Policy

Last updated: 5 September 2012

Private land use test

Value of foreign shareholdings

The value of foreign shareholdings should be obtained from the internet by accessing the last sale price published on the relevant foreign stock exchange website. (The Investment Database Unit will assist in obtaining the latest value).

This chapter contains policy information on determining whether a person is or is not a member of a couple, and the relevance of relationship status to pension or payment entitlements and pension or payment rates.

See Also

What does a Disability Compensation Payment compensate for?

Items that are non-indexed

A number of VEA payments, limits and rates that are not subject to [glossary:indexation:433]. These include:

Bonus shares

A company may from time to time issue bonus shares to its shareholders, usually at a predetermined ratio, such as one bonus share for every ten shares held.    

This section demonstrates whether a person residing in a [glossary:special residence:465] should be considered to be a [glossary:homeowner:295] or non-homeowner and it also provides additional assessment rules for variations on these residences.

How the service pension MBR is indexed

The partnered [glossary:maximum basic rate:475] (MBR) is indexed each 20 March and 20 September by the greater of [glossary:CPI:622] and [glossary:PBLCI:668], then further increased if necessary so that it equals 50% of the [glossary:MTAWE:205] benchmark. The MTAWE benchmark is 41.76% of MTAWE. The combined partnered MBR is set at double the partnered MBR and the 'not a member of a couple' MBR is then set at 66.33% of the combined partnered MBR. Different rules apply for the transitional rate of service pension.

Listed securities

Listed securities, including derivative investments and foreign shareholdings, are listed on a stock exchange. They are [glossary:financial assets:241] for deeming purposes, regardless of whether:

• they are held in [glossary:Australia:161] or overseas, and
• dividends are paid or not.

The following table contains the listed securities that are included for deeming purposes: