Its an Outrage! Thats the view of many retired ADF members who have contacted us.
Military superannuates will see their payment increase by 0.1 % (YES – NOT AN ERROR, JUST A MEASLY 0.1%) from 12 July. WHY? Because that is the magic number arrived at through calculation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the past six months.
The Government says this is FAIR, and it is enough to meet real cost of living increases. For the average annual DFRDB payment of $24,836, that means a CPI increase of 93 cents a fortnight or six cents a day (BEFORE TAX). It defies rational belief that anyone (including members of the Government) could maintain their standard of living with an increase of six cents a day.
ADF members had, and still have, a contracted condition of service that their paid for superannuation pensions would maintain purchasing power to keep pace with the cost of living. Is it any wonder they feel betrayed by the broken promises of successive Governments to fix the indexation problem?
Manipulation of the CPI over many years has eroded the worth of military superannuation. The contracted promise for pensions that keep pace with real cost of living increases must be restored…NOW, before the CPI is allowed to further undermine the meagre pensions of most military retirees. The only way to achieve this is by using the same indexation formula and percentage increase as applied by the Government to the Age and Service pensions.
That formula based upon the greater of CPI or the Pensioner & Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI) and the wages content being 27.7 % of Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) for the past six months was an increase of 0.9 % – NINE TIMES greater than the military superannuation indexation. For the average DFRDB superannuation pension, that increase would have been $8.37 a fortnight.
NOW THATs FAIR
What you can do to express your concern?
Have your say by making e a comment on this subject below
Join our Campaign to help fight this injustice.
Contact your local federal MP ideally by a personal appointment to visit or telephone , fax, email or post a letter (We will provide guidance for you).
Join your Local Electorate Action Group in your area for a planned activity on the 12th July. Watch this space for details.
ALL FOR ONE …. and …. ONE FOR ALL
TAX
Many of you will have received your July increase notice and upon comparing it to your previous January advice, noticed a tax increase of about $30 per fortnight. Others may have also indicated the same seemingly arbitrary $30 increase regardless of the amount of pension that they are receiving.
Comsuper has confirmed that the arbitrary increase is to do with not claiming the tax free threshold and that Comsuper just applies the ATOs tax tables to work out the amount of tax to withhold. Use the link below to double check the amount that should be withheld depending upon your individual circumstances.
http://www.ato.gov.au/scripts/taxcalc/calc_standard_hire.aspx
If you want to claim the tax free threshold then you need to go to a local newsagent and ask for a tax file declaration form which is free of charge and fill it out and send to Comsuper. They will then apply the threshold and adjust your tax accordingly.
It would have saved much angst if that advice had been included in the Notice letters.
CPI INDEXATION PROTEST – 12 JULY 2012
The Alliance conducted a number of small peaceful assemblies at selected ALP MP marginal electorates and Senator Offices in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, SA and WA in a one hour protest against the Governments unfair indexation of military superannuation pensions.
The Governments contracted promise for pensions to maintain their purchasing power to keep pace with the real costs of living increase has been broken since 1997. All we want is the same percentage increase as that applied to the Age and Service pensions (AP/SP) whose previous CPI indexation formula has been adjusted to keep pace with the cost of living.
Our latest CPI indexation payment of 0.1% (47 cents per week) when compared to the last AP/SP increase of 0.9 % ($4.22 per week) shows the inequity. The latest 3% CPI increase for Federal Parliamentarians salaries further exposes the inequity.
Our protest involved four simultaneous activities: peaceful assemblies, a media, alert, ADSO protest letters to all parliamentarians and personal letters from our supporters to their local MP.
The eleven assembly groups numbering on average five people (by intent) carried placards and handed out the Flyers.
We introduced ourselves to the Electoral Office staff and in the MPs absence explained to the stahff our purpose. Only two MPs were present. The response from the public was pleasing with greater knowledge of our issue than I had expected. Special thanks to the many motorists who honked their car horn and gave us the thumbs up.
Of note was the appearance of the The Australian Federal Police in Adelaide and Perth alerted to a belief that there was to be a large veterans rally.
As a ground reconaisance operation with limited objectives it was successful and we gained valuable intelligence for further activities. Thank you to our Teams who under constraints beyond their control “stood to”. From little things big things grow.
“Wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine” Sun Tzu