‘How much Rent Assistance can I get with a pension and nearly $600K in assets?’

Q: How much Rent Assistance could I get if I received a single Age Pension, bought a $425,000 land-lease home and created an income stream from $170,000?

A: Rent Assistance is not based on how much Age Pension you receive; you can receive a relatively small amount of Age Pension but still receive the full amount of Rent Assistance. That said, you do need to be receiving an eligible pension or allowance, so self-funded retirees cannot claim rent assistance. As an Age Pensioner, the amount of Rent Assistance you can receive in a land-lease community is based on the amount of rent you pay, which is known at such communities as your ‘site fees’.

As a single person, once your site fees are more than $124.60 per fortnight, Rent Assistance will be paid at 75 cents per dollar of fees paid over this threshold up to a maximum payment of $139.60 per fortnight. To be eligible for the maximum amount of Rent Assistance, you would need to be paying site fees of $310.73 per fortnight or more. Or, put another way, if you paid $311 per fortnight in site fees, Rent Assistance would cover $139 so the out of pocket cost to you would be $172 per fortnight.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your financial or legal situation, objectives or needs. That means it’s not financial product or legal advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a financial or legal decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get independent, licensed financial services or legal advice.