Centrelink benefits cut short by pre-cost investment reporting
The current investment reporting system is misleading and can lead to an unfair reduction in Centrelink benefits, according to one investor’s submission to the Rippoll inquiry.
A former client of Storm Financial and Colonial First State has used his submission to the inquiry to argue for after-cost reporting of investment performance, saying the current reporting system has had a negative impact on Centrelink benefits he would otherwise have been eligible to receive.
John Christie said during his time as a client of Storm and Colonial his investment growth was communicated as a percentage figure, but interest payments and commissions were not deducted from the bottom line.
Christie said his own calculations now show that for 10 years out of the 11 he was a client, “more cash went out as interest and commissions than came in as dividends”.
“I feel the industry should be made to report each year showing cash in and out,” Christie’s submission states, adding that the current system is “misleading at best”.
Christie added that because of his “on paper” wealth, “Centrelink severely reduced my age pension, so I was being hit from both sides”.
Christie said yearly profit/loss statements issued by fund managers would “allow Centrelink to see what was actually happening at ground level”.
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