Assets - how much do they reduce your benefit by?

[Arimeh]

DH and I are tossing around the idea of him starting uni next year down here in Tassie, instead of deferring for another year because it doesn't feel like we will sell our house before then.

He has already deferred a year from QUT because we didn't sell the house before this year had started.

So I'm just wondering because we have a mortgage, how much does the fact we have an asset affect our payments? He would be on austudy (which is what, $400 a fortnight approx?) and I would be on whatever I could get.. LOL

He would be looking into getting some night fill work through Coles or woolies, to earn some money, but I wanted to find out if we get penalised for having the house as an asset as to the amount of money we would be entitled to. I wish we didn't have the house as an asset, but DH doesn't want to waste another year of his life in a job he doesn't really enjoy any more and wants to move ahead into the next stage of our lives.

I know it will be bloody tight and we may be eating baked beans a lot, but hopefully the house will sell so we can move to cheaper accommodation than paying a mortgage!

Any help/advice/tips would be great.

[megs]

The home you live in isn't included as an assets as it is your primary place of residence.

If you own more than one property then the homes that your aren't living in are included in the assets test.

I hope that helps

[Ginger]

Yeah I thought the same thing as megs. I am a home owner and I don't think it affects my payments. Why not rent the tassie house out and rent a place in qld for a while?

[briggsy's girl]

your primary residence isn't an asset hun - it would only be an asset if you decided to rent it out and move back to QLD or something - or if you moved across town and had it empty or some such craziness

if your DP is studying, you're not working, you would probably be entitled to PPP at around $425 per fortnight, as well as max rate ftba (a bit of 160 per child) and part rate ftbb (as your parenting payment is deemed an income so reduced ftbb that you receive)

[Arimeh]

The home you live in isn't included as an assets as it is your primary place of residence.
I hope that helps

Oh that is awesome, thanks

Why not rent the tassie house out and rent a place in qld for a while?

Cos it would be classed as an investment and our benefits would be next to nothing and we couldn't afford rent and mortgage repayments

[Ginger]

Oh ok, oops! Good luck with it all, will your dh be able to study his course in tas?

[Arimeh]

Yeah he'll be studying nursing. Apparently UTAS is a pretty reputable uni

[Ginger]

How do YOU feel about staying in taste longer?

[Arimeh]

How do YOU feel about staying in taste longer?

I'm guessing you mean Tassie

I hate the thought of staying longer, but I can't make my house sell any faster that its meant too, so will just make the best of our situation. I do have great friends down here, so I have a "village" but just no family. So we just have to hope that nothing happens to any of our parents cos we will always feel guilty if it does that they never got the chance to know our children because we chose to move down here in the first place.

[Ginger]

Silly iPhone! Sorry!

Fingers crossed for you it sells soon xo and you get back to being near your family.
What does the agent say? Have they mentioned why they think it's not selling?

[Arimeh]

Yeah its just really slow down here. Even with investors. So places used to sell in about 3 months tops, now its about 2 years average of being on the market.