B09/1994 BRITISH PENSIONS -- ADDITIONAL PAYMENT APRIL 1994, 95 and 96

DATE OF ISSUE:  1 MARCH 1994

BRITISH PENSIONS  -- ADDITIONAL PAYMENT APRIL 1994,  95  and  96

The British Government has announced that together with a 1.8% general pension increase in April an additional amount will be paid to certain groups of pensioners to offset an increase in the Value-added Tax (VAT) on domestic fuel.   The pensioner groups that are to receive the additional payment are War Widows (EATS),  war pensioners on Unemployability Supplement and State superannuants (BRI).

2.The increase for those groups will be 50 pence a week for a single person,  on top of the normal uprating (1.8%),  and 70 pence a week where there is a dependent husband or wife.

EATS Case War Widows and Unemployability Supplement

3.EATS case War Widows and Unemployability Supplement pensioners are the only groups in Australia to be paid the additional increase.   The British disability pension rates charts issued by SM&S to assist with the April increase for EATS and Composite cases will have the CPI uprating and the additional weekly amount already converted to fortnightly Australian dollar amounts.

4.Since the British authorities ceased to send pension authority forms MPU24 and MPU25 it has been a work practice in most States to increase British disability pensions by the use of a conversion factor.   The Repatriation Commission has now accepted and approved this practice (Commission Decn   4661 June 1993).   This method of applying general increases should not be used in these cases because the additional amount would not be applied using this method.

5.Examination of the rate of pension paid to EATS case widows has revealed a number of rates that do not correspond to the 6 different rates on the British pension rates chart.   This opportunity should be used to rationalise the payments of EATS case widows.

Manual Processing of Other EATS and Composite Cases

6.A separate Departmental Instruction will be issued soon to cover the normal,  manual,  general increase in British disability pension.

Service Pensioners with British Retirement Income  -  Australian Residents

7. British retirement pensioners resident in Australia will not be paid the additional amount.

Service Pensioners with British Retirement Income  -  Overseas Residents

8. British retirement pensioners paid a State pension,  but not those paid an Occupational

pension and resident in the UK or other non reciprocal agreement country will be paid the additional amount.   All such cases should be paid by the Tasmanian Branch Office.

9. British State pension received by Australian resident service pensioners is recorded on PIPS as Super Type 08.   Occupational pension is recorded as Super Type 09.   For overseas resident service pensioners both types of British pension are recorded as Super Type 09.   For this reason it will be very difficult to determine which pensioners are to be paid the additional sum.

10. Because of the above difficulty,  the small amount of additional payment and the fact that overseas cases are reviewed annually,  it has been decided not to attempt to apply the additional amount to the service pension assessments.   The additional amount should be detected in the normal annual review cycle for overseas cases and applied at the time of notification.   Reduction in pension should be from the next available payday.

11.This additional amount will be paid in April 1994,  April 1995 and April 1996.

Temporary Overseas Residents

12. Pensioners temporarily resident overseas and so still paid by a Branch Office other than Tasmania should be reviewed as soon as possible after April 94,  95 and 96.

Automatic Application of the 1.8% Increase

13.Automatic computer processing runs will be performed in April to increase income recorded as Super Type 09 by 1.8% for all cases (overseas or Australian resident).   The effective payday for this service pension reduction will be 28 April 94.

Contact Officer

Should you require further information please contact Ric Moore on (06) 289 4739.

KAY GRIMSLEY

Assistant Secretary

Income Support