Florence has lived outside of Australia for many years, but having worked here when she was younger, wants to know whether she can claim an Age Pension.
Q. Florence
I am an Australian who has lived outside the country for many years. I worked in Australia from age 14 to 24 years and I want to know the easiest way for me to receive an Age Pension. I have a copy of my birth certificate.
A.To be able to claim an Australian Age Pension, you must be resident in the country. If you were to return to Australia to claim an Age Pension, you would need to reside here for two years before returning to where you now live. The work life residency rule would also be applied to your pension.
To find out more about how this will affect your pension payments, you can read our article ‘Changes to pensions overseas‘.
The only exception to this would be if you now reside in a country with an international social security agreement with Australia. You can view details of such countries by reading ‘International social security agreements‘.
