Well there is this

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

And then there is this

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Interesting subject Berni...

Not much anyone can or will do about the 1st link, but the second one shows that young people especially, should be made very aware of.

I was surprised to read about the 25 pound a day pensioners. My income is actually a tad less than that and I've had to learn to cope.

I started working for a living back in 1964 and up until I retired 12 yrs ago, had never been employed in all that time. Worked hard, payed taxes and saved what I could. I was always led to believe that I would qualify for and receive a reasonable pension when I retired. Then the OZ Govt changed the rules and moved the goalposts!!! I qualify for the pension as I believed....but only while I am resident in the country!! Can't and don't get a penny from them now.



I can't afford to move back there...and even if I could, my family couldn't come with me.  

PS. Out of idle curiosity, I just checked the exchange rate and my daily income is actually a bit under 17 pounds per day.





Sadly, there are retired Ozzies living overseas in a much worse situation than me.

Yes, it is a can of worms so to speak, it is so unfair that they keep moving the goalpost and people like us have to suffer in the long run, not the pension chap that runs the government pension can retire at 60 and has a mere 240,000 a year pension to live on, how is the poor chap going to manage on that, guess he will be claiming benefits to make ends meet

Yes know what you mean  I worked in pension for a long long time and I too thought and was lead to believe I would be very comfortable with my fianal salary pension which is one of the best pesnions around however, this was not the case a smigion more than the £25 a week. so I am a little better off than you.  Pensions are a ripoff  no two ways about it.  Those pensioners cannot live on the mere £25 a week so they have to claim pension credit to make up a liviable income but many of them have their little private or serps pensions or a little saving put away for a rainy day and of course all this is taken into account when they apply for the pension credit and if they are a penny over the allowance they are refused it. I remember our eldery neighbours in the UK they were frightened to turn on the lights and never had the tv or radio on during the day as it used electricty. My heart went out to them, they were very proud people and would not accept help, so I had to think of ways around that I used to cook meals for them and tell them I over cooked or buy extra bread and tell them can't get it in the freezer but if they don't want it give it to next doors dog, knowing full well they would not do that.  I watch them scrimp and scrape and their daughter applied for pension credit for them but they were refused as their income was £512.90p a month so that brought them 20p over the pension credit limit, how stupid was that and we think the government in BG is tough...

Our Australian friends have move back to Australia but are finding it very very expensive they live the life here in Bulgaria so now they are paying a high price plus they will have to go back to work to survive.

I know what you mean Berni...I can't claim for anything at all as I don't reside in the country anymore and Bulgaria has nothing for me because I'm not a citizen...a real Catch 22 situation.

What really gets up my nose...if you arrive in a boat with no ID, no way of proving where you came from etc...you will be paid many hundreds of $$$$s per week, given a house, food and all sorts of help, but an Australian born citizen who served 22yrs of his life in a uniform, serving under the national flag, paid taxes all of his working life and now lives overseas....is entitled to absolutely nothing!!

If, on the other hand, you spent just 12 months as a politician...even at the lowest level of Govt...you are entitled to a minimum pension of some 240,000 dollars per year and a lot of perks to go with it. The higher up you served, the higher the pension will be...and there are no contributions deducted from their salary...it's all free!!

Something is very, very smelly with that system.