C06/2002 Disability Pension Date of Effect (Phase 2): Recording of Assessment Histories (Including Death Processing System, PIPS PC & VIEW Enhancements)

Purpose

This Departmental Instruction is to advise of enhancements made to Assessment History recording by the Compensation Claims Processing System (CCPS) and enhancements to the Death Processing System (DPS), PIPS PC and VIEW.

Background

As previously advised in other instructions, the Disability Pension Date of Effect project (DP DOE) was modularised into phases to allow progressive implementation of deliverables and reduce development and implementation risks.  Phase 1 was designed to ensure that all system changes necessary to meet the legislative changes were in place by the legislative date in July 2001.

Phase 2 was planned to follow soon after and build on the framework provided by Phase 1 to allow creation of Assessment History recording for DP cases through CCPS.  This would bring DP Assessment Histories in line with SP Assessment Histories.  Phase 2 has been delayed due to the allocation of development resources to other higher priority projects (such as Orange Card and Trust & Companies development projects).

Background, continued

Development and testing for Phase 2 has now been completed.  Phase 2 development concentrated primarily on infrastructure changes.  These changes will be substantially invisible to State Office processing staff.  Much of the immediate benefits are derived from fixing problems that were being fixed behind the scenes manually by National Office on an ongoing basis.  There will be little impact on State Offices by the implementation of Phase 2.

By establishing accurate Assessment Histories, Phase 2 provides the framework for further production problem solutions and facilitates continued development.  This development includes Phase 2A which aims at substantially reducing the number of “manual” CCPS cases produced.  More information on Phase 2A will be issued when analysis and planning is complete.

Implementation Date

The enhancements to Assessment Histories and DPS will be introduced on Sunday the 3 — rd of March 2002.

Contingency

A contingency plan is in place should the implementation fail.  It is envisioned that a full back out of the changes could be achieved by Sunday afternoon.  Processing could resume as normal at the start of business on Monday morning.

Cutoff for CCPS finalisation

Cutoff for the finalisation of CCPS cases will be the close of business on Friday the 28 — th February 2002.  Normal processing including finalisation will resume for the start of business on Monday the 4 — th of March 2002.  Therefore no overtime will be possible over the weekend.

Attachments

There are five attachments which describe the CCPS, DPS, PIPS PC and VIEW changes and the Outstanding Issues.

Contact Officer

Any questions regarding these changes should be directed to Dave Binny by e-mail or phone (0414 79 3283).

Introduction

This attachment outlines the changes to the way CCPS records Assessment Histories.

Current Processing

Currently the recording of Assessment Histories is made at the date of the next available payday.  That is, the Assessment History of a Disability Change is recorded at the Anticipated Commencement Date (ACD) of the new rate, rather than at the Effective Date of the change.

The practical aspect of this is that only the Assessment History created at the ACD contains the changes in DP that were effective from an earlier date (the effective date)

New Processing

The introduction of Phase 2 of DP DoE will allow CCPS to record the Assessment Histories of DP changes at the Effective Date of the change.  Thus all relevant Assessment Histories will be updated by the RECORD process.

The CCPS Payment Update Module (PYU) will call Calculate History (a PIPS PC function) in order to calculate the Assessment Histories.

The limitations to writing Assessment Histories at the eligibility date are:

For client records that have an existing Assessment History CCPS will not write any Assessment History prior to the start date of the existing history.  It will write the new Assessment History from the existing start date.

For client records that do not have an existing Assessment History CCPS will not write an Assessment History prior to 21/4/2000.  It will write the new Assessment History from the latter of 21/4/2000 and the Effective Date.

Procedures for CCPS Users have not changed.  Phase 2 CCPS enhancements are 'behind the scenes'.

Batch—DP Recon Problem

The introduction of daily Disability Pension payability types created a problem with certain batch processes affecting clients with recent CCPS actions.  This problem was encountered with $FORT, COMSUPER, BRI & SI processing.  Instances of the problem resulted in an incorrect DP Recon amount being created for the client.

Cases affected by this problem have been identified and repaired by the DP DOE team on an ongoing maintenance basis.  This process has been invisible to both clients and State Office staff.

The introduction of Phase 2 Assessment History processing has fixed this problem.

$1 Minimum Problem

Currently a problem exists when CCPS autopayment cases have an assessment in which the $1 minimum rules have been applied.  This problem is currently managed by forcing the cases to manual payment through PIPS PC.

Writing Assessment Histories at the Effective Date provides the framework for a permanent solution to this problem.  A permanent fix for this problem will become available sometime following the introduction of DP DOE Phase 2.

Negative DP arrears (potential overpayment) problem

A problem has existed in production since the implementation of ISIS.  It occurs when BAL (Batch Update programs) performs an assessment with an effective date earlier than that of a CCPS assessment. Because of the difference between the DP rate at the Assessment History (written from the ACD) and the value passed to IPS for arrears calculations, in some circumstances when portions attached to positive arrears payabilities are not deleted a potential overpayment results.

In interim solution has been in place for some time.  However, this is a manual process performed by the State Office staff.  The introduction of Phase 2 Assessment History creation will provide a permanent solution to this problem.  The interim solution will remain in place for a short period following implementation in order to monitor the success of the permanent solution.

Introduction

In response to issues raised in Crossviews four enhancements have been made to the Death Processing System (DPS)

Cases processed over 99 days after death

DPS should not process cases more than 99 days after the date of death.  These cases should be reported out for manual processing.  There is a current problem that causes some cases not to be reported out for manual processing, resulting in the Bereavement Payment being calculated incorrectly.

This problem was raised in Crossview Service Request 2606 and will be corrected as part of the DPS enhancements introduced with DP DOE Phase 2.

Interstate Transfers

Currently a problem exists in Production when a DPS action is processed for a client prior to the completion of Interstate Transfer action.  Specifically, if a client is transferred out of the sending state and not put into payment in the receiving state (and therefore no Assessment History exists in the receiving state) before the Death is recorded, then DPS crashes because of the existence of a terminated assessment (MOA 98).

This problem was raised in Crossview Service Request 2656 and will be corrected as part of the DPS enhancements introduced with DP DOE Phase 2.

Following implementation of DP DOE Phase 2, any case encountered by DPS with a Method Of Assessment (MOA) of 98 (terminated assessment) will be reported out for manual processing.

DPS Reports—Lump Sum Advances, Overpayments & Tax Adjustments

Since the introduction of the Integrated Payments System (IPS) some client information has been difficult to obtain. DPS would not display any information relating to either client in an assessment having a Tax adjustment, Overpayment or Lump Sum Advance.

This change is an enhancement to the information available in DPS reports.  Cases that contain Lump Sum Advances, Overpayments or Tax Adjustments will be identified on the DPS report with the message:

FOR INFO – CHECK LSA/OPY/TAX ADJUSTMENT

The report will not identify whether the occurrence relates to the veteran or the spouse, nor are specific amounts displayed.

DPS Reports—Lump Sum Advances, Overpayments & Tax Adjustments, continued

The information obtained is based on the data available at the time of DPS processing not at the date of the Assessment History/s recalled.  That is, if processing was on 20 February for a death on 1 February then the information obtained will be from data as at 20 February.  E.g. “Finalised” Overpayments will not be identified.

DPS will display only one occurrence per data item but will display whether the assessment contains more than one type of data item.  E.g. if client has LSA and OPY then both should be displayed.  If VET has OPY and SPS has OPY then only one OPY will be displayed on the report.

The contact officer for enquiries relating to this topic is Steve Claypole on 02 6289 6792

DPS Reports—Death processed prior to DP change ACD

A problem currently exists when a DPS case is processed prior to the ACD of a change in DP.  The DPS system picks up the old rate, not the new rate that would be paid on the ACD

This problem was raised in Crossview Service Request 1986 and will be corrected as part of the DPS enhancements introduced with DP DOE Phase 2.

DP Refresh

A change in the wording in the DP refresh warning message will be implemented.  The new wording reminds users to match the Worksheet Date of Effect with the Date of Effect of the Change in DP.  This will ensure that the Assessment History is correctly created.

The new message is below.

The consequence of not matching the worksheet creation date with the DP refresh date is that the DP change occurs from the worksheet creation date rather than the DP refresh date for cases with a DP refresh date after 9/7/2001.

SDA Display Problems

A number of related problems involving the incorrect display of Specific Disability Allowance (SDA) amounts on the printed authority and arrears screen will be corrected.  SDA will now display correctly.

Print Authority

A change has been made to the Printed Authority that identifies whether a 12/7/01 date of effect for disability pension or war widow grants or variations is fortnightly (i.e., actual eligibility date is between 29/6/01 and 9/7/01 inclusive) or daily (i.e., actual eligibility date is 12/7/01).  In these cases, the 12/7/01 arrears line on Printed Authority will display an indicator of (F) or (D).

12/7/01 Date of Effect problem

Recently a problem was encountered with PIPS processing whereby disability pension and war widows pension grants or variations that should have been paid from a 12/7/01 fortnightly date of effect had arrears calculated from a 12/7/01 daily date of effect.  This resulted in an underpayment of 1 fortnight and 2 days of pension.  This problem was largely solved by a fix implemented on 31/1/02.

However, a continuing problem existed for cases where the first assessment history started after 12/7/01 and DP was subsequently granted from what should have been a 12/7/01 fortnightly date of effect - in these cases arrears were being underpaid because they were still being calculated from 12/7/01 as a daily date of effect.  This problem has now been fixed so that arrears are calculated correctly.

New Entitlement Codes

Five new entitlement codes have been added to PIPS for service pension purposes.  These are to cover those Australians who rendered qualifying service in Cambodia, East Timor, Namibia, Somalia or Yugoslavia.  These new codes have been added to the Pension Entitlement Codes in CLIK.

The new codes are:

CAM:Australian—Cambodia

ET: Australian—East Timor

NBA: Australian—Namibia

SO: Australian—Somalia

YU: Australian—Yugoslavia

New warning on Adult details screen

A new error message has been added to the Adult Details screen to prevent an Australian Peacekeeping entitlement code from being selected when service pension is selected as the Pension Type/Class.  The message is:

Deemed Income display

A production problem whereby an incorrect amount of deemed income was displayed in the Income/Assets Summary folder under the Pension Assessment tab has been corrected.  This folder will now display the correct amount of deemed income.  Note that this problem only occurred for grants of pension with an effective date prior to 1 July 2001 that were finalised after this date.

Outstanding Issue - Multiple Assessment with SDA problem granting TSD

A problem has been identified in testing whereby CPPS cases with multiple assessment under the following conditions:

The veteran receives SP

The veteran does not have a Gold Treatment Card

The first DP assessment on the CCPS case is less than 50% of the General Rate

The second DP assessment on the CCPS cases is less than 50% of the General Rate but Chapter 24 of the Guide to the Assessment of Veterans' Pensions (GARP) applies (this chapter specifies the minimum incapacity for specific disabilities) which pushes the rate up to 50% of the General Rate or greater.

The veteran should be granted a Gold Treatment Card due to TSD eligibility.  This is not occurring.

Note: This scenario is extremely unlikely.  No instance of this problem has been found in Production data.

If this problem occurs in Production it can be simply corrected by registering a DP Data Change case in CMS and processing it in PIPS PC.

Outstanding issue – missing FB Eligibility

Testing has revealed a problem with fringe benefit eligibility in the following scenario:

• DP is granted or varied for a veteran via CCPS auto-payment;
• SP is subsequently granted with a spouse also being added to the veteran's assessment as part of the SP grant action.
• Upon authorisation of the SP grant case, no fringe benefit eligibility is created for either the veteran or spouse.

Investigation of the cause of this problem is ongoing.

Outstanding Issue – DPS reports showing incorrect amounts of DP released after death.

As a result of Phase 2 testing a production problem has been identified whereby the amount of DP released after death is being incorrectly reported on DPS reports.  No instances of this problem have been reported by State Office processing staff.  An incorrect calculation of this amount could result in an underpayment in the Bereavement Payment (BP).

The problem only occurs under the following circumstances:

A change in DP is processed after the date of death but before the death processing action has been taken; and

The processing of the death occurs within 99 days of the Date of Death; and

Either:

The Effective Date of the DP change is prior to the death processing date AND after the date of death; or

The Effective Date of the DP change is prior to the death processing date AND within the same pension period as the date of death; and

The Date of Death and the death processing date are NOT in the same pension period; and

The Effective date of the DP change is NOT the first day of a pension period; and

The Effective date of the DP change is after 9/7/2001

If this problem occurs in production it can be corrected by manually calculating the BP and paying an adjustment amount using IPS.

A permanent solution for this problem is in development and should be available within 4 weeks.  A program to identify instances of this problem in production, if any, has been written and is currently undergoing testing.