Advice Letters Produced by the Document Generation System

How the advice letters are produced

Advices are created as the end result of either an action processed by a user, or by automated batch runs. Document Generation (DOCGEN) is the system responsible for processing the data and producing the advice. The paragraphs are stored in the Document Generation – Maintain Advices System (DOGMA) with the advice letters being made up of a combination of these paragraphs selected according to an individual's circumstances/case issues.

Types of advice letters produced

Advice letters are produced on a daily basis as output from the Pensions Information Processing System (PIPS). Some of the information contained in the letters, which are referred to as daily advices, is selected automatically by the DOCGEN system and some of the information is selected manually via a PIPS worksheet when updating a pension record.

Advice letters are also produced automatically by DOCGEN on a periodic basis and in specified circumstances. These are referred to as automatic periodic batch advices. There is no override function to enable the manual selection of specific paragraphs, as the business rules in the DOCGEN system automatically select text according to Commission's policy.

Daily advices

The following table summarises the Commission's current policy for the types of obligations and attachments to be manually selected via PIPS for daily advices.

* Selection of 'full income & assets' on the PIPS advice screen results in the production of either a complete or a tailored (except for grants which are always full) income and assets statement depending on the circumstances of the pensioner:

• assets tested pensioners and income tested pensioners who are within $10,000 of their assets threshold receive a complete list detailing all income and assets in the assessment,
• income tested pensioners who are more than $10,000 below their assets threshold are sent a tailored income and assets list which excludes miscellaneous assets, such as vehicles, that do not affect the pension rate, and
• blinded clients will have obligations and income and assets defaulted to suppress but can be overridden if required, such as when they are in aged care or have rent assistance. (their advices will not be tailored).

Automatic periodic batch advices

The following table summarises the Commission's current policy for the types of obligations and attachments selected by the DOCGEN system for automatic periodic batch advices.

* if granted war widow(er)'s pension (WWP) by DPS, issue WWP obligations

** send statement of circumstances

*** if Disability Compensation Payment (DCP) only, issue DCP only obligations

**** if blinded, then only told previous obligations still apply

Note 1: With the exception of grants and DPS advices, prescribed rates financial obligations will appear if obligations are suppressed, client is in receipt of income support pension and not blinded.

Note 2: With the foreign pension, British pension and super variation advices, although the income and assets attachment is suppressed, the income from the relevant income stream is shown in the body of the advice.