Job Discussion Forums

[Elegantstatue]

We get old as the clock ticks away. Some of you are more or less fortunate or successful than myself. I am on a disability pension and am considering teaching in China for six months to a year, but I do not want to relinquish my disability pension, the pension covers my rental where I live. I would like to take the risk by staying on it while working in China. Realistically the money earned in China or Thailand is very low, if I decided to cancel my pension I would not be able to live adequately in China, and pay my rent and utilities while I am absent. I am curious to know if any of you older risk takers have done what I am considering, or are doing it. I know what the consequences are if Centrelink discover I have been away for more than the decreed six week period permitted for absence. If any of you reading this are in a position to explain bare facts and experiences that would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

N.B I did not place the ad on the China forums because I know there is a huge Australian expatriate community in Thailand, bigger than China.

[EFL Educator]

Why are you teaching if your getting a disability pension?

[likwid_777]

I could give you a moral lecture, but I'll just tell you this. I am studying at uni, so I get an Austudy payment to assist with studying. I went overseas about six months ago, and I didn't tell Centrelink. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but apparently Austudy stops being paid to someone after being overseas for six weeks also. I suspect that once my passport number went through the Aussie airport, it triggered the system, allowing Centrelink to know that I had left the country. They sent me a message which I found once I got to my destination, informing me that if I stayed beyond six weeks, the Austudy would stop. So, I really doubt you'd be able to do this.

I don't know why someone would want to pay rent and utilities in an empty house back in Australia whilst scamming the system (oops here comes that lecture).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04D3C6lSiLc

[Elegantstatue]

[quote="likwid_777"]I could give you a moral lecture, but I'll just tell you this. I am studying at uni, so I get an Austudy payment to assist with studying. I went overseas about six months ago, and I didn't tell Centrelink. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but apparently Austudy stops being paid to someone after being overseas for six weeks also. I suspect that once my passport number went through the Aussie airport, it triggered the system, allowing Centrelink to know that I had left the country. They sent me a message which I found once I got to my destination, informing me that if I stayed beyond six weeks, the Austudy would stop. So, I really doubt you'd be able to do this.

I don't know why someone would want to pay rent and utilities in an empty house back in Australia whilst scamming the system (oops here comes that lecture).

Well you are incorrect in assuming I am trying to take advantage or abusing welfare. I saw the video, I am nothing like that, quite the opposite in fact. The salaries are so low in China or Thailand they would barely cover my rent and utilities in Australia, if I got off the disability pension. Would you like me to tell you my disabilities? I have two, but I still have my eyesight. I am a qualified teacher of ESL but I can't find a job in Australia. The salaries of a full time teacher in Asia are the equivalent to welfare payments.

If you did your maths, which I have done already, there is no way I could live in China or Thailand with their local salary. I would be saving very little!

Why would I want to leave an apartment empty while I am absent? Because people are pigs and don't like cleaning up after themselves. Not to bore you, but last time I sub let my apartment in 2012, when I was abroad I returned to find my apartment a different colour it was so filthy. Need I elaborate?

[EFL Educator]

So I am assuming that most (if not all) ESL teachers in Thailand and China are receiving welfare payments for their work. In all honesty you should leave you empty home in Aussie Land as you have no future there.

[Elegantstatue]

I should leave my empty home in Australia as I have no future there? Well what future is there in Australia for people in their late forties, you tell me? Most blue collar jobs in Sydney and Melbourne are taken by people from Europe escaping the economic crisis. Then there are so many Indians and Chinese that work for half the hourly rate of an Australian national. Can someone like myself compete? I don't think so.
I didn't say I am trying to cheat the system. I live in a form of government housing. And I am on a disability pension because I have genuine disabilities. Prior to developing the disabilities I had studied at University. At then end of my studies I fell ill. Then I developed another disability after I finished my post grad teaching diploma. I am assuming then, if I continued more studies at post graduate level I will develop another disability. I am a theoretical fatalist.
If I cancel my lease where I currently live I will have no where to go except for a homeless shelter, and I am being very serious about that. So why would I want to cancel my lease if my folks don't care about my existence, you tell me...
And why the hell would any of those job network providers care if I am dead or alive? They exist only to fill in log sheets and comply with employment authorities to coerce people in to any form of employment, when half the jobs advertised don't even exist!
Right, so I am going to start digging ditches again and I can barely f*cking walk properly. No I am not obese, DUH!

[likwid_777]

[plumpy nut]

[plumpy nut]

[likwid_777]

Yes, I heard of many older Aussies getting pensions and living it up in Thailand whilst teaching, too. That was the old age pension though, not the disability pension. I think they've been pretty tight on the disability pensions for a while. For example, it's a favourite recurring topic on "current affairs" shows, to sting a "disabled" worker while lifting bags of concrete at home. However, I was talking to a couple of older dudes (maybe 55-60) in a pub a while ago, and they reckoned that the government had stopped, or is stopping, folks collecting a pension while overseas. It seems many Aussie "toughies" are selling drugs up there in Thailand now for an income. Superannuation will be a different story though, as that's actually a person's money, not a "handout". That's as long as the government doesn't squander it on the share market...

Edit- At the end of the day, Elegant, if the system detected my leaving without me notifying them, it will probably detect you too. I apologise for being Mr Moral Police, but you can perhaps understand why someone would think that. One might think if someone is well enough to teach in a place like China, then they're probably able bodied enough to get a job here in Oz. It's a tough situation, but if you really want to teach in China, you could save up a buffer zone to pay a bond and a few weeks rent once you come back. You could teach online in Aus once you get back. The money isn't great, but it might suit in the way of your situation (as a way of getting by in Aus without your pension). As the time difference between Eastern China and Australia is only a couple or a few hours, you could even start doing it in China to have this ball in motion for when you come back to Aus.

[roadwalker]

There may be more Aussies in Thailand, but there are more responses on the China forum.

If it's work you want more than a change of location, why not try online work? There seem to be more and more adverts for ESL online all the time. Maybe you could use the earnings for a less than six week holiday in Asia.

[Zhejiang_Man]

The very minute you go through immigration procedures at any airport in Australia, an automatic notification will be electronically sent from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to the Department of Human Services.

Unless you have obtained prior approval from the Department of Human Services under item 3 below, your DSP payments will automatically stop after you have been outside of Australia for 6 weeks.

Leaving Australia to live in another country

If you leave Australia to live in another country you will not be paid Disability Support Pension (DSP) unless you:

- are terminally ill
- left Australia prior to 1 July 2004, and at the time of leaving you were told that you could be paid indefinitely, and you have not returned to Australia to live since that time
- have been assessed in Australia prior to the departure as having a permanent, severe impairment and no future work capacity. Assessment involves a review of your DSP qualification and a Job Capacity Assessment, or
- are severely disabled and your DSP can be paid under an international social security agreement Australia has with the country in which you are living in (not applicable to Thailand & China)

[EFL Educator]

Actually thee are a lot of EFL teachers in Thailand and China that have disabilities....and they are teaching English without a pension.