Rental affordability issues.

 WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Today we are reposting some of those articles, that in a way can link to our main message about housing, where we will talk about the housing problems in Australia, the Social Security System, and the ASSETS TEST that can prevent the Social Security to be equal for everyone. And I believe that the assets test is the main problem, why today there are not enough rental propeties on the market. 

This article can also be found at this Hub Pages link,  Australia Rental Affordability Issues..  

To read all the blogs of this selected group about rentals click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

Some rental properties can be expenseve to buy or rent. 

We can say that there are several types of properties for rent, of course some cost a lot more that others, like the one on this photo, but there are also affordable properties for rent, people should look at what they can afford to rent. So, try to be happy if you can afford one. 

NOTE, ARTICLE No: 6. 

This article is the sixth article, of a group of articles, about Australia and the housing problems cause and remedy discussions. We are reposting some articles to show you, what we believe is the cause of the rental shortage in Australia. You see, the Australian Social Security System fails to help the farmers, because of the assets test, and fails and punishes the small rental investors, because of the ASSETS TEST, that is the only reason I can see, why today there are not enough rental properties on the market. So, to solve the housing problem, the politicians need to abolish or reset the ASSETS TEST at least to the same level or below, what people can lose from their pensions or other benefits. And also to solve the housing problem, they must find grounds to work together with the privite sector, and definetly not againest the private sector. But today, from what they are doing, they seem to say that the private sector is their enemy. 

Welcome to our article, Australia Rental Affordability Issues.

In this article of Australia rental affordability, let us start with what we find on the news and internet, to show you what we mean. So, hereunder is a shortened report.

 The latest property data from research firm CoreLogic reveals Brisbane has recorded a 3.8 per cent rise in housing rents in the three months to the end of September — the highest rise of any Australian capital city.

As Brisbane continues to face record low vacancy rates, rents have risen by 13.5 per cent state-wide in the past 12 months.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said that equates to about a $68 a week increase for a typical rental dwelling, or $3,536 annually. (End of report).

Well, I hope you see what we mean. So, in this article, we want to discuss rental affordability, because they say that in Australia most people cannot find rental accommodation, and if they do, they cannot afford to pay for it. But what are the reasons for these days’ rental issues. It looks like that there are less property available for rent. Here I can say that I know what has caused this shortage, and there are wayst to fix it, if the people in charge take note of what I am saying, but I am sure that they will ignore me. 

Anyhow, there are a few ways that could fix. One, if the present government wants to fix it, they need to build more rental accommodation themselves, then rent them on low rent, perhaps at no profit at all or at a loss. But even if the government does that, they will not be able to build enough rental property and solve the problem for good, I do not think they can do that, because that takes a lot of taxpayer money, and a lot of time to build enough rental properties, so, let us look at the reason why this is happening, and what has caused this shortage.

It looks like that in the past, when the rental property market was run from the private landlords, and there was some money to be made, these things did not happen very often, because a lot of small investors would invest on rental properties. But today there is very little profit in owning rental properties because they cost too much to run, and there are many taxes, starting from the local government, the state government, and from the federal government.

Because it is hard to make a profit, people that have money keep away from investing on rental properties. So, in this article let us try to find the reason this has happened and continue to happen. We want also to find the reasons why in the past it was better.

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Let us talk about the rental past. 

Rental properties in the past were more affordable, because there were more small investors in the market, they were just people that had some money and instead of keeping it in the bank, they bought a rental property hoping that, when they retied, they could keep their affordable rental property rented, and they would be better off financially, in their old age, at least this is what they wanted, but today it does not work like that anymore.

Most of these people do not have enough money themselves, to become a self-funded retiree. So, they would rely on the government pension, for a modest living standard, but a lot of things have change, so, whoever is on a government pension, would be better off if they had no rental property, because the assets test robs them of their savings. 

Anyhow, there are a lot of overhead expenses to run the property. So, the small investors have stopped buying rental properties, since they give them enough trouble and very little returns. So, what went wrong one may ask? Well, let us try to answer that question.

We all know that most economies are run on capitalism, this type of setting requires that you need to make some money from the money you have, this works out well, when everything works the way, it is supposed to work, and you know what you are doing. But sometimes it does not work that well. This happens when unforeseen expenses pop up, and at the same time the rental market goes down, so, there is no money to be made, the worst part is when you know that you cannot make enough money to run your properties at a profit. I believe that this is what has happened in Australia.

Now, let us see why this has happened, who are the people that are interested in the rental market, and if there is a way to fix this rental shortage. I dare to suggest that the government may have to change some laws, that permits the landlords to run the properties at a profit, and not at a loss, because that is the only way to have enough properties in the market. Here I am not talking about the rich people that run large luxurious holdings and can make money, from their new units on high rent, because most people cannot afford that rent. So, we are looking for affordable rentals, that the workers or the pensioners can afford.

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Let me state my views. 

I believe that there are two ways to fix the rental problem, one way is that the federal and state governments, build enough affordable rental themselves, and rent them at no profit or at a loss. The other way is to copy what we did in the past, because in the past there were more affordable rentals, since it was easier for small investors to have a property for rent, without losing money. Anyhow, what I am saying here is that we may have to go back and see what has changed, and if it is necessary, change it back the way it was before, since there were more affordable properties then.

Now we know that the private sector, if there is enough money, they can find ways how to supply all the rental properties required, but that must be done at a profit, even if it is only a small profit. Anyhow, the large companies are not interested to build affordable rentals, because there is not enough profit in them, then it is the small investors that can make the difference, and because there can be a lot of small investors that can be interested, if the laws permits them to have a rental property at a small profit, or as long as they do not lose other government entitlements, like the pension, then they could be interested to own a property for rent, and the rental shortage can be fixed. 

Now let me explain how it is possible to lose money. Small investor X lives in his own house and has a unit for rent, soon he is going to retire and hopes to receive the government pension, if he did not have the unit for rent, he would be intituled to receive the full pension, because the other assets he has, will take him past the limit he can have, before the pension is cut. But the unit is a real problem, because the net money he can make, is a lot less than the pension he loses, and that is the real problem, so, he believes that it was better if he did not have the unit. 

This is what the government should take into consideration. So, I dare to suggest that, if the government makes laws that the small investors can make at least from their rental properties, as much money as the government pension cut, then the small investors may be willing to invest in residential units, and the problem is half solved.

Anyhow, this is one of the reasons I can see, why this rental shortage is happening. And one of the main causes is the Assets test. To show you why the ASSETS TEST is the main cause, I am going to repost a couple af articles, that I wrote a few years ago in Hub Pages. The first one is called, Australian pensioners alarmed. 

This is all in this article, to see more click on this link, Australia Rental Affordability Issues.

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NOTE. This article above, is the link to the following article, Australia pensioners alarmed. This article is also the sixth article of a group of articles that we want to publish. The aim of these articles is to demonstrate that, the Australian Social Security System fails to help those that need their help. And we believe that it must be equal for everyone. The greatest problem is created by the assets test anomalies, so, the ASSETS TEST must be abolished or adjusted, so that those anomalies are eliminated.  Because this is one of the reasons why, there are not enough rental properties on the market. But the greatest problem is that the politicians do not see it that way, and want to make laws that would stop anybody to invest in rental properties, so let me explain. 

For me there are three main things that the government can do, to come out of this rental crisis: give more rent assistance to the low income earners, abolish the assets test on affordable rental properties and low other levies, so that the small investors can keep renting at affordable price, and stop foreign ownership on rental properties, that is pushing real estate prices up, and the rental market must follow to go up, because the properties cost more. 

Some politician believe that the government should build, affordable rental units to solve this rental crisis, but for the government, to build an infinite number of affordable rental units, is not practical, because it will cost the tax payers several times more than helping the present rental set up, as we have suggested above.  

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com,

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The Social Security must be equal.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Today the 20th of July 2023, I have decided to repost some of those articles, that in a way can link me to our main message, where we will talk about the housing problems in Australia, the Social Security System, and the ASSETS TEST that prevents the Social Security to be equal for everyone. And this is the main problem, because today there are not enough rental propeties on the market. 

This article can also be found at this Hub Pages link,  The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal 

To read all the blogs of this selected group about rentals click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

The Social Security System fails to help all the people in need. 

Centrelink is the Australian govenment office, that runs the Social Security System and other things. So, people go to the Centrelink offices, to see what help they can get from the government, they can be the jobseeker looking for work, they can be disabled people or old pensioners to see what pension they can get from the government. but there are rules to follow to qualify.  

NOTE, ARTICLE No: 5. 

This article is the fourth article, of a group of articles, about Australia and the housing problems cause and remedy discussions. We are reposting these articles to show you, what we believe is the cause of the rental shortage in Australia. You see, the Australian Social Security System fails to help the farmers, because of the assets test, and fails and punishes the small rental investors, because of the ASSETS TEST, that is the only reason I can see, why today there are not enough rental properties on the market. .

Welcome to article, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

We believe that there are two things in life that we must have, one is food and the other is a house to live in. So, a good government must make sure that everybody, can afford these two things. But there are times when it does not work out that way. So, we are looking for a social security system, where everybody gets a minimum payment, which is equal to the minimum pension or unemployment benefit, and also help those that cannot afford to rent a house. Anyhow, hereunder I am reposting an article that I wrote a few years ago about the social security system. 

Dear readers, we believe that the Australian Social Security System must be equal for everybody, but it is not, as we have said in our previous articles, which had something to do with the Australian social security system, starting with, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, then, Australian Social Security, then, The Australian Parties, then, Australia can do better than this, and then, The Assets Test Dilemma, now in these articles we were talking about how the Australian Social Security System works and helps people. So, we have found that the Australian social security system, is good but not perfect, since some people cannot receive it for one reason or another; therefore, the social security system needs to be changed, to fix these unforeseen failures to help. Australia cannot claim to have a good social security system, when it fails to deliver help to those that need help.

Having said that, now we need to come up with an answer for this social problem, because, the Australian Social Security system, must be equal for everybody. We believe that everybody in the community must be given a minimum of help, when they need help. So, we are going to write and suggest our views, hoping that somebody important reads them and does something about it.

Now, what we want to write here is not going to be popular, because it criticises the existing social security system, since it says that it is not good enough, they need to avoid what is happening to the farmers, so, they must put in place a better system, where people in need are helped. So, let us imagine and talk about a social security system that can guaranty that.

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Talking about the ideal social security setup. 

What we are writing hereunder is an idealistic way for the social security system to adapt, if they can. But it is unlikely that this system can be approved now, because Australia cannot afford it. 

We believe that all legal citizen that are unemployed or don’t have any income, must be granted from the government an amount of money that is equal to the minimum government unemployment benefit or pension, it would be like receiving a small wage from the government. Now, we believe that this is what is needed in Australia, and we believe that one day can be done, if we can organise ourselves to achieve that, after all Australia is supposed to be a rich country. 

The people that can benefit from the change.

The people that will benefit from this change, are those people that today don’t receive any payment from the government, and those people that don’t receive enough, so, they are forced to live below the poor threshold. In this case the poor threshold is set, as equal to the minimum government pension that today is about, $900 per fortnight for a single person, or $700 each for a couple. This is the minimum of money that people need to live, and we believe that it must be equal for everyone.

As things stand today, there are people that must live with less than the minimum government pension, because of the anomalies in the system. One of those anomalies is caused from the assets test, where the pensioners receive a smaller pension, the rest of their earnings is supposed to come from their assets, which are supposed to earn about 7.8 %; but most of the rental properties, can only earn about 2%, as we have shown you in our previous article, The Assets Test Dilemma, where a house valued at $650,000 did only make $8500 in a year, which is about 1.3%. So, we believe that the assets test on rental properties must be set according to what they can earn, if the government believes that we need mums and dads to invest in rental properties and keep the Australian real estate market going. 

My views are that the assets test on rental properties, must be set at a level, where it is possible for the owners, to earn at least as much as they loose from the pension. Now my views are that the assets test on rental properties should be one third of what they are now, so that the pensioners will lose one dollar per thousand, instead of three dollars per thousand. But even this might not be enough, you see if you have a property valued at one million dollars, you cannot receive any pension. The question here is; will this property earn the owner about $24,000 per year net. I don’t think so. This is why today there are not enough rental properties on the market. 

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The property owners’ other problems.

As we have seen in this article and our previous articles, to own a rental property is a problem and not a benefit, because people lose their pension or unemployment benefits, so, to own a second property is not the way we should plan for better retirement, since the assets test reduces the pension payments to more than what you can earn from those properties.

But there are more negative things in owning a rental property, the worst of all is the land-tax. The land-tax in Queensland is $1.7 per thousand, this means that if you have land valued it one million dollars, every year you must pay $17,000 to the government just because you own this land. They don’t give you anything at all, you just must pay, because they need the money.

Some people still believe in owning properties, because their price go up all the time, so, they think that they are better off having properties, you see, they don’t realize that there is this gain tax that will take away all their earnings and more, let me give you this example.

You own a rental house that you have bought several years ago for $250,000, which was the right market price, today you must sell the rental house, because you need to move to another town, where houses are about the same value, so, you think that it will be easy; you sell the house for $650,000 and you buy another one about the same price. But that is not going to happen, because the $400,000 dollars that you have gained is taxable. This is called the gain tax, which may well be around $100,000, it is hard to be more specific. So, in this case you may lose $100,000 dollars because of the gain tax.

The figures in this article, might not be correct, but they are close enough to what they are supposed to be for showing our views.

This is all I can say today; this setup is not fair for anybody that owns properties, because those properties in the assets test, cannot earn half the money that they will receive from the government pensions or other benefits if they had no properties. So, for them it would have been better to have no properties; since the assets test affects the pension and other benefit adversely. 

So, people are discouraged to own properties and to save for rainy day, because there is no benefit to own them, since they are going to lose and not to gain. Here we are asking that the scale in the assets test for properties, be set in a way that gives the property owners a chance to earn at least as much money as they lose, from the government benefit. It is not fair that people lose money because they have worked hard, and they are running a rental service to the community. 

From what we have said above, you can clearly see, that the reason why there are not enough rental properties on the market is because, the ASSETS TEST needs to be abolished, or set at a much lower level, so that it would not stop the people from investing on rental properties. 

Anyhow, this is all what I can think about today. I believe that at least I have pointed out what in my views needs adjustment. Because we believe that, the Australian social security system must be equal for everybody. 

This is all for this article, see you in our next article, Australia Rental Affordability Issues.

To see more and the original article click on this link, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal

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NOTE. This article above, is the link to the following article, Australia rental issues. This article is also the fifth article of a group of articles that we want to publish. The aim of these articles is to demonstrate that, the Australian Social Security System fails to help those that need their help. And we believe that it must be equal for everyone. The greatest problem is created by the assets test anomalies, so, the ASSETS TEST must be abolished or adjusted, so that those anomalies are eliminated.  Because this is one of the reasons why, there are not enough rental properties on the market. But the greatest problem is that the politicians do not see it that way, and want to make laws that would stop anybody to invest in rental properties, so let me explain. 

For me there are three main things that the government can do, to come out of this rental crisis: give more rent assistance to the low income earners, abolish the assets test on affordable rental properties and low other levies, so that the small investors can keep renting at affordable price, and stop foreign ownership on rental properties, that is pushing real estate prices up, and the rental market must follow to go up, because the properties cost more. 

Some politician believe that the government should build, affordable rental units to solve this rental crisis, but for the government, to build an infinite number of affordable rental units, is not practical, because it will cost the tax payers several times more than helping the present rental set up, as we have suggested above.  

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com,

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The Assets Test Punishes rental owners.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Today the 20th of July 2023, I have decided to repost some of those articles, that in a way can link me to our main message, where we will talk about the housing problems in Australia, the Social Security System, and the ASSETS TEST that prevents the Social Security to be equal for everyone. And this is the main problem, because today there are not enough rental propeties on the market. 

This article can also be found at this Hub Pages link, The Assets Test Problem. 

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

The Social Security System fails to help all the people in need. 

Owners of a rental house like this that are on the government pension, may find that they can be cut off the pension, because of the assets test, since the prices of houses continue to go up, but the assets test does not. So, they will be forced to sell, because they cannot live on the rent alone, since it could be half as much as the pension. They sell and another rental property is off the market. 

The Social Security System fails to help the people in need. 

Now, look at this piece of land, it is so dry, there is nothing for the farms' animal to eat. No farm animal can live here for long, unless the farmer feeds and water them manually. When things like this happen, it is very hard for the farmers to survive; they need help from the goverment. But the Australian Social Seccurity System fails to help the farmers, because of the assets test. It fails also to help other people that run a service to the comunity. It needs adjustment to the right levels. So, let us talk about it.   

NOTE, ARTICLE No: 4 

This article is the fourth article, of a group of articles, about Australia and the housing problems cause and remedy discussions. We have started with these farming articles, because farmers can also have financial problems, in a way similar to the housing problems, since the Social Security System fails to help the farmers, and fails and punishes the small rental investors. 

Welcome to our article, The Assets Test Problem, must be solved. 

How the assets test affects property owners. 

Dear readers, we started to write these articles about what is happening in Australia, when we saw that the farmers were having problems to survive, because of the drought, so, we thought that the Australian government should help. But they cannot help the farmers, because they own properties and the assets test exclude them from government help; it is like other property owners that are excluded also. This is what we are going to write in this article.    

Anyhow, today in this article, beside talking about the farmers, we are going to talk about the assets test for other groups, and above all we are going to talk about the assets test, how it affects rental property owners in a more detailed way than we have done in our other articles, and then, about other unfair government taxes levied on properties. 

 

The assets test punishes rental property owners. 

The assets test is a problem for the pensioners, because it does not consider, if it is possible to earn the same amount of money that will be cut off the pension. The main problem here is that, when the treasurer makes the budget, he doesn’t even look at this possible outcome, he just wants to save money and cut the pensions. In fact, nobody is thinking about this negative issue, I would say that the entire population thinks that people that own rental properties are rich people, so, they don’t need the government pension, when rental houses are a real problem with pensioners that own one rental house only, because if they get a government pension, the pension will be cut off so drastically that they would have been better off, if they didn’t have the house at all. I believe that the assets test on rental properties, is set three time as much as it should be for the small property owner to break even, and this is what I am going to show you in this article, where I will make it clear with an example. 

Anyhow, before I write about that, I am going to suggest that to fix this injustice about today assets test, which discriminate heavily against the small rental property owners, because it puts them in a disadvantaged position financially, the only thing that comes to my mind is that whoever makes these budget and laws, must keep in mind that he should give these properties owner a fair go, if he wants to keep the Australian economy going the best way possible, or I should say, at least as good as it was a few years ago, before the assets test was changed.

The aim is to achieve the most benefit for the country, I believe that to achieve you need people that are self-starter and work hard, like the small property owners that have worked hard during their lives and have paid their taxes on what they have earned. They saved some money and invested it on a second house, hoping that when they would retire, they could be better off financially, but it did not work the way they wanted, because of the unfair assets test changes that the Australian government has made recently. You see, these self-starter people need to believe that if they work hard, they will be better off in the future.

Here I can only say; what is wrong with the people in Canberra? Don’t they see that they are killing the will of the people that want to progress by working hard? This is the second most important group of people that work physically hard; the first group is the workers that work for a wage. This first group of people politically belongs to the Labour Party, these people are happy to work for a fair wage, and if they own their house they live in, so, most of them are not self-starters.

The second group of people, the small property owners that are usually hard-working people and self-starters can belong to both parties; so, if the coalition wants more votes from this group and stay in government, they need to fix the mistakes they have made, when they changed the assets test in a way that punishes severally anyone that gets a government pension. I say punishes them severally, as I am going to show you, how the assets test and other things discriminate against the pensioners, so, it makes life very hard for them. Anyhow, my views about the assets test that discriminate against the small property owners, in the example I am writing hereunder.

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The assets test punishes small property owners. 

Now let us talk about how today assets test discriminate and punishes financially the small property owners. To show you that, hereunder we have written an example. So, we have chosen a couple that we call Mr. and Mrs Smith, they are both pensioner and receive a government pension. The figure that appears in this example are all rounded figures, but they are close to the real figures, when I wrote this article the first time. 

Now, let us write this example.

Mr Don Smith and his wife are both on government pensions, but today they don’t get much pension, because of the assets test. The Smith couple thinks, and I believe that, the only way one could describe today assets test is that whoever made these laws are cruel people, because the assets test discriminates against those small property owners that own a house for rent, since it is not possible to live on the money that their property can earn, so, let us see how it works. One of the problems exist because of the deeming setup, where the government calculate that people can earn $3.00 per fortnight per every thousand dollars you have in the bank, or anywhere else including properties. In fact, owning properties is the worst thing you can have, because it affects the owners in a disadvantaged way, like the Smiths that we are talking about here.

The house they rent is valued at $650,000, plus a few more belongings their assets test are nearly 800,000 dollars so, they only get about $100 per fortnight each, because of the assets test.

Now, if they didn’t have their rental property, they would get the full pension, which would have been, $690 each per fortnight each.

Now, let us try to calculate how much the Smiths can earn from their rental property in Brisbane. This property is an old three-bedroom house, on a large block of land that is valued at $550,000, this house is rented at $450.00 PW, so, if they are lucky and the house is rented the entire year, they would collect $23400.00 this is before expenses.

Now, what are the average expenses for this house; The Brisbane City Council rates are $600.00 per quarter; the Urban Utilities average $450.00 per quarter; this will come to $4200.00 per year; the insurance is $1200.00 per year, the land tax (this may vary, but let us say that they have to pay it fully in this example) so, the tax is $6550.00; maintenance can vary, but let us say $1500.00, then there is the fee for the real estate agent say $1500.00 per year.

Let us add this numbers up. So, $4200 to Brisbane city Council rates and water +1200 insurance+6550 Queensland government land tax +1500 maintenance+ 1500 to real estate agent letting fee, it = $14,950

Calculate total net earnings for the year, is $23400 income-14950 expenses=8450

The Smiths have made $8450 net in one year. Do you think they can live on that? Here some people may say that not everybody pays the land-tax, but even without the land-tax, the Smiths will only earn $15,000.00 from their rental property.

This is a lot less than if they were on the government pension, which would have been nearly $36000.00 for both.

But now they only get 20,200.00 at the best, and all the trouble to rent their property.

I believe that these negative things must not happen, it is not right when you have worked hard to put yourself in a better financial position, then suddenly you find yourself worse off. Because some government idiots have made this huge mistake.

I believe that these mistakes must be fixed from the present government, because if they don't the people that have been hurt will vote them out of government. 

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Anyhow, today I can add that the mistake of the past government to set the assets test on everything at three dollars per thousand was the mistake that has destroyed the rental market, since most of the small property owners are forced to sell their property to live. Therefore, if the present govenment wants the small investors help on rental properties, they must abolish the ASSETS TEST on affordable rental properties. 

Well, somehow, I have had my say, and I hope that it is clear enough what I have said. So, see you in my next article, which will be about, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

To see more and the original article click on this link, The Assets Test Problem.

See you soon.

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NOTE. This article above, is the link to the following article, The Australian social security must be equal. This article is also the fourth article of a group of articles that we want to publish. The aim of these articles is to demonstrate that, the Australian Social Security System fails to help those that need their help. And we believe that it must be equal for everyone. The greatest problem is created by the assets test anomalies, so, the ASSETS TEST must be abolished or adjusted, so that those anomalies are eliminated.  Because this is one of the reasons why, there are not enough rental properties on the market. But the greatest problem is that the politicians do not see it that way, and want to make laws that would stop anybody to invest in rental properties, so let me explain. 

For me there are three main things that the government can do, to come out of this rental crisis: give more rent assistance to the low income earners, abolish the assets test on affordable rental properties and low other levies, so that the small investors can keep renting at affordable price, and stop foreign ownership on rental properties, that is pushing real estate prices up, and the rental market must follow to go up, because the properties cost more. 

Some politician believe that the government should build, affordable rental units to solve this rental crisis, but for the government, to build an infinite number of affordable rental units, is not practical, because it will cost the tax payers several times more than helping the present rental set up, as we have suggested above.  

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com,

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The Australian Social Security needs to help.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Today the 20th of July 2023, I have decided to repost some of those articles, that in a way can link me to our main message, where we will talk about the housing problems in Australia, the Social Security System, and the ASSETS TEST that prevents the Social Security to be equal for everyone. And this is the main problem, because today there are not enough rental propeties on the market. 

This article can also be found at this Hub Pages link,  Australian Social Security 

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com,

The Australian Social Security system. There are a lot of people that go to the Centrelink offices, to see what help they can get from the government, they can be the jobseeker looking for work, they can be pensioners to see what pension they can get from the government, and other groups as well. 

NOTE, ARTICLE No: 3

This article is the third article, of a group of articles, about Australia and the housing problems cause and remedy discussions. We have started with these farming articles, because farmers can also have financial problems, in a way similar to the housing problems, since the Social Security System fails to help them. 

Welcome to our article, Australian Social Security   

The Australian Social Security System needs to help. 

Dear readers, this is an old article, but it can still apply today. In this article about the “Australian Social Security”, we start by writing, why the Australian Social Security fails to help the farmers, and other people that need help. But first let us discuss about the farmer, because of our previous article Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, so, we want to work out, why the farmers don’t get social security payment from the government, like most other people do, when they need help.

You see, today the Australian Social Security system is helping lots of people, but it is not helping the farmers, even though the farmers really need help from the government. Therefore, we want to know why this is happening, and then, we can suggest how to avoid this happening again. We believe that the Social Security system in Australia must help anybody that needs help, at least the name itself suggests that. So, we are going to talk about this issue, in this article and the following articles.

Anyhow, our views are based on what is happening in Australia today, about farming and the drought, so, the first question is; why the Australian Social Security system has failed to help the farmers. We believe that the Australian Social Security can do better than what it is doing now. So, let us see why the Australian social security is failing to help the farmers.

Now, what we are saying here is what we know, but, if you want to know more about the Australian Social Security system, you should follow these links, Social security in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_security_in_Australia, Benefits and Payments - Australia.gov.au, and other links that can be found on the internet.

Anyhow, we believe that the Australian Social Security system that we call Centrelink, has failed to help the farmers, because it has not been planned to help them from the beginning, so, it needs to be changed, for the hardship to be minimized. 

So, why the social security has failed to help? Once you ask that question and look for the reasons, you realize that in Australia not everybody is treated the same, from the current social security system. You see, people are treated different because they belong to different categories; there are: the-have and the-have-not; there are the workers that work for wages; there are the self-employed; there are the farmers, which we could say are self-employed, and others; anyhow, when people go to Centrelink the Social Security government agencies for help, the agencies do what they can according to where these groups of people belong, so, let us see some examples how this works. 

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How the Social Security works. 

Let us start from the working people. When people that work for a wage, become unemployed and they are not earning money, they can go to Centrelink, where they can apply to receive the unemployment benefit from the government; this means that the government gives them some money, until they find another job to go to and can earn their living. This system is called Social Security unemployment benefits, or something like that, and it is good, it is like receiving a small wage to help you survive, so, it helps the workers when they don’t have a job and need financial help, which is good.

But the problem with this system is that all categories are not treated the same, which is not good. So, I believe that something needs to be done, to help anyone that needs help. You see, some categories may not receive help because they belong to a certain category, even if they earn no money and have no money, like the farmers today, this is the problem with the Social Security system of today.

You see, the farmers cannot turn to the government for help, because they are self-employed, and they are supposed to be rich, okay they are rich, because they own a lot of land, so, the assets test will exclude them from any government help; in this case there is no social security for the farmers. This is the reason why the social security system is failing the farmers, it is not set to help those people that cannot earn money even when they work hard, in the hope they can earn their living.

But I believe that these people must be helped, because they are the backbone of the Australian economy, therefore, we cannot afford to lose them, so, the Social Security system needs to be adjusted to help them when they need help. They must be helped from the government, until the day that something else can replace the government help; like the collection of funds that we have suggested in our last article. Here we need also to say, that today farming is not regulated from the government, but some regulations may need to be placed; so that when things don’t work out, the government will be more willing to help the farmers.

Anyhow, we have worked out that today the farmers cannot be helped from Centrelink, because they are self-employed, and they have property as assets. You see, the assets-test is the main problem here; but I believe that the assets-test in special cases should not override the income test, this suggestion does not apply only to the farmers, because the assets-test is also making life miserable to pensioners that own properties, when those properties cannot earn half the money the assets test believe they could.

So, in my views the assets test needs to be abolished or modified. So,that this farmer’s problem can be solved, this will also apply to pensioners, jobseekers and other groups, but it it is going to be a real problem for the politicians, if they want to help the people that have voted for them at the elections.

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 Let us look at the political reasons.

Anyhow, in our previous articles we have started to talk about the farmers problems, but slowly we found ourselves to talk about assets-test and politics. Now, what is happening at the Australian federal government level is not right, they need to work better what the people need, and how the people are affected when they make their budgets, I believe that this is one of the reasons why Australia is having problems today, some of these politicians, that become treasurers are heartless and careless, they have made many mistakes that has affected the public adversely, some of these mistakes need to be fixed. 

Anyhow, in the past as far as I know there was no assets test in the seventies, it was introduced later to stop people that were abusing the system, also because the government needed more money. Now, let us try to see and discuss some of the reasons that apply today, which takes us to see that the federal government is greedy, because they want more money. 

Of course,  the people that make these decisions, are the politicians that we send to Canberra parliament to govern us, since the government is formed from the political parties. Now it becomes evident that it is what these political parties represent, believe and preach that are going to make the future laws and budgets that parliament will pass, to govern Australia.

Here we could talk about  the Australian political parties. But we are leaving that behind and we will talk about The Assets Test Problem because it affects most of us. 

To see more click on this link,  Australian Social Security 

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NOTE. This article above, is the link to the following article, The assets test problem. This article is also the third article of a group of articles that we want to publish. The aim of these articles is to demonstrate that, the Australian Social Security System fails to help those that need their help. And we believe that it must be equal for everyone. The greatest problem is created by the assets test anomalies, so, the ASSETS TEST must be abolished or adjusted, so that those anomalies are eliminated.  Because this is one of the reasons why, there are not enough rental properties on the market. But the greatest problem is that the politicians do not see it that way, and want to make laws that would stop anybody to invest in rental properties, so let me explain. 

For me there are three main things that the government can do, to come out of this rental crisis: give more rent assistance to the low income earners, abolish the assets test on affordable rental properties and low other levies, so that the small investors can keep renting at affordable price, and stop foreign ownership on rental properties, that is pushing real estate prices up, and the rental market must follow to go up, because the properties cost more. 

Some politician believe that the government should build, affordable rental units to solve this rental crisis, but for the government, to build an infinite number of affordable rental units, is not practical, because it will cost the tax payers several times more than helping the present rental set up, as we have suggested above.  

To read all the blogs of this selected group click on this link, http://menfranco.blogspot.com,

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