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Where I live you have to work a full 8 hour shift to be a taxi driver. So the real benefit of Uber was enabling mums to drop off children at school and then wo

Where I live you have to work a full 8 hour shift to be a taxi driver. So the real benefit of Uber was enabling mums to drop off children at school and then work until time to pick them up again (one example), casual self determining work not available to many in other ways. I live fairly central, guy around the corner from me is retired, hangs at home picking up the odd job as he feels like, great for him, plus he can control his income relative to impacts to benefits.

mantas 4y ago
> plus he can control his income relative to impacts to benefits In other words, benefits abuse?
- gruez 4y ago
  If the welfare program says you only get money if you earn under $2000/month, what's wrong with keeping your income just under $2000 month?
  - wdb 4y ago
    Because it indicates you are able to find a job that earns you money
    - airbreather 4y ago
      not if you are retired, the way it works here the marginal tax rate of a pensioner could end up around 80% when means tested pension payments are taken account of. For someone that has worked all their life and paid a shitload of tax I find that a little offensive and have no problem with them optimising their returns in their golden years.
      - wdb 4y ago
        Now you are talking about getting welfare subsidies when people are retired? I hope when you are retired you have pension pot or a (paid off) house you can leverage so you need to get welfare money from the government
        mantas 4y ago
        Where pensions are tied to incomes and go away if you reach certain incomes threshold?
        airbreather 4y ago
        It can be reduced by 50c for every dollar earned, plus you can be taxed on earnings, in some cases.
        airbreather 4y ago
        It's called the pension and everyone who has paid tax more than ten years and over a certain age (it's migrating over time, basically 65) who is not means tested out on income and assets is eligible. But there is a grey area where you partially qualify, the ideal retirement strategy can be to spend your savings at a rate to allow a comfortable life then at a certain point you drop down into pension eligibility and then you supplement your own savings with the pension. Unfortunately, in the parts of the zone of grey the way it works out is if you earn too much the combined impact of income tax and reduced payments is equivalent to a tax rate of 70 or 80%, so it sort of makes it an incentive not to work in those cases unless you really like it for some reason, but there is every chance you are 75 or 80 by then so I think you've probably done your bit by then and entitled to take it a little easy.

mantas 4y ago

> plus he can control his income relative to impacts to benefits In other words, benefits abuse?

gruez 4y ago
If the welfare program says you only get money if you earn under $2000/month, what's wrong with keeping your income just under $2000 month?
- wdb 4y ago
  Because it indicates you are able to find a job that earns you money
  - airbreather 4y ago
    not if you are retired, the way it works here the marginal tax rate of a pensioner could end up around 80% when means tested pension payments are taken account of. For someone that has worked all their life and paid a shitload of tax I find that a little offensive and have no problem with them optimising their returns in their golden years.
    - wdb 4y ago
      Now you are talking about getting welfare subsidies when people are retired? I hope when you are retired you have pension pot or a (paid off) house you can leverage so you need to get welfare money from the government
      - mantas 4y ago
        Where pensions are tied to incomes and go away if you reach certain incomes threshold?
        airbreather 4y ago
        It can be reduced by 50c for every dollar earned, plus you can be taxed on earnings, in some cases.
      - airbreather 4y ago
        It's called the pension and everyone who has paid tax more than ten years and over a certain age (it's migrating over time, basically 65) who is not means tested out on income and assets is eligible. But there is a grey area where you partially qualify, the ideal retirement strategy can be to spend your savings at a rate to allow a comfortable life then at a certain point you drop down into pension eligibility and then you supplement your own savings with the pension. Unfortunately, in the parts of the zone of grey the way it works out is if you earn too much the combined impact of income tax and reduced payments is equivalent to a tax rate of 70 or 80%, so it sort of makes it an incentive not to work in those cases unless you really like it for some reason, but there is every chance you are 75 or 80 by then so I think you've probably done your bit by then and entitled to take it a little easy.