The impacts of a closed border and recent floods have highlighted the challenges facing older Australians who live permanently in caravan parks and manufactured home estates. These properties have long provided affordable housing for retirees, particularly those who rely on the age pension and have limited assets or housing equity. Residents typically own their caravan or mobile home and pay a regular site rental.
Two trends are emerging as problems for these residents:
caravan parks and manufactured home estates are undergoing “gentrification” as they transform into high-end domestic tourism (with border closures boosting demand) and lifestyle estates
many properties that house older Australians are increasingly exposed to natural hazards such as fire and floods.
May 11, 2021
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speaks to the media as he arrives to Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas.
Employers will need to make superannuation guarantee payments for more employees from next year, with the federal government moving to remove the $450 monthly minimum income threshold.
Currently, employers do not need to pay superannuation for employees who earn less than $450 per month.
The government plans to remove this threshold entirely, in an bid to improve equality in the superannuation system, as the majority of workers who earn less than this monthly amount are women.
According to the government’s Retirement Income Review, around 300,000 employees would benefit from removing this monthly threshold, with 63% of those employees women.
Share
The government will scrap the so-called active member test for self-managed super funds, meaning trustees based temporarily overseas can top up their Australian retirement savings.
Measures in the 2021 federal budget detail a relaxation of the “residency requirements” for SMSFs and small, prudentially regulated super funds.
Residency requirements for SMSF investors will be relaxed.
First, SMSF trustees living overseas will be able to maintain control of their funds for five years, up from two years previously, and the active member test will be removed for both fund types.
“This measure will allow SMSF and SAF [small APRA-regulated fund] members to continue to contribute to their superannuation fund whilst temporarily overseas, ensuring parity with members of large APRA-regulated funds,” the budget documents explained.
Super reforms revealed in federal budget investordaily.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from investordaily.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.