RetireJapan

...and what it means!
It helps you calculate your Australian Working Life Residence.

..and if you were overseas immediately before 20 September, 2000 you are adjudged by a different schedule, the 7.1.1.10 schedule

Not knowing your AWLR score could mena the difference between getting a full-pension in Japan or the pittance that you will receive from the Nenkin..

According to ozexpats.com,

'A person who has resided in Australia between the ages of 16 and pension age for 25 years will get the full means tested rate"

I take this to mean- so if you have assets, then it will come down. However, if you are a day less than 25 years, you go to proportional rate, and then again, means tested. So you may go, if you are a teacher who spent 25 years here, from 100% to 25% just because of a matter of timing.

Bloody hell!

So that everyone must have a 'D-Day' so to speak, the day they have to quit their job here and head back to Oz in order to accrue the time.

Of course, you could make the best laid plans, a piece of legislation could just ruin it.

Of course, we know not to rely on the pension..etc., as we have heard on an endless loop..

My take from a recent read is that you have to have completed 35 years of work age in Australia to get the full amount. That may not necessarily mean having a job during that period. Counted time is between 16 -65 years old.

If you have for example been in Australia for 20 years of that working age period then you may be eligible for 20/35 of the full means tested pension.

Other nuisances that I cannot work out is that under mutual agreement between Japan and Australia is if you are permanent in one place then there is the potential for that pension to over-ride the other regardless of return.

Yes UBear.
That is right. You do not need to be employed. However it feels like there is a cliff you go right over when you blow the 35 years threshold. It is not really, because if you stay 34 you still get 34/35ths, but the clock is ticking. These days, nobody plans for a pension in Australia, as they are up to their necks in Super so it goes unnoticed. By these days, I mean since 2000 when people start work they know the pension will be a pittance if at all, so they pay into Super and they invest in property, gold stocks etc.free of any worry about losing their pensions due to means testing or disqualification rules.

And when you ask about pension lay people laugh you off.

For us it is a different story.

For me, if I want to live overseas at 66+, I have to weigh up whether I can make more than 600-800AU a month in investments until I retire. That is how much Aussie pension I will burn staying here and working. To think I could go back now and live off welfare checks unemployed and move O/S at 66 with 66% pension or stay here and get 32% plus another 9 years of Japanese nenkin which is not very much...and after all this is over, heaven forbid..how much.? But then, if I had a job back in aust and made even half my current salary, i would be better off going back pronto. and I am not mentally wanting that kind of change right now, though of course anything can happen. Inertia, inertia..

Anyway, I am not after wringing every last drop from the lemon, I am just keen to know the big rules, the ones that disqualify you from getting any Aussie pension at all, such as if you buy a house over here - which I would love to do, (or rather wanted to in the past)