DATE OF ISSUE: 12 March 1990
GENERAL INCREASE AND CURRENCY ADJUSTMENT TO BRITISH DISABILITY PENSIONS PAID IN AUSTRALIA
The British Department of Social Security (BDSS) have advised of various changes to the British pensions paid in Australia. Those changes are:
General CPI Increase
Exchange Rate Variation
Extra-ordinary Increase for War Widows
and
The Australian General Increase
2.These changes will affect the EATS/COMP cases and any case where service pension is also in payment. Despite the new arrangements for the direct credit of the majority of British pensions our Service Pension records still have to be maintained in respect of General Increases and exchange rate variations. The new rates and exchange rate will be applied to EATS, Composite and all service pension cases where British disability pension is in payment.
EFFECTIVE DATES
3.This exercise is a manual process and arrears are to be paid so the timetable is at your discretion. However, the variations should be put into effect on payday 19 April, 1990 or 3 May 1990. The date of effect for the exchange rate variation can be either 9 April or 11 April or 19 April 1990 depending upon the characteristics of the case. The exchange rate will vary from $A2.03 to $A2.11 to one Pound Sterling. The General Increase is effective 9 April for Officer and Widows or 11 April for Other Ranks.
The exchange rate is subject to change and the rate of $A2.11 will be confirmed closer to the date.
WAR WIDOWS EXTRA-ORDINARY INCREASE
4.The British Authorities have advised that all War Widows will be given an extra-ordinary increase of 40 Pounds per week. Despite this increase BDSS have not to date provided updated rates charts and will not provide forms MPU 24. Compensation Branch (Central Office) will advise all EATS/Composite War Widows of the increase. The BDSS will advise the pure British War Widows of the increase. The nature of the EATS/Composite comparison will mean that the EATS/Composite War Widows pension will not rise by 80 Pounds p/f. At the current exchange rate the British component is greater than the Australian component.
FORMS MPU 24, MPU 25
5.Under the revised arrangements for payment of British pensioners the BDSS has refused to provide forms MPU 24/25. The refusal to provide forms MPU 24/25 also extends to EATS/Composite cases. Without a form MPU 24/25 the increased rate of British pension and or allowances will not be easily identified. In general there are no allowances paid in EATS cases and only age allowance paid in Composite cases. A selection of rates converted to $A at both old and new exchange rates are at Attachment C.
MANUAL CASES
6.There will no longer be automatic cases in this exercise. The manual cases will be divided into those which are to be processed either through the Pension Payment System or through the Pensioner Information Processing System (PIPS).
7.The cases requiring manual examination will be identified by AL02 listings and by a new program $PPBBSPR which will list all service pension cases where British disability pension is in payment.
8.Action schedules (in the following groups) of cases requiring manual examination and variation by examiners will be produced as soon as possible after cutoff for payday 5 April, 1990.
.Composite Cases
(with or without SP)100
.EATS Cases
(with or without SP)200
.Other Overseas pensions
(which may be affected)300
Group 300 are to be processed via the PMF update transactions. Groups 100 and 200 are to be processed via PIPS.
9.The new program ($PPBBSPR) will report on all those Service Pensioners who have British DP maintained in their assessment. This report is to be actioned by amending the British DP amount recorded in each assessment. Those cases are also to be processed through PIPS. The majority of the cases will submit to 'DA'.
CONTROL CARDS AND COMPUTER RUNS
10.The parameter cards for the computer runs are at Attachment B. The computer processing timetable is at attachment A. Runs according to this timetable will be scheduled by Central Office. Would you PLEASE check the parameter cards to ensure that they are correct before processing commences. Any changes should be reported toRic Moore on (06) 2825494 so that the appropriate amendments can be made.
PUNCHING OF TRANSACTIONS FROM AL02 "ACTION" SCHEDULES EATS AND COMPOSITE CASES
PAY PERIOD CODES
11.The pay period, namely 21, of the effective date (19 April, 1990) should be entered. The day within the pay period field may be left blank.
KEYFAST BATCH DESCRIPTION
12.The manual transactions for EATS/Composite cases should be punched using Keyfast batch description $PENSIO in normal daily production by cutoff for payday 19 April, 1990.
CASES WITH SERVICE PENSION AND OR AN AUSTRALIAN DP COMPONENT TO BE PROCESSED VIA PIPS (Group 100, 200)
13.For all cases involving EATS, COMPOSITE or SERVICE PENSION, whether automatic or manual method of assessment, the new rate of British pension must be updated on the Client Data Base (CDB) via PIPS. Due to the change in the British rate, these cases will be "MS". They can either be registered under process code of DP Payment Change, processed through submission stage with "submitted to" code of "MS" and determined by the delegate, or through manual authority on PIPS only.
14.Where adjustments of payment occur, as in COMPOSITE and EATS cases, the examiner processes the case as follows:
NOTE:The British rates are EXAMPLES only:
(a)Access the facility 'Classify Pension' (BC.CP) classification. Create an action record with a 'Manual Authority' classification.
(b)Access the facility 'Assessment Control' (PP.AC) Copy the current assessment details by pressing the ENTER button once. (Effective date can be entered at this stage but is required only where there is a service pension component).
(c)Access the facility 'Disability Pension' (PP.DP) screen and update the new disability pension details. This is illustrated by:
(1)The following example shows what a similar case will look like when the examiner assess the DP screen:
DISABILITY PENSION (DP)
ADJUSTMENT — PENSION
DP RATE — AMOUNT — AMOUNT
ACTION REL TYPE ENT RECIPIENT (P/F) REASON (P/F)
VET — 100 — X — V — 100.00 EATS — 95.60
VET — 100F — PX — V — 0.00 — 100.00
TOTALS FOR ALL 2 ITEMS --- DISABILITY PENSION 195.60
NOTE 1:The Australian Disability Pension percentage rate (in this example "100%") must be data collected in each case.
NOTE 2:100F = 100% BP RATE FOR AN OFFICER
(d)the adjustment that has to be made is as follows:
Where, for example, the Australian DP is 100% rate equivalent to $A195.60 and the NEW British rate of 100% for an officer is equivalent to $A200 the screen entries will be:
DISABILITY PENSION (DP)
ADJUSTMENT — PENSION
DP RATE — AMOUNT — AMOUNT
ACTION REL TYPE ENT RECIPIENT (P/F) REASON (P/F)
C — VET — 100 — X — V — 195.60 EATS 0000.00
C — VET — 100F — PX — V — 0.00 EATS 200.00
MORE: TOTALS FOR ALL 2 ITEMS --- DISABILITY PENSION 200.00
.we have added an Action "C" (change).
.because the British rate is more than the Australian rate, we do not pay any Australian pension. Therefore, the Australian adjustment is the equivalent of the full Australian 100% DP rate of $A195.60 and the entry for the British rate is the NEW RATE of $A200 for an officer.
Enter new details on the action schedule
(e)Submit (SU) the cases to MS for a 50, obtain the con. no. and enter that onto the schedule, obtain the supporting documents (only for a case with an SP component) and forward to the Delegate for determination.
15.It may be necessary to prepare a D408 or equivalent in these cases. The schedule produced for dual BRIT/SP/EATS/COMP may be used as an authority (but there may not be room) provided each record on that schedule is endorsed with the consecutive number automatically produced by the Pension Processing System and is signed by the delegate determining the case, prior to transmission to Pension Payments Section. All such cases can be identified from the manual schedules listed by the AL02, AL03 runs (ie., group 100, 200) and the new British rates should be deduced from the examiners' entries on those schedules.
NOTE: All entries on these schedules must be in Australian dollars.
ADVICES
16.There will only be two circumstances where an advice is required and that will be in a limited number of cases. The circumstances are when the British component is greater than the Australian and in cases where the increased British DP reduces the amount of Rent Assistance payable. Arrangements will need to be made for advices for those cases. The advice details, including the reason for variation can be coded/entered on the action schedules. The advice indicator should be "F" and the reason should be "EXCHANGE RATE AND GEN INCREASE". There are insufficient characters available to include the exchange rate on the computer produced advices. Totally manual advice letters can be produced to include all the relevant information.
17.The majority of cases reported by program $PPBBSPR SP/DP will require only a "Z" indicator. However, if a pension variation occurs (Rent Assistance) the Advice Indicator should be "F" with the reason being "BRITISH PENSION VARIATION".
18.Other British payments such as Funeral Benefits, Education Allowance, Subsistence Allowance, etc., are to be made in accordance with the new exchange rate regardless of the period to which they relate.
MISCELLANEOUS
19.The whole of this exercise is now manual, consequently no certificate will be issued under Finance Regulation 45A.
20.No alphabetical listings of affected cases will be produced for the Department of Social Security who have been advised of the revised payment arrangements. However, DSS have been advised of the 40 Pounds increase to War Widows.21. The contact officer for this exercise will be Ric Moore who may be contacted on (06) 2825494 bh or (06) 2823913 ah.
JIM DALTON
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
BENEFITS PLANNING & MANAGEMENT
ATTACHMENT A
TIMETABLE FOR BRITISH REVALUATION and
GENERAL INCREASE EFFECTIVE 19 APRIL 1990
STAGE 131 March 1990
RUNPURPOSE
RSPYAL01 — Listing of cases requiring manual action
RSPYAL02(Z cards in CPP.BRITRVAL.CNTL(AL02RUN1)
RSPYAL03
RSPYAL04 — Composite/benefit in file number or alpha order within composite group order required for NSW Qld (i.e. use AL run book sort card 5). Job NPALA23A
OUTPUTListing Journal: Schedules - use 3 part paper and double spacing
$PPBBSPRReport of Service Pensioners with British DP
THE BENEFITS CONTACT OFFICER WILL BE
RIC MOORE(06) 2825494 bh
(06) 2823913 ah