From 1 July 2023, Age Pension age will be 67 years, if you were born on or after 1 January 1957.
For Indigenous Australians, Major cities: $719, Inner regional: $520, Outer regional: $450, Remote: $464, Very remote: $400, Australia: $553.
Taking into account the $300 million allocated for Indigenous housing and the $177 million underspend in 2021–22, the October 2022–23 Budget provides $1.1 billion more than the March 2022–23 Budget for Indigenous Australians-related matters, averaging $4.2 billion per year over the forward estimates.
The Australian Government defines Indigenous Australians as people who: are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent; identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin; and are accepted as such in the communities in which they live or have lived.
Your Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage is something that is personal to you. You do not need a letter of confirmation to identify as an Indigenous Australian.
Letter from an Indigenous organisation or Community Elder
We prefer a letter from an Indigenous organisation to confirm your heritage. However, we will also accept a letter from a Community Elder. Use the Confirmation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent letter to confirm your heritage.
At the end of the June quarter of 2016, around 45% of Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over (220,800 people) were receiving some form of Centrelink income support payment, compared with 26% of non-Indigenous Australians of this age (4.9 million people).
The New South Wales Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme provides ex-gratia payments of $75,000 to living Stolen Generations survivors who were removed from their families and committed to the care of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection or Welfare Boards.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Indigenous holding entities don't need to pay income tax or capital gains tax on native title payments or benefits.
If you're an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian, you can access Medicare services that meet your needs. You can access better health services if you have a Medicare card and complete health checks.
The qualifying age is currently 66 years and 6 months old.
NSWALC Funeral Grants
Financial assistance for funeral expenses may be available from the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC). Further enquiries should be directed to NSWALC.
The Aboriginal people living in social housing are exempt from Stamp Duty as per Section 278 of the Duties Act 1997 (NSW).
On a per person basis, government welfare expenditure was $13,968 per Indigenous Australian, compared with $6,019 per non-Indigenous Australian in 2012–13—this equates to expenditure of $2.32 per Indigenous person for every $1.00 spent per non-Indigenous person.
Car loans for Aboriginal people
Instead, all Indigenous Australians can apply to a lender like a bank or finance company, just like non-Indigenous Australians can. You need to demonstrate to your lender that you can afford to make your repayments to get your application approved.
The Schoolkids Bonus is worth $410 for each child in primary school and $820 for each child in secondary school per year. Half is paid in January to help with back-to-school costs and half in July to help with mid-year and ongoing expenses.
Since legislation for Indigenous people was a state matter, each state found its own definition for 'Aboriginal'. Examples: Western Australia: a person with more than a quarter of Aboriginal blood. Victoria: any person of Aboriginal descent.
You can provide a letter of Confirmation from a registered Aboriginal community organisation as proof of Aboriginality.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 50 per cent of Australia's land mass. Connection to land is of central importance to First Nations Australians.
The test has three elements, all of which must be proved by the person claiming to be Aboriginal: the person must identify as Aboriginal, the Aboriginal community must recognise the person as Aboriginal, and the person is Aboriginal by way of descent.
It's possible, depending on how distant the Indigenous Australian ancestor is, that you share too little DNA with them for our DNA test to detect it. A DNA test is not any kind of prescription of identity; rather, a person's genetic makeup is only one part of their story.
Doing your family history may help you obtain proof of your heritage. You might find a birth, death or marriage record that traces your family to a particular Aboriginal station or reserve. Or you might have oral history stories that can connect you to a particular area or person or photograph.
This allows us to better understand how health issues for Indigenous Australians might be the same as, or different to, other Australians. The best way to get this information right is for us to ask you the standard Indigenous status question and let you answer for yourself.
The islands were settled by different seafaring Melanesian cultures such as the Torres Strait Islanders over 2500 years ago, and cultural interactions continued via this route with the Aboriginal people of northeast Australia.