What is Sickness Allowance?Sickness Allowance and Special Benefits are included in assessable income
What is Sickness Allowance and who can get it?
To get Sickness Allowance, there are some conditions you have to meet.
Sickness Allowance is paid if you are:
a woman aged 16-59 or a man aged 16-64 (if you are under 16 but over school leaving age and on your own you may also qualify), and
an Australian citizen or allowed to live here permanently, and
temporarily unable to work because of illness or injury and have a job to return to when fit to do so.
Note: If you are unemployed, but temporarily unable to work because of an illness or injury, you should claim Sickness Allowance and Special Benefits. You will not be expected to look for work while you are unfit.
A medical certificate must be provided. Ask your doctor to provide you with the special Sickness Allowance Medical Certificate. Sickness Allowance can only be paid for the period covered on your medical certificate - up to a maximum of 13 weeks for each medical certificate. Always make sure you give us your new Sickness Allowance Medical Certificate before your old one runs out otherwise you might miss out on money.
To find out about special benefits - refer to the
special benefits 52-10 you will see that supplementary allowances received under Sickness Allowance and Special Benefits are specially exempted.No mention is made of Sickness Allowance and Special Benefits payments so you can take it that they are included in assessable income as income according to ordinary concepts.
|
23.1 |
Sickness allowance |
Supplementary amount is exempt |
Supplementary amount, and tax-free amount, are exempt |
Exempt |
Exempt up to the tax-free amount |
|
25.1 |
Special benefit |
Supplementary amount is exempt |
Supplementary amount, and tax-free amount, are exempt |
Exempt |
Exempt up to the tax-free amount |
Supplementary payments allow extra assistance to be provided to pensioners with special needs. For example, a pensioner who does not own his own home receives Rental Assistance to help with accommodation costs.
Most social security pensions are included in assessable income. However supplementary payments, which are paid in addition to those pensions, are exempt from tax. The most common of these are…
RENTAL ASSISTANCE - assistance with accommodation costs
REMOTE AREA ALLOWANCE - compensation for additional expenses encountered by persons living in isolated areas
PHARMACEUTICAL ALLOWANCE - assistance with chemist expenses
Supplementary payments are exempt - section 52-15.
Different pensions and benefits have different supplementary amounts. So look up section
52-15 to see which allowances are included in the supplementary amount for each pension.If it is a supplementary amount, it is exempt
BUT, the rest of the pension will be included in your assessable income.
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