C24/2000 EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENTS TO BRITISH DISABILITY PENSIONS (EATS & COMPOSITE) PAID IN AUSTRALIA

Advised by:

Advice has been received from the British Department of Social Security (BDSS) to the effect that the exchange rate to be used for payment of the British component of Disability Pensions (EATS and COMPOSITE) in Australia has been reviewed.

New Exchange Rate

$A2.57.  The previous rate was $A2.55 to one Pound Sterling.

(British pension rates charts are at Attachment)

Rate Effective From

Date of effect 24 August 2000.

Cases Affected

The variation applies to the EATS and Composite cases.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong cases are not affected by the exchange rate adjustment to British Disability Pensions.  Disability Compensation Branch in National Office is still reviewing the procedures that apply to Hong Kong pensions including calculating the Hong Kong exchange rate a new method is agreed, for further information on this subject please contact Perry Phillips on 02 6289 6483.

Manual Examination

There will be no cases processed automatically.  All cases will be listed for manual examination.

Changed Arrangements

Since the introduction of IPS extraction of cases can only be obtained through the AD Hoc Inquires System (AIS). A list of cases has been emailed to all the Income Managers and System Support Officers.

Service Pension Cases

Action schedules of cases requiring manual examination and variation are made up of the following groups.

• Composite cases (with or without SP)
• EATS cases (with or without SP)
• Other overseas pensions (which may be affected)

Client Data Base (CDB)

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 via PIPS/PC.

SPOC

When single officer processing is in operation any reference to the delegate should be read as the single officer.

CR.PS System

The Correspondence Rules and Paragraph Specifications system will generate an advice in cases where a payment variation is made.  Examiners should action cases in the following manner:

Cases

What to do

Continuations

Unless the total payment varies, the PIPS/PC Advices screen should be accessed and production of an automatic advice suppressed.

Variations

Where a variation in total payments results, the PIPS/PC Advice screen should be accessed and the Suppressed Income/Asset List Indicator set.  This will result in production of a variation advice with no income and asset details

Contact Officer

Processing will be performed by the Business Operational Support section. The contact officer for this exercise is Nasreen Haque (02) 6289 1125.