C17/2003 JUNE 2003 STATUTORY INCREASE - ADVICE LETTER, PAYMENT SUMMARY AND MEDICARE LEVY EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE MAILOUT

DATE OF ISSUE:  20 JUNE 2003

JUNE 2003 STATUTORY INCREASE - ADVICE LETTER, PAYMENT SUMMARY AND MEDICARE LEVY EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE MAILOUT

Purpose of Instruction

This Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the processing arrangements for the June 2003 Statutory Increase (SI) advice letters, Payment Summaries (formerly named Group Certificate), and Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates mailout.

ROGER WINZENBERG

BRANCH HEAD

INCOME SUPPORT

17 June 2003

Overview

Introduction

In June each year, the Department undertakes a bulk exercise to issue approximately 350,000 households with advice letters to persons in receipt of service pension, age pension or income support supplement.  The majority of these letters will include PAYG (Pay As You Go) Payment Summaries for the end of the financial year. Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates will also be issued at this time.

Significant issues

The June 2003 mailout will incorporate the following: Production of advice letters to all service pensioners, age pensioners and income support supplement recipients; Adjustment of pension rates, allowances and thresholds in accordance with adjustments to the Income Free Area and Assets Free Area; Increase to the deeming thresholds; Advice to pensioners of any gain or loss of treatment eligibility; End of financial year Payment Summary production; Page numbering to be included on the Payment Summary; Standalone Payment Summaries ie., Payment Summaries without a covering letter, and Statement of Earnings - issued to those eligible pensioners who do not receive an advice letter; Full Obligations will be provided for all maximum rate pensioners - this is in line with the Repatriation Commission policy that pensioners receiving maximum rate of pension be provided with their full obligations at a minimum interval of once every five years; Full obligations will be suppressed for less than maximum rate pensioners, however reference will be made to previous obligations issued;

Significant issues Contd

Less than maximum rate pensioners will receive the Financial Obligations paragraph (including their Prescribed Rates) in their advice letter; Income and Assets Attachments will not be issued; Payment of Telephone Allowance to those eligible; Production of Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates (MLEC); The number of Medicare Levy exemption days to be advised to all Blinded pensioners; Tasmanian clients who have an overseas address will have the full, meaningful postal address printed on their advices; and Changes to the format of Advices as part of the DOCGEN2 project (Stateline 0252700E refers).

Production of Advice Letters

Processing Weekend - 19/06/03 - 23/06/03

Processing is scheduled to run from Thursday evening 19 June until Monday, 23 June 2003 with any pension variations effective from 1 July 2003 for payday 10 July 2003.

Critical Dates

Letter Production

Security Mailing Services, Kingsgrove, Sydney will print the advice letters, add inserts and envelope them.  Production of letters is expected to occur over period 24 June – 4 July 2003.

Lodgement of Letters

Letters will be progressively lodged with Australia Post for posting commencing Monday, 30 June 2003.  All letters are to be posted by Friday, 4 July 2003.

Letter Content

Letters

Prior to the issue of this Departmental Instruction, the June SI State Contact Officers, System Support Officers and Managers Income Support were provided with copies of the proposed paragraph sequencing and mock-ups of advice letters for this run. A number of recommendations were received and have been taken into consideration for the final version of paragraphs and sequencing.  Details of the Paragraph Sequencing and Target Audience can be found at Attachment B.  Copies of the expected advice letter content for this run are reproduced at Attachment C to this DI.

PAYG (Pay As You Go) Payment Summary -individual Non-business Service Pension, or Age Pension, or Income Support Supplement

Payment Summaries will be issued to all pensioners whose pensions are taxable. Pay As You Go (PAYG) Payment Summaries will form part of the advice letter sent from the mailing house.  This includes those clients with or without withholdings (tax deductions). The Payment Summary will be sequenced to print before the General Information Sheet (GIS) which is the consistent last page for every advice. Page numbering will be included on the Payment Summary - in previous years no page number printed on the Payment Summary but printed on the GIS, which prints after the Payment Summary.  This caused numerous concerns for clients thinking pages were missing.

General Information Sheet (GIS)

Each letter will have a General Information Sheet (GIS).  The GIS will be sequenced to print after the Payment Summary - the GIS must be used as the consistent last page to enable the enveloping machines at the mailing house, to identify the last page of each persons letter ie. gatemarking purposes.

Standalone PAYG Payment Summaries – without a covering letter

Standalone PAYG Payment Summaries - do not have a covering advice letter and will be issued to the following Group of clients: Eligible Veterans' Children Education Scheme (VCES) Recipients; Working Rule B Widows;     Those pensioners who are no longer in payment and do not receive an advice but a payment summary for that part of the year for which they were in payment; and     Unknown Addresses. Standalone Payment Summaries for those listed above are to be printed at the Mailing House and returned to the State Offices for distribution. Please note: Payment Summaries for those clients who died during the financial year are no longer printed at the Mailing House.  The State Offices are able to re-print on request a Payment Summary for deceased clients.

Full Obligations - for all maximum rate pensioners

Full Obligations are to be provided for all maximum rate SP/ISS/AP recipients.  This is in line with the Repatriation Commission policy that pensioners receiving maximum rate of pension be provided with their full obligations at a minimum interval of once every five years.

Financial Obligations including Prescribed Rates for less than maximum rate pensioners

The Financial Obligations paragraph (including the Prescribed Rates) will be present in the advice for all less than maximum rate SP/ISS/AP pensioners.

Income and Assets Attachment

Income and Assets Attachments will not be issued as part of the June 2003 SI.

Telephone Allowance

Pensioners entitled to a telephone allowance payment will receive a paragraph advising them about their quarterly payment.  The TA paragraph will advise pensioners that ....'TA is a separate payment and is not included in your total fortnightly payment information referred to in the letter.'

Non taxable pensioners

Those pensioners whose pensions are not taxable (eg, service pension on the grounds of permanent incapacity and under 65 years of age for males, 62 years for females) will receive an advice letter only ie, no payment summary.  A Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate (MLEC) will be issued separately to these clients advising them of the number of Medicare Levy exemption days.

Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates (MLEC)

A Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate will be issued to those Gold Card beneficiaries who are not in receipt of a taxable income support pension and who do not receive an advice letter ie, War widows who do not receive income support supplement; or Those veterans who are eligible for a gold card due to their disability entitlement, who are not in receipt of an income support payment; or Australian veterans with Qualifying Service and over 70 years of age, who are not in receipt of an income support payment; or Those pensioners whose pensions are not taxable (eg, service pension on the grounds of permanent incapacity and under 65 years of age for males, 62 years for females). The number of medicare levy exemption days, where applicable, will be stated on the Payment Summary for all other pensioners.  See Attachment D for a sample of an MLEC.

Medicare levy exemption days for blinded

An issue was raised following the 2002 June SI which highlighted that veterans and spouses in receipt of an Income Support payment who are 'Blind' are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy exemption.  DVA have not previously advised blind pensioners of the number of days they are exempt from the Medicare Levy.  From the June 2003 SI, the number of days will be printed on their Payment Summaries. This affects approximately 660 clients.

Overseas addresses

Tasmanian clients who have an overseas address will have the full, meaningful postal address printing on their advices. The advices for Tasmanian overseas clients will be printed at the IBM Printhub in St Leonard's, Sydney in June and returned to the Tasmanian State Office for checking prior to posting to ensure address changes are correct.  In future June SI runs Tasmanian overseas letters will be sent from the mailing house.

DOCGEN2 Project - New Advice Format

As previously advised, the new advice format has been designed to standardise and simplify the look of advices by introducing a succinct and more readily understandable letter.  This new look will be implemented for the first time for a June SI with this run.

ATO/ Centrelink/ DVA insert

A 'pensioner flyer' produced by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), in conjunction with Centrelink and DVA will be included with all advice letters issued in this exercise.  It is hoped that this flyer will significantly reduce the number of queries the State Office receives about taxation matters.  The brochure is titled “Do you Need to lodge a Tax Return?”.  This brochure will be included with all Payment Summaries and Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates. Each of the State offices have been supplied with a quantity of the flyers to insert with their Special Register (SA only), Treatment Changes (Enclosures) and Standalone Payment Summaries.

Automatic Payment Summary (Group Certificate) reprint facility

From 1 July 2003, reprints of Payment Summaries for financial year 2002/2003 can be generated using the 'Payment Summary Reprint' facility located under the Advices Tab in VIEW. Please Note: 1)  A Payment Summary Template, which was previously available, is no longer available for producing Payment Summaries. 2)  The 'year of issue' will not print in the Payment Summary heading for reprinted payment summaries requested via VIEW.  The 'Payment From' and 'Payment To' date range will accurately reflect the correct year/dates payment range.  The 'Authorising Person' will reflect the respective State's Deputy Commissioner based on the date the reprint is requested. 3)  The client's actual tax file number (TFN) will not print in the TFN space but a default number of 444 444 444 will print.  This is an ATO code identifying the client as a pensioner.

Reprints of MLEC

System Support Officers and State Office contact officers have been provided with a Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate (MLEC) word document to enable them to produce a MLEC.

Mailout procedure

The printing of letters is to be undertaken for the two weeks following processing (ie, June 23 – 4 July 2003) at Security Mailing Services in Sydney. Letters will be progressively lodged on a State by State basis with Australia Post with all state's letters to be posted between Monday, 30 June and COB Friday, 4 July 2003. States will be notified when their State's letters have been lodged and of any production or lodgement delays if they should occur.

Letter Content

Details of the proposed content of the letters, including sample letters and sequencing of paragraphs are included in Attachments B and C.

Issues Requiring State Office Action

Special Register and Overseas

Special Register advices are to be streamed for the South Australian State Office only - they will be printed at the IBM Printhub in Sydney and forwarded to the South Australia State Office.  All other State's Special Register advices will form part of the bulk advices and be printed and sent from the mailing house. Overseas cases for Tasmania will be printed by IBM in St Leonard's, Sydney and forwarded to the Tasmanian State Office with other daily advice output for checking and mailing.

Advice Schedule Reports - Hard Copy and Online Access

Each State Office will receive a 'hard copy' of the advice schedule reports following the June SI processing run.  These will be printed at the IBM Printhub in St Leonard's, Sydney and forwarded to each State's System Support Officer (SSO). Access to this information will also be available 'on-line'. Instructions for accessing the advice schedule reports will be provided separately to this instruction.

Enclosure Letters

As is the procedure for quarterly processing Enclosure (treatment) advice letters will be printed at the IBM Printhub and sent via courier to each State Office.  It is suggested that these be checked for accuracy and be reconciled against the reports received by each State Office to ensure they reflect the correct treatment paragraphs.

'HELD' Advices to be Forced

As part of the Batch processing run all advices in 'Held' status will be forced to print.  Forced held advices will now print in each respective State Office's nominated printer as part of the production run.  Please ensure your nominated printer is fully operational on Thursday evening, 19 June 2003 as the forced advices will print at that time.  All forced advices will need to be checked to ensure the information in them is correct prior to posting.

Handling of Daily Advices

Cases processed in advance for payday 10 July 2003 should have the daily advice dispatched prior to the June advice letter being sent. Daily payment advices processed after the processing run on 19-23 June 2003 for 10 July 2003, should be held by the State Offices until confirmation is received from the June SI Business Co-ordinator to release such advices.  This will ensure that pensioners who have pension variations processed for payday 10 July 2003 will receive their daily advice after the quarterly advice rather than in advance of it. To minimise the number of daily advices to be held while the June advices are processed, it is suggested that only manual cases (and essential processing) should be processed for payday 10 July 2003.

State Office Contacts

State Office Contact Officers

NSW  - Genia Sacharczuk  - 02 9213 7106 VIC - David Price - 03 9284 6379 QLD - Steve Jensen - 07 3223 8835 SA - Graham Bate - 08 8290 0425 WA - John Gliddon - 08 9366 8417 TAS - Bryon Kelly - 03 6221 6684 ACT - Kristie Chynoweth - 02 6289 6019

National Office Contacts

Feedback from State Offices

Any concerns regarding letters produced as part of this run should be directed to the June SI Business Co-ordinators in National Office - Pat Webb or Paula Green.  At the end of this process we will be collating all State feedback to analyse any issues raised and develop solutions to address any concerns raised.  Any problems noted should be reported to the Business Co-ordinator, together with any background information detailing the issue.  Please ensure that any problems are reported as early as possible.

Contacts

Any queries regarding advice wording, data cartridges, mail house printing and letter lodgement should be referred to: Pat Webb (02) 6289 6444 (Phone) (02) 6289 6553 (Fax) OR Paula Green (02) 6289 4779 (Phone) (02) 6289 6553 (Fax)

ATTACHMENT A

HOUSEHOLDS TO RECEIVE PAYMENT SUMMARIES AND/OR MEDICARE LEVY EXEMPTION CERTIFICATES

JUNE 2003 - APPROXIMATES BASED ON 2002 STATISTICS

Type	NSW	VIC	QLD	SA	WA	TAS	AUST
Total - Advices Only	88,218	60,807	56,936	25,707	23,986	9,621	265,275
MLEC	28,339	19,585	17,326	6,470	6,955	2,377	81,052
Pay Sums without a letter	2,563	1,682	2,203	728	931	381	8,488
Total	119,120	82,074	76,465	32,905	31,872	12,379	354,815

ATTACHMENT B

PARAGRAPH SEQUENCING AND TARGET AUDIENCE

An advice will be produced for all Service Pensioners, Income Support Supplement recipients and Age Pensioners.

***LESS THAN MAXIMUM RATE SP/ISS/AP pensioners will receive the following paragraphs:

• Financial Obligations paragraph which includes their prescribed rates in the body of the advice.

WILL NOT receive

• Full Income and Assets Attachment
• Full Obligations

***MAXIMUM RATE SP/ISS/AP will receive the following paragraphs:

• Full Obligations

WILL NOT receive

• Full Income and Assets Attachment

ATTACHMENT C

JUNE 2003 SI PARAGRAPH CONTENT

Example 1:

• LESS THAN MAXIMUM RATE - VARIATION (INCREASE)

• MARRIED ASSESSMENT
• SERVICE PENSIONERS

• TA IN PAYMENT
• TAXABLE
• PAYMENT SUMMARIES ENCLOSED
• GIS

Contact:

Telephone: STATE OFFICE

AMP Place

10 Eagle Street

Brisbane Qld 4000

Postal Address:

GPO Box 651 Brisbane Qld 4001

Telephone:

General inquiries: 133 254

Non-metropolitan callers: 1800 555 254

Dialling from interstate: 1300 13 1945

Facsimile: (07) 32238585

21 June 2003

YOUR FILE NUMBER IS Q ######

Dear Mr and Mrs SMITH,

I am writing to you about your service pension payment from Veterans' Affairs

This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased.  This change will take effect from 1 July 2003.

Cost of living changes to the Income and Assets Test

Recent increases in the cost of living have been applied to the following income and assets limits for service pension:

• Income Free Area - this is the amount of income you can have before your service pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Assets Value Limit - this is the amount of assets you can have (other than your family home) before your service pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Deeming Thresholds - these are the amounts of financial assets you can have before the higher deemed interest rates are applied to the assessment of service pension.

For details on these changes please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.

Payment Information

Details of your payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.

Payment Summaries (formerly known as Group Certificates)

As it is the end of the 2002/03 financial year Payment Summaries are being issued.  You will need this information if you are required to lodge a tax return.

Payment Summary for FRANK A SMITH is enclosed with this letter.

Payment Summary for ANNA I SMITH is enclosed with this letter.

Medicare Levy Exemption

If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare Levy for that period.  The number of days you are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy Exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.

You should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 2861 if you have any questions about taxation.

Telephone Allowance

Your quarterly telephone allowance will be paid on 10 July 2003, together with your pension payment.  Your telephone allowance is a separate payment and is not included in your total fortnightly payment information referred to in this letter.  The current telephone allowance rates are:

Singles Rate - $18.60

Couples Rate (each) - $ 9.30

World War I Veterans - $65.70

Financial Obligations

You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive Remote Area Allowance) if your combined gross income from all sources is more than $XXXX.XX per fortnight or the value of your combined assets, apart from your home, is more than $XXXXXX.XX.  Income includes deemed income from your financial assets and income from other sources.

Other Obligations

We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'.  These obligations still apply.

Changes You Have Already Told Us About

If you have told us recently about a change to your income and assets or your domestic situation, it may not have been processed before this letter was sent.  If this is the case, we will send you another letter providing details of your new pension assessment when that change has been finalised.  This normally takes no more than 4 weeks.

Your Right of Review

If you do not agree with this variation to your pension, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office.  If you do decide to apply, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision.  Such a request for review must be in writing, and must set out your reasons for seeking this review.

If you have any questions about matters concerning Income Support issues you should contact our Income Support Staff on 1300 550 452.  For any other inquiries please contact the Department at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID MACKRELL

Deputy Commissioner

PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT

The Department now calculates T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP payments on a daily basis.  This means that your fortnightly pension payment is now made up of 14 days of entitlement of pension.  Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight - your pension will be adjusted from that day.  For that reason your pension payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.

Payment for 10 JULY 2003 VeteranPartner

Payment for 24 JULY 2003VeteranPartner

Payment Destination

Date	Name	Payment Destination	Amount Deposited
10/07/03	F A SMITH	123456	xxx.xx
	A I SMITH	123456	xxx.xx
		TOTAL	xxx.xx
24/07/03	F A SMITH	123456	xxx.xx
	A I SMITH	123456	xxx.xx
		TOTAL	xxx.xx

Please Note: If you have an overpayment or lump sum advance which is currently being recovered (by deductions from your fortnightly pension), the amount paid into your account may be less than the total fortnightly payment shown above.

Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs

2003 PAYG Payment Summary - Individual Non Business Service Pension

Original

DVA File No: QX999999

Payer's ABN: 2396 4290 824

Tax File Number:                111 111 111

Payment From: 01/07/2002

Payment to: 30/06/2003

DOB:  26/02/1971

Client's Name 1st Line of Client's Address 2nd Line of Client's Address 3rd Line of Client's Address

Gross payments: $0.00 Medicare Levy Full or Half Exemption Days: 0

Remote Area Allowance: $0.00

ThousandsHundredsTensUnitsCents Total tax withheld - whole dollars only in wordsNILNILNILNIL      00 Total tax withheld (whole dollars)$0.00

Authorised Person:16/06/03

DOES NOT PRINT IN FINAL VERSION

✂--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will print as one page with 'Original' copy in production run.

Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs

2003 PAYG Payment Summary - Individual Non Business Service Pension

Client Copy

DVA File No: QX999999

Payer's ABN:             2396 4290 824

Tax File Number:               111 111 111

Payment From: 01/07/2002

Payment to: 30/06/2003

DOB: 26/02/1971

Client's Name 1st Line of Client's Address 2nd Line of Client's Address 3rd Line of Client's Address

Gross payments: $0.00 Medicare Levy Exemption Days: 0

Remote Area Allowance: $0.00

ThousandsHundredsTensUnitsCents Total tax withheld - NILNILNILNIL     00 whole dollars only in words Total tax withheld (whole dollars)$0.00

Authorised Person:16/06/03

DOES NOT PRINT IN FINAL VERSION

If you need to lodge a tax return, detach the ORIGINAL by cutting along the dotted line, attach it to your tax return and keep the CLIENT COPY for your records.

See Notes On Reverse →

This is an example of the General Information Sheet (GIS) for Service Pensioners that will be used in the June mailout.  There is a separate GIS for both Income Support Supplement and Age Pensioner recipients. PLEASE NOTE:  Rates and thresholds have not been updated to reflect changes as any changes have not been released at the time of producing this document.

GENERAL INFORMATION ON SERVICE PENSION RATES AND LIMITS

(Information current as at T-ADVICE-PRINT-DATE)

MAXIMUM RATES OF SERVICE PENSION (excludes pharmaceutical allowance)

Singles Rate$429.40 (per fortnight)

Couples Rate (each)$358.40 (per fortnight)

PENSION INCOME LIMIT (per fortnight)

Before Service Pension ReducesCut Off*

Singles Rate$116.00$1,204.00

Couples Rate (combined)$204.00$2,010.50

These limits may increase for each dependent child or student up to the age of 22, or if rent assistance is payable.

PENSION ASSETS LIMIT

Before Service Pension ReducesCut Off*

Home Owner

Singles Rate$145,250$290,500

Couples Rate (combined)$206,500$447,500

Non Home Owner

Singles Rate$249,750$395,000

Couples Rate (combined)$311,000$552,000

These limits may increase for each dependent child or student up to the age of 22, or if rent assistance is payable.

NOTE: *Income and assets cut off limits apply to all service pensioners except blinded service pensioners.

GOLD CARD INFORMATION

NOTE 1: These income and asset limits apply to the Gold Card only.  Different income and asset limits apply to the pension.  These limits can be found at the top of the page.

NOTE 2: If your disability pension is from 50% - 95% of the general rate and you also receive any amount of service pension, the Gold Card income and asset cut off limits do not apply to you.  Should your service pension payments cease due to excess income or assets you will no longer be eligible for the Gold Card.

NOTE 3: If you are aged 70 years or over, and you are a veteran who served in Australia's Defence Force, and you have qualifying service from any conflict (or you are an Australian Mariner with qualifying service from World War II), the Gold Card income and assets cut off limits shown below DO NOT APPLY TO YOU as your Gold Card is NOT affected by your income and/or assets.

GOLD CARD INCOME CUT OFF LIMIT

Singles Rate$331.50 (per fortnight)

Couples Rate (combined)$576.00 (per fortnight)

Add $69.60 per fortnight for each dependent child or student to the age of 22.

GOLD CARD ASSETS CUT OFF LIMIT

Home Owner

Singles Rate$174,000

Couples Rate (combined)$256,250

Non Home Owner

Singles Rate$278,500

Couples Rate (combined)$360,750

Add approximately $6,250 for each dependent child or student up to the age of 22.

DEEMING

Deeming assumes that any money you have invested in financial assets is earning a particular amount of income regardless of the actual amount earned.  The deeming rates are:

Singles

Low Rate:- 2.5% interest up to the threshold of $34,400

High Rate:- 4% interest for the remaining balance

Couples

Low Rate:- 2.5% interest up to the threshold of $57,400

High Rate:- 4% interest for the remaining balance

ILLNESS SEPARATED COUPLES

Couples separated due to ill health are paid at the single rate of service pension, but have their income and assets assessed as a couple.

RENT ASSISTANCE

You may be eligible for rent assistance if you pay rent to a non-government body or landlord.  The amount of rent assistance you receive depends on the amount of rent you pay and your family circumstances.  Rent assistance is paid at the rate of 75 cents in the dollar for every dollar you pay over the set rent limits.

When calculating the amount of rent assistance payable to a service pension recipient, any disability pension received by that person or their partner, is counted as income and may reduce the rate of rent assistance payable.

Maximum Amount of Rent Assistance Payable (per fortnight)

No children1-2 children3 or more

children

Singles Rate$92.00$107.60$122.20

Couples Rate

(combined)$86.80$107.60$122.20

Rent Limits (per fortnight)

No children1-2 children3 or more

children

Singles Rate$81.60$107.40$107.40

Couples Rate

(combined)$133.00$159.00$159.00

Example 2:

• LESS THAN MAXIMUM RATE - Permanently Incapacitated- VARIATION (INCREASE)

• SINGLE ASSESSMENT
• AGE PENSIONER

• TA IN PAYMENT
• NON TAXABLE
• PAYMENT SUMMARY NOT ISSUED
• MLEC ISSUED AND SENT SEPARATELY
• GIS

Contact:

Telephone: STATE OFFICE

AMP Place

10 Eagle Street

Brisbane Qld 4000

Postal Address:

GPO Box 651 Brisbane Qld 4001

Telephone:

General inquiries: 133 254

Non-metropolitan callers: 1800 555 254

Dialling from interstate: 1300 13 1945

Facsimile: (07) 32238585

21 June 2003

YOUR FILE NUMBER IS Q ######

Dear Mr BROWN,

I am writing to you about your age pension payment from Veterans' Affairs

This is to advise you that your age pension has been increased.  This change will take effect from 1 July 2003.

Cost of living changes to the Income and Assets Test

Recent increases in the cost of living have been applied to the following income and assets limits for age pension:

• Income Free Area - this is the amount of income you can have before your age pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Assets Value Limit - this is the amount of assets you can have (other than your family home) before your age pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Deeming Thresholds - these are the amounts of financial assets you can have before the higher deemed interest rates are applied to the assessment of age pension.

For details on these changes please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.

Payment Information

Details of your payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.

Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate

A Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate showing the number of days you are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy Exemption will be issued to you separately.

Telephone Allowance

Your quarterly telephone allowance will be paid on 10 July 2003, together with your pension payment.  Your telephone allowance is a separate payment and is not included in your total fortnightly payment information referred to in this letter.  The current telephone allowance rates are:

Singles Rate - $18.60

Couples Rate (each) - $ 9.30

World War I Veterans - $65.70

Financial Obligations

You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas) if your combined income from all sources is more than $XXXX.XX gross per fortnight or the value of your combined assets, apart from your home, is more than $XXXXXX.XX.  Income includes deemed income from your financial assets and income from other sources.

Other Obligations

We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters.  These obligations still apply.

Changes You Have Already Told Us About

If you have told us recently about a change to your income and assets or your domestic situation, it may not have been processed before this letter was sent.  If this is the case, we will send you another letter providing details of your new pension assessment when that change has been finalised.  This normally takes no more than 4 weeks.

Your Right of Review

If you do not agree with this decision, you should discuss it with the original decision maker, who will explain the reasons for the decision.  If you remain dissatisfied, you may apply to have the decision reviewed by an Authorised Review Officer, with no prior involvement in the case.  If you decide to apply for a review more than 13 weeks from the day this notice is given to you, arrears can only be paid from the date we receive your application.  Requests for review may be made in person, by telephone or in writing.

If you have any questions about matters concerning Income Support issues you should contact our Income Support Staff on 1300 550 452.  For any other inquiries please contact the Department at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID MACKRELL

Deputy Commissioner as Delegate of the Secretary

ATTACHMENTS

• Payment Information Attachment - YES

• Payment Summary/s              - NO

• General Information Sheet - YES

Example 3:

• LESS THAN MAXIMUM RATE - VARIATION (INCREASE)
• SINGLE ASSESSMENT
• ISS PENSIONER

• NIL TA IN PAYMENT
• TAXABLE
• PAYMENT SUMMARY ENCLOSED
• GIS

Contact:

Telephone: STATE OFFICE

AMP Place

10 Eagle Street

Brisbane Qld 4000

Postal Address:

GPO Box 651 Brisbane Qld 4001

Telephone:

General inquiries: 133 254

Non-metropolitan callers: 1800 555 254

Dialling from interstate: 1300 13 1945

Facsimile: (07) 32238585

21 June 2003

YOUR FILE NUMBER IS Q ######

Dear Mrs ANGEL

I am writing to you about your income support supplement payment from Veterans' Affairs

This is to advise you that your income support supplement has been increased  This change will take effect from 1 July 2003.

Cost of living changes to the Income and Assets Test

Recent increases in the cost of living have been applied to the following income and assets limits for income support supplement:

• Income Free Area - this is the amount of income you can have before your income support supplement is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Assets Value Limit - this is the amount of assets you can have (other than your family home) before your income support supplement is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Deeming Thresholds - these are the amounts of financial assets you can have before the higher deemed interest rates are applied to the assessment of income support supplement.

For details on these changes please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.

Payment Information

Details of your payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.

Payment Summaries (formerly called Group Certificates)

As it is the end of the 2002/03 financial year Payment Summaries are being issued.  You will need this information if you are required to lodge a tax return.

Payment Summary for BETH T ANGEL is enclosed with this letter.

Medicare Levy Exemption

If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare Levy for that period.  The number of days you are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy Exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.

You should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 2861 if you have any questions about taxation.

Financial Obligations

You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive Remote Area Allowance) if your income from all sources is more than $XXXX.XX gross per fortnight or the value of your assets, apart from your home,  is more than $XXXXXX.XX.  Income includes deemed income from your financial assets and income from other sources.

Other Obligations

We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'.  These obligations still apply.

Changes You Have Already Told Us About

If you have told us recently about a change to your income and assets or your domestic situation, it may not have been processed before this letter was sent.  If this is the case, we will send you another letter providing details of your new pension assessment when that change has been finalised.  This normally takes no more than 4 weeks.

Your Right of Review

If you do not agree with this variation to your pension, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office.  If you do decide to apply, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision.  Such a request for review must be in writing, and must set out your reasons for seeking this review.

If you have any questions about matters concerning Income Support issues you should contact our Income Support Staff on 1300 550 452.  For any other inquiries please contact the Department at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID MACKRELL

Deputy Commissioner

ATTACHMENTS - in order of appearance

• Payment Information Attachment - YES

• Payment Summary/s              - YES

• General Information Sheet - YES

Example 4:

• MAXIMUM RATE CONTINUATION ON MAXIMUM RATE
• MARRIED ASSESSMENT
• SERVICE PENSIONERS

• TA IN PAYMENT
• TAXABLE
• FULL OBLIGATIONS
• PAYMENT SUMMARIES ENCLOSED
• GIS

Contact:

Telephone: STATE OFFICE

AMP Place

10 Eagle Street

Brisbane Qld 4000

Postal Address:

GPO Box 651 Brisbane Qld 4001

Telephone:

General inquiries: 133 254

Non-metropolitan callers: 1800 555 254

Dialling from interstate: 1300 13 1945

Facsimile: (07) 32238585

21 June 2003

YOUR FILE NUMBER IS Q ######

Dear Mr and Mrs WINTER,

I am writing to you about your service pension payment from Veterans' Affairs

You currently receive the maximum rate of service pension and this amount remains unchanged.

Cost of living changes to the Income and Assets Test

Recent increases in the cost of living have been applied to the following income and assets limits for service pension:

• Income Free Area - this is the amount of gross income you can have before your service pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Assets Value Limit - this is the amount of assets you can have (other than your family home) before your service pension is reduced below the maximum rate payable;

• Deeming Thresholds - these are the amounts of financial assets you can have before the higher deemed interest rates are applied to the assessment of service pension.

For details on these changes please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.

Payment Summaries (formerly known as Group Certificates)

As it is the end of the 2002/03 financial year Payment Summaries are being issued.  You will need this information if you are required to lodge a tax return.

Payment Summary for ROBERT T WINTER is enclosed with this letter.

Payment Summary for MARIA S WINTER is enclosed with this letter.

Medicare Levy Exemption

If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare Levy for that period.  The number of days you are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy Exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.

You should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 2861 if you have any questions about taxation.

Telephone Allowance

Your quarterly telephone allowance will be paid on 10 July 2003, together with your pension payment.  Your telephone allowance is a separate payment and is not included in your total fortnightly payment information referred to in this letter.  The current telephone allowance rates are:

Singles Rate - $18.60

Couples Rate (each) - $ 9.30