C07/2007 INDEXATION OF BRITISH WAR PENSIONS (DISABILITY PENSIONS)

Replace — d by DI No.

C0 — 9/200 — 8

Purpose

The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to advise of processing arrangements for the manual indexation of British war pensions.

War pensions to increase by 3.6%

The UK Veterans Agency has advised that British war pensions will rise by 3.6% in line with their Retail Price Index. British war pensioners will receive the increase from 9 April 2007.  The Veterans Agency has published their rates chart at http://www.veterans-uk.com/pdfs/publications/va_leaflets/valeaflet9.pdf

Effective date and payday

The effective date for the variation should be 10 April 2007, for payday 26 April 2007.  If processing of income support cases is delayed past 20 April 2007, a later effective date may be used so that no overpayment of rent assistance is raised.  Any later effective date used should be the first day of a pension period.  Cases with both income support and EATS or composite components should not be delayed.

Cases affected

These changes will affect the following cases:

• Composite cases (with or without income support)
• EATS cases (with or without income support)
• British war pension in assessments of rent assistance, age pension or income support supplement

Exchange rate for EATS and composite cases

The exchange rate to use for EATS and composite cases (DP paid by Australia on behalf of the UK) is £1 = A$2.4015.  These cases are now subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%.  For further information refer to DI C22/2005.

Exchange rate for British DP paid direct from the UK

The exchange rate to use for British DP paid direct from the UK is £1 = A$2.4015.  This is the same exchange rate used for British Official Public Service and Armed Forces Pensions.  For further information refer to DI C05/2005.

Rates charts in Australian dollars and AIS reports

British war pension rates converted to $A at both old and new rates have been e-mailed to the Income Support Management group along with the AIS report.  EATS and composite cases have been provided to the National Manager, Veterans Compensation.

There have been occasional problems with the AIS results.  If for any reason the list provided appears inconsistent with your expectations please contact the Income Support officers listed below

Manual examination

There will be no cases processed automatically.  All cases will be listed for manual examination and updated in PIPS.

Contact officers

The Income Support contact officers for this exercise are:

• Sarah Paras, ext 16534
• Bob Turner, ext. 16079.