Gee when this department gets it wrong it only serves to confuse and stress their victims. What happens with your house and how does it affect your pension? I'm on disability living full time in my van. I don't have any real estate or furniture in storage. It's my home. Do you now get penalised for the value of your house you live in? Check out all you can on the website. Check the actual policy. Never, Never, Never take the word of anyone on a Centrelink counter. They are just not reliable. If you rent you main home out while you travel with your motorhome you would not be eligible for rent assistance. If your travel full time in your motorhome, you are entitled to rent assistance. Check and check again, and if possible, get it in writing. Centrelink is the most unreliable department for any information relating to pensioners on this lifestyle. They don't have a bloody clue, and some of the staff make it up as they go, and then you get penalised for incorrect information. Some offices don't even know which is the current rent assistance claim form. God knows who updates their stationery in the office. Even if you motorhome was an asset it wouldn't be worth enough for you to lose all your pension. You'd still be entitled to some, plus the benefits, and that makes you eligible for rent assistance. Don't take my word for all of this. I'm only commenting based on my own experience. Check, Check, and Check again to make sure you will not be penalised some time down the track. The policy should be on the internet, but even that could be out of date. Keep checking.

Pension eligibility is complicated. It is assessed with a mixture of assets and income. If you have a lot of either, it will affect your pension. The house you live in is not considered an asset, but if you sell it it then becomes one, BUT if you don't own a house, you are allowed higher assets than if you do own a house. Make an appointment to see a Centrelink financial advisor. They are trained to know the correct answers (not like many of the counter people) and their job is to help you get the maxumum that you can. Do it ASAP. They don't bite unless you try to cheat the system. Cheers, peter

Peter ...

I agree 100%  


Chris ...

You too are right ... check & check again! 

Unfortunately it is diffficult to navigate the Centrelink website to get applicable info & then more difficult to objectively interpret it.


That's where I lean towards Peter's advice re the 'Financial Advisors' & their objective to get you the best deal.

I find Centerlink a great group to deal with    .... and their Hank Jergins? a fantastic advocate.

For starters, I would not consider things you see in forums to be !00% accurate. You can often get good advice but if it is of a legal like vehicle registrations or Centrelink stuff the only way you can get reliable info is to go directly to them. As I understand it you can only have one principal residence. If you choose to consider your van/motorhome as the principal residence you can claim rent assistance for your site fees (providing you fall within certain guidelines regarding assets/income and the amount of rent you are paying.) Where the 12 months comes in is if you change residences, you have 12 months to deal with the status of your residence (sell it or consider it an asset and lease it.) Make an appointment with Centrelink to confirm which bit of advice you have received is OK.

Make the appointment to see an advisor with Centrelink. Best advice I heard from someone from Centrelink is to get it straight from them, not by comparing your situation to someone elses.

Even when you get it straight from Centrlink don't go away confident that it is all sorted. Give it a couple of weeks and they will find another form, interpret the situation differently or change the rules. They are just like Insurance companies. If we put up enough hurdles for you to jump, maybe you'll give up and go away. DON'T DO IT. JUST KEEP JUMPING THEIR HURDLES AND MAKE THEM FRUSTRATED FOR A CHANGE!!!!!!!

Agree with make an appointment with Centrelink Financial Services Officer (FSO) with all avaiable info/records etc to see where you stand in your particular situation. Just as a matter of interest only, my BIL & Sister sold their house about 12 months back and were looking for something else, they were told the money from the sale would not be counted as an asset/income? as long as they bought another house within 12 months, after that it would be. Mind you, Centrelink rules change fairly frequently so you need to get the latest info direct from Centrelink for your situation as mentioned by others here.

Thanks to all for the info you have provided and I'll certainly make an appointment with Centrelink financial advisors.

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The best advice in this thread is the one to get further professional and reliable advice from Centrelink or wherever, as mentioned in several posts above. No one on this forum can be fully aware of all your circumstances and anyway, it is probably illegal to give any advice other than that of a very general nature.

And keep your own record of conversations...the date, & time of discussions, the person's name, and if they put something on the computer, get a receipt number.

And Pete & Margaret, they do 'bite' sometimes, even when you're honest. My daughter got 'bitten' several years ago, through no fault of her own.

Some of these old threads are popping up all of a sudden, only because some scams seem to be appearing, quite a few at the moment. Ignore.