals is lower than for those arriving between 1986 and 1991 because the former group includes some persons still subject to the two-year bond.

The high level of eligibility for assistance on the part of persons not residentially eligible for the Age Pension also applies to migrants from countries such as Malaysia and India where the children sponsoring the parents usually occupy high status occupations in Australia.