Matt Coughlan
(Australian Associated Press)

Employees and bosses will be able to agree on flexible working from home arrangements during the coronavirus pandemic under a proposal from the industrial umpire.

Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross has released a draft plan to change awards, likely to be most relevant to small businesses without enterprise agreements.

The model includes a provision allowing agreement on working from home arrangements that balance personal and work responsibilities against the business needs of the employer.

Employees would be able to compress their week so usual hours are worked over fewer days.

Starting and finishing times could be staggered and employees directed to work at home or other locations.

Workers could take double the annual leave at half pay and also buy extra time off if bosses agree.

With the agreement of three quarters of a workforce, a cut to hours could be shared if an employer can't usefully employ everyone.

Justice Ross said working from home had been one of the most significant shifts since the start of the pandemic.

"It is likely the direct economic and social impacts of the pandemic will be felt for some time to come," he said.

"There will (likely) be a continuing need for flexible work arrangements to assist employers and employees in adapting to the changed conditions and to support the recovery."

The draft proposal could be potentially be included in modern awards, most of which don't expressly deal with working from home.

The commission president said that could constrain working from home arrangements if business was forced to pay penalty rates or overtime, despite employees seeking flexibility.

"It is intended that the model schedule be used as a starting point for discussion between parties," Justice Ross said.

"Not all of the clauses proposed in the schedule will be suitable for all awards and some clauses will require tailoring to meet the needs of a particular industry or occupation."

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the draft was an important initiative which would deliver flexibility.

"A very large number of employees are currently working from home, and it is evident that workplaces will never be the same again," he said on Tuesday.

Money and Life
(Financial Planning Association of Australia)

In 2020 COVID-19 has introduced significant health risks and changes to family life. It's now more important to have an estate plan so you can make sure your family and loved ones are looked after should you become ill or die.

It's no wonder people tend to avoid making a Will. We can find it hard to face the fact that death is part of our future and that there may be a time when we won't be able to manage our own finances due to poor health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us all more aware of how life can change when we least expect it and our health is something we shouldn't take for granted. So there really is no better time than now to get your estate plan in order.

What is an estate plan?

Your estate plan is a set of arrangements that sets out what will happen to your assets when you die and/or if you become unable to manage your own affairs. Your Will is just one part of your estate plan. It can also include a Power of Attorney arrangement giving someone else legal authority to manage your assets and finances if you become incapable of doing this yourself.

How do I make a Will?

You can take a DIY approach to making a Will with a Will kit. But not all your assets are covered in your Will. You super, for example is not an estate asset and you will need to make a separate arrangement usually a binding nomination to make sure your super death benefit is passed on according to your wishes.

Wills and estate plans can be fairly simple, but it depends on your particular family and financial situation. Owning a business, being married more than once or having children are just some circumstances that can demand a more complex estate plan. While it may take a lot more detail and structure to ensure all your assets are properly distributed, it's worth doing to take care of everything that matters to you.

One of the best ways to make sure your estate plan covers everything it should, is to seek advice from a financial planning professional and a solicitor who specialises in estate planning. A financial planner can offer you guidance on growing and protecting your assets during your lifetime. They can also talk to you about what to consider as you decide how you want your assets to be distributed among your family and loved ones, both before and after you die. This includes the tax consequences of transferring assets to your beneficiaries.

However, a financial planner cannot offer legal advice on your estate plan and they cannot draw up the legal documents you need to make sure your Will and estate plan are legal and binding. You'll need to work with your solicitor or an organisation that specialises in estate planning.

COVID-19 and your estate plan

Each State and Territory has their own legislation that lays out how estate planning documents must be signed and witnessed. Your solicitor will be able to guide you through this process so that your Will can be considered valid in a court of law.

With social distancing and other restrictions in place due to COVID-19, it can be more difficult to make these arrangements for signing and witnessing your Will and other estate planning documents. In Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, new legislation has been introduced to allow certain legal documents to be signed and witnessed via video conference.  Your solicitor can get you up to speed on  the details of this process and let you know what software and devices you'll need to complete remote signing and witnessing to meet these legislative requirements.

This legislation does not allow you to have a binding nomination for your super death benefit witnessed via video conference.  To make arrangements for this part of your estate plan, you'll need to get in touch with your super fund and check their requirements for making a valid binding nomination.

Do I need a Power of Attorney?

Under the new legislation for New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, Power of Attorney arrangements can also be witnessed remotely via video conference. There are different types of Powers of Attorney you can nominate, but the two main ones are a Medical Power of Attorney (also known as a guardianship) and an Enduring Power of Attorney. As you might expect, a Medical Power of Attorney gives another person authority to make decisions about your medical treatment if you're not physically or mentally able to choose for yourself. An Enduring Power of Attorney (PoA), on the other hand, gives someone the legal authority to manage your financial affairs when you're unable to do so.

As you grow older, having a PoA organised is important in case you lose capacity to make decisions about your finances. If this were to happen and you don't have someone legally appointed to act on your behalf, your financial affairs and your personal wellbeing could both be affected. If you don't have PoA arrangements in place with a trusted friend or family member, it can make it difficult for things to be done on your behalf such as paying your bills or looking after your home.

In choosing the people or persons to nominate as your PoA, it should be someone you can trust to act in your best interests. And it also helps if they have some experience with finances and good knowledge of your assets so they can fully understand the consequences and results of any decisions or actions they take. In many cases, attorneys are family members parents, siblings, children or grandchildren as they are often the ones who know best how we ourselves would think or act.

With the current restrictions in place for interstate travel, having a friend or relative in a different state as an Attorney may no longer be a practical option. So if you are choosing someone as a PoA or making changes to to your PoA arrangements, it's worth thinking about having someone nearby to act on your behalf if you should become ill or lose capacity to manage your own affairs. 

What happens if I don't have a Will?

If you die without a Will, your assets will be distributed according to the intestacy legislation for your State or Territory. Assets will be shared among family members according to these legal requirements. This is why it's important to have a Will to make sure that your estate is passed on according to your wishes.

Rebecca Gredley
(Australian Associated Press)

Aged pensioners won't see an increase in their payment this September, with the next possible rise in March.

Department of Social Services deputy secretary Nathan Williamson has confirmed to a Senate inquiry that there will be no increase due to a drop in the consumer price index.

"Based on the calculation for indexation, if it's negative we don't reduce the pension but we also don't increase it," he said on Tuesday.

The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association says it's the first time since 1931 the pension hasn't increased.

"Many pensioners, especially singles with the pension as their sole source of income, will be very disappointed at this turn of events," the group said.

"Their only comfort is that the pension can't go down. It would have but for that rule."

The pension is indexed twice a year in March and September.

It will be known in February if the pension will increase next March.

The inquiry has also heard from the minister responsible for Australia's welfare system, who is unsure how much the unemployment benefit will be after the coronavirus pandemic.

JobSeeker has been boosted during the health crisis to a maximum $1100 per fortnight through to September, and then $800 until the end of the year.

The payment, formerly known as Newstart, paid $40 a day prior to the pandemic and hasn't risen in real terms in more than 25 years.

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston says it's too early to say if it will return to the $40 a day level.

"We will be making further statements in coming months so we can provide ongoing certainty," she said.

"But right now I don't know whether we're going to have a situation where we have clarity around what post-coronavirus Australia is going to look like by the end of the year or not.

"I don't have a crystal ball."

There have been wide-ranging calls, including from former Liberal prime minister John Howard and Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, for the payment to increase from its pre-pandemic level.

About 1.6 million Australians are expected to be on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance in the September quarter, before dropping to about 1.5 million in the December period.

About 6000 Australians are expected to be affected when the liquid assets waiting period is reintroduced in late September.

It means people applying for JobSeeker who meet a certain threshold in assets will have to wait up to 13 weeks before receiving a payment.

The government still plans to introduce draft legislation which would double the wait period to 26 weeks for people who have more than $18,000.

Colin Brinsden
(Australian Associated Press)

As the Morrison government mulls over possible tax changes to help lift the economy out of its first recession in nearly 30 years, tax experts have called for a change in the way savings are taxed.

In a new report, the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Australian National University urges the government to consider a dual tax system where savings are taxed at a low rate and separate from taxes on labour income.

"As review after review has shown, Australia's current approach to taxing savings is a mess at best and a serious driver of intergenerational inequality at worst," the institute's Professor Robert Breunig says.

He said some savings tax arrangements are progressive, taxing higher incomes more heavily, but some are are regressive, favouring the old while being punitive for the young.

"Our current tax arrangements are inefficient, inequitable and distort the flow of savings across our society and economy," he said.

"The system is complex and encourages Australians to engage in costly tax planning schemes."

The report says most types of savings should be taxed at a low rate and independent of the tax rate on income from other sources.

"The taxation of savings is politically contentious with strong lobby groups defending particular savings arrangements, whether that is the untouchable nature of owner-occupied housing, dividend imputation or superannuation concessions," Prof Breunig said.

The report calls for the replacement of dividend imputation with a flat tax rate on dividends, removing stamp duties, which significantly distort decisions about when to move house, and including owner-occupied housing in means tests for pensions.

"This might seem radical. But in reality the reforms are reasonable and would bring us closer to the optimal tax system Australians deserve and this nation needs," Prof Breuing said.

Matt Coughlan
(Australian Associated Press)

JobKeeper will be extended to a 12-month scheme but reduced in two stages as part of the federal government's overhaul of coronavirus support.

Wage subsidies will be cut from $1500 to $1200 a fortnight for eligible full-time workers after September 27 and halved to $750 for those working less than 20 hours a week.

From January, JobKeeper will be further reduced to $1000 for full-time employees and $650 for part-time workers until March.

At both stages, businesses will have to requalify for the scheme by demonstrating a significant drop in revenue.

Companies with less than $1 billion in turnover will need a 30 per cent fall in revenue, while the threshold is 50 per cent for large companies.

The coronavirus supplement for JobSeeker will also be extended but drop from $550 a week to $250 at the end of September, and remain at that rate until the end of the year.

That will put the base rate of unemployment benefit at about $815 a fortnight, however, but recipients will be able to earn $300 without it affecting their payment.

The future of the permanent dole rate is expected to be revealed in the October 6 budget.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated JobSeeker was unlikely to return to its pre-pandemic level of $565 a fortnight at the start of next year.

"I am leaning heavily into the notion that we would anticipate, based on what we know right now, that there obviously would need to be some continuation of the COVID supplement post-December," he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

Mutual obligation requirements for people on JobSeeker will return from August 4, with the assets test to be reintroduced from the end of September.

Mr Morrison said Australians understood both programs were temporary.

"They know a current scheme that is burning cash, their cash, taxpayers' cash to the tune of some $11 billion a month cannot go on forever," the prime minister said.

Treasury estimates the number of JobKeeper recipients will fall to 1.4 million in the December quarter and one million in the March 2021 quarter.

Around 3.5 million workers have received wage subsidies designed to keep employees linked to employers during the pandemic.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said JobKeeper excluded some casual workers and migrants, while also paying 875,000 people more than they were earning before the crisis.

• "Labor remains concerned that too many people are being left behind," he told reporters on the NSW south coast.

He said the government should have taken the opportunity to announce a permanent increase in unemployment benefits.