Hi I’m a mum on a Carers pension as I have kids With special needs, I finally found an amazing guy who wants us to move in with him, but he has a rental that is his income, will I loose most of my money? Is carers means tested! Plus there father doesn’t pay any child support to help either or is it better to live apart to help the kids?
3 Replies
It’s income tested and asset tested. You’ll need to speak to Centrelink about how much he earns.
Never move in with someone if you both aren’t both happy to share income (if an event occurs). Stuff happens in life (property markets crash etc) and if one or the other of you aren’t prepared to financially back the other if needed you aren’t ready to move in together.
If he isn’t prepared to tell you his income, don’t move in.
Carers Payment is means tested. His income when you move in together is then considered the family income. It doesn’t matter if your ex doesn’t pay child support. If your new boyfriend isn’t willing to support your family without it causing problems then moving in with him Is a bad idea. You’ll really see his true colours if he doesn’t want to support you as a spouse. Do not move in together until you have used the income/payment calculators together. So he can see what you will loose and where he will have to step up and contribute. I did this with my now fiancé before we moved in together. It opened his eyes to what would have to happen for us to move in together. Except I wasn’t on carers payment just SPP W/family tax with carers allowance. Caring for a special needs child is not easy. Make sure he knows what he’ll be taking on before taking the leap.
Run all the details though the Centrelink online calculator and get an approximate idea on what you’ll lose. Make sure you do the estimate based on partnered carers allowance.
Off memory when I was married my ex was earning about $1450fn and I still kept about $60 of my carer payment partnered.
FTB was paid based on estimated taxable income of both him and I (more so him, because I wasn’t able to work due to caring commitments for the kids).
It was a little hard to adjust to start with but we did okay in the end :)