C25/1998 ISSUE OF 1998/99 COMMONWEALTH SENIORS HEALTH CARD (CSHC)

Purpose of instruction

To provide information about the bulk issue of the 1998/99 Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC).

History & concessions provided

The CSHC was introduced on 1 July 1994 and has since been issued in bulk each financial year by the Commonwealth Government.  CSHC provides entitlement to Commonwealth Concessions only.  This entitlement is currently limited to concessional pharmaceuticals listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).  Access to the Commonwealth Dental Program by the CSHC holders ceased on 1 January 1997 and eligibility for hearing services became unavailable from 1 July 1997.

Eligibility

The CSHC is intended to assist those retirees and other eligible veterans of pension age who fail to qualify for pension due to assets in excess of the current limit.

To be eligible for the CSHC, a person must:

• be a veteran who has rendered qualifying service or the partner, non-illness separated spouse or widow(er) of such a veteran; and
• have reached pension age; and
• be an Australian resident; and
• be in Australia; and
• not be in receipt of service pension, income support supplement or a social security pension or benefit; and
• satisfy the CSHC income test.

Eligibility is determined manually by State Office staff.

Pension age

Pension age is currently:

• 60 years of age or greater for a male veteran and 56 years of age or greater for a female veteran; and
• 65 years of age or greater for the male partner of a veteran and 61 years of age or greater for the female partner of a veteran.

The CSHC income test

The CSHC income test specifies that a person must have ordinary income of less than specified limits (which depends on the person's family situation).

The current CSHC ordinary income test limits are as follows:

• single - $21,000
• partnered - $35,620
• illness separated - $42,016
• plus an additional amount per year for each dependant child - $624.

1/1/1999 change to CSHC income test

With the 1998 Federal Budget announcement, from 1 January 1999 the income test will change from one based on current income to one based on taxable income.  The income limits will be almost doubled, from $21,320 to $40,000 for single person, from $35,620 to $67,000 for a couple and from $42,016 to $73,000 for a couple being separated due to ill health.  This will increase the number of the CSHC recipients from 1 January 1999.

It is intended to conduct a bulk issue in late December 1998 or early January 1999 to include the newly entitled CSHC clients.  The Budget implementation team will issue a separate DI in relation to this additional bulk run closer to the date.  For further information on this matter please contact Marion Springer on (02) 6289 6703.

Production, timing and location

Processing of the bulk issue of approximately 1,930 CSHC cards will take place on Wednesday 3/6/1998, following the extract of client data on 30/5/1998.

The 1998/99 CSHC card will be personalised, enveloped and dispatched by the Security Mailing Services (SMS) in NSW.  The CSHC recipients should receive their cards in the second week in June 1998.

Card Numbers

Following is the State by State breakdown of the expected numbers of CSHC's to be issued in the bulk run and the quantity of the blank stock to be supplied to the State Offices (SOs) for daily card issue.

State

No. - Bulk issue

Blank supply for daily issue

NSW

742

300

VIC

502

300

QLD

338

150

WA

159

150

SA

147

100

TAS

35

100

TOTAL

1923

1100

Format of Cards/ Carrier

The 1998/99 CSHC differs from the plastic card format (temporarily glued to carriers) used in previous years.  The new card will be a single A4 cut sheet format stationery, printed on the front and back.  The card will be of 135 gsm and part of a 135 gsm carrier.  The card will be on the top right corner of the carrier with perforations to tear the card off the carrier.  The card and carrier is identical for each State.  However, during the personalising process, slightly different information will be printed on the carrier for each State.

Card production process

The printing process will have three stages:

• offset printing to produce the blank stock (10,000); and
• laser printing to personalise the card and carrier (approx. 1,930); and
• laser printing to produce the blank stock to be sent to the SOs for the daily issue throughout the year (1,100).

Card personalisation

The text on the front and reverse side of the card and carrier will be added during the personalising process for the bulk issue.  The blank stock for the daily issue will have the reverse side text fully printed and sent to the SOs by SMS.

Expiry Date

The expiry date for all 1998/99 CSHC's will be 30 June 1999.

Post Production Reports

A copy of the post-production schedules report (listing all cases for which cards are produced) and an error report will be produced after the production run on Sunday 31 May and printed at the local printer in the SOs as listed below:

  NSW          VIC            QLD          WA        SA       TAS

NSWBO      VICBO1      QLDBO     WABO    SABO    TASBO

Supplies of blank stock

The test data for the daily issue of CSHC will be sent by VSS to the SOs gradually during the second week in June 1998.

The blank stock for the daily issue of CSHC will be forwarded by SMS to the SOs nominated officers as listed below immediately after the bulk issue and no later than 12 June 1998.

STATE

QUANTITY

CONTACT

PHONE

FAX

NSW

300

Sue Cooney

Manager Payment Administration

Income Support

Centennial Plaza (Tower B)

280 Elizabeth Street

SURRY HILLS   NSW   2010

(02) 9213 7874

(02) 9212 7885

VIC

300

Paul Lim

SSO

Income Support

13 — th Floor, The Argus Centre

300 La Trobe Street

MELBOURNE   VIC   3000

(03) 9284 6122

(03) 9284 6797

QLD

150

Gaynor Corlis

Support Officer

Income Support

7 — th Floor, AMP Place

10 Eagle Street

BRISBANE   QLD   4000

(07) 3223 8842

(07) 3223 8533

WA

150

Clynton Aitken

Income Support

AMP Building

140 St George Terrace

Cnr William Street

PERTH   WA   6000

(08) 9366 8417

(08) 9366 8239

SA

100

Maria Lewandowski

Income Support

Blackburn House

199 Glenfell Street

ADELAIDE  SA  5000

(08) 8290 0439

(08) 8290 0412

TAS

100

Judith Makedos

Income Support

Montpelier Building

21 Kirksway Place

BATTERY POINT  TAS  7004

(03) 6221 6684

(03) 6221 6601

Report daily issue difficulties

Any difficulties in relation to daily issues should be reported to the contact officers in National Office.

Contact Officers

Further queries on this matter should be directed to:

Ferri Ghazi                                               Martin Dibb

Tel:  (02) 6289 6436          OR                Tel:  (02) 6289 6751

Fax:  (02) 6289 6553                               Fax: (02) 6289 6553

LAN: Ferri Ghazi                                       LAN:  Martin Dibb