@Charlimo ********

...The Disability Support Pension (DSP) is not payable outside Australia. However, you can have up to 4 weeks' holiday and go overseas, to do so, usually, each year, going on 4 weeks leave may suggest you are well on the way to recovery., it is not a pension like the aged pension You don't need to be disabled forever if granted the DSP. Often your situation is reviewed from time to time, and you may recover from your disability and no longer be entitled to the DSP. With Australian free Medicare, you may receive treatment and recover in Australia where free medical treatment is available. Before about 2013 it was available overseas with some conditions. That has not been the case since. about 2013, there were about 800,000 people on the DSP, many living overseas. It became a rort, and the government stopped that. It was harder to get and to obtain it you had to live in Australia to get it. Thailand had thousands of Australian alcoholics on the DSP there for many years. many on DSP payments...sorry.

@Colin ********

You will not find that question answered on the Centrelink website and you will have to communicate with them as to your situation, there are many different answers to that question. Whether we have a tax agreement, reciprocal agreement, other issues etc etc will influence the answer you get. If you require confirmation of the 2-year requirement. I did not have to wait as I was a longtime resident in Australia before applying for my AAP. Anyhow I was driving a school bus for some years before I went overseas on a Thai retirement visa. My 2 year wait I did not require.

I have put similar explanations on this site and hundreds of times on other sites over the years, If you peruse Centrelink's website it's all there. Most people have trouble finding what they need to know, thank you for your reply and hope all goes well for you. Good luck.

@Tracey *******

...To get the full Australian Aged Pension (AAP) you have to be a resident in Australia for 35 years between the ages of 16 y/o top 67 y/o and prove it so, you must be a resident over 10 years to apply. You will only get for each year over 10 years i.e. 20 years residency in Aus you will only get ths of the AAP only. If you have lived in Aus during that time you will have done your 2 in Aus to make it portable at 67 y/o. You can only apply for the AAP if you are a resident of Aus. When you apply. If you obtain portability after 2 years you will get about $27,000 AAP with no supplement, rent assistance Medicare cover, mostly free prescriptions and lots of other things. Just the AAP is all you will get outside Aus,. This is about $2,000 less than the full pension, that part is called the AAP supplement. That stops after 6 weeks when you leave Aus. The AAP is granted for life as long as your assets are within the prescribed amount set by Centrelink assets and income requirements. i.e over $545,000 you will lose 50 cents in the dollar each fortnight till the pension payment stops.

The extra payments I get and Medicare far outweigh the cost of holidaying in Thailand once or twice a year. In fact, the extra benefits I get by being a resident of Aus and lengthy trips overseas is about $10,000 per year or more and no likelihood of Taxation anywhere especially in Aus.

@Frank *******

Director of what department, many seem to have different opinions? I don't pay any tax in Australia because it is under Australia's threshold. You would need to peruse any agreement between Australia and Thailand before coming up with a definitive answer. Do you suggest that any tourist to Thailand coming on a tourist visa will have to get clearance and or provide details of the income obtained abroad...I think not.

I only now intend to travel to Thailand on a tourist visas. Definitely less than 180 days. Perhaps 2 times in a year.

@Frank *******

...I wish them luck?

Those who want to go to Thailand can live on the Australian Pension quite well, poor people always get it, and wealthy people are not likely. In Australia most elections are held over 4 weeks, we don't have what is just short of civil war for 18 months to elect our Government. Everyone is required to attend a polling place and make a vote by law. but it is a secret so if you wish you can vote informally, if you don't vote you get fined, not a lot, and no one will know how you voted. 98% in Australia agree with this everyone's vote has the same value, and everyone gets a go. It's called democracy, real democracy!!! Yes. I would never trade my Aussie lot for the US debacle.

PS ...watching US politics is as good as watching a grand final in gridiron. Thank heavens I only have to watch both????

@Ernesto *******

Yes, only for 3 months at a time on a visa-exempt with one extension...easy now. I also love Australia, been here for 82 years, 5th generation Aussie. I don't look down on people less fortunate than me, most of them are much better off living in Thailand than being back in Australia and are happy.

@Ernesto *******

...You sound like Donald Trump. Goopd luck.