C17/2004 REASSESSMENT OF COMSUPER AND DFRDB SUPERANNUATION PENSIONS - JULY 2004

Purpose of instruction

The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the July 2004 reassessment of Comsuper and DFRDB superannuation pensions.

Background

Comsuper and DFRDB superannuation pensions are adjusted bi-annually in January and July.  The CPI increase to be applied to the July 2004 adjustment is 1.4%.

Processing date

Reassessment processing to reflect the July 2004 CPI increase to Comsuper and DFRDB superannuation pensions will be conducted on Saturday, 24th July 2004.

Effective date

The effective date of the reassessment will be Tuesday, 20th July 2004.

On pension payday Thursday, 5th August 2004, pensioners will receive a full installment at the new assessed rate.

Advice letter target audience

A letter will be produced for Income Support pensioners in receipt of Commonwealth Superannuation and/or DFRDB whose pension has been varied by the reassessment run.  There will be approximately 20,000 advice letters produced nationally.

Amendments to the wording of Super-annuation  Advice letters

Following the January 2004 Comsuper & DFRDB Superannuation processing exercise and mailout, feedback was received from staff in the State Offices advising of a number of phone calls from pensioners who were 'confused' by the letter they had received.

On 30 — th April 2004, a Stateline (Trim Reference: 0429986E) was issued to State Office staff seeking comments on a proposal to amend the wording for automatically produced superannuation advices.  Amendments to the wording of the Superannuation advices were seen as a means of improving the letters to clarify and more clearly convey the information.  State Office comments were received and have been taken into consideration in producing the new wording for the Superannuation advice letters.

Please see Attachment A showing the new amended version of the superannuation advice letter.

Staff are asked to monitor client reactions to the superannuation letters, especially in relation to the change in content of the letter wording and provide feedback to Pat Webb via email: pat.webb@dva.gov.au.

Printing and mailing of advice letters

The advice letters will be printed and mailed through the Department's bulk mailing house, Security Mailing Services (SMS) in Sydney.  All letters will be lodged with Australia Post by COB Friday, 30th July 2004.

Streamed advices requiring state office action

The following advices will be streamed and printed by IBMGSA, and sent via courier to each State Office for checking and dispatch:

• Group destination where the address is that of the Public Trustee;
• Overseas;
• reductions to nil;
• cases which result in multiple payment boxes (ie., Payment Information Attachment); and
• enclosures (treatment changes).

'Held' advices to be forced

As part of the batch processing run any advices in 'held' status will be forced to print.  Forced 'held' advices will print at each respective State Office's nominated printer.

Contacts

Advice issues - Pat Webb (02) 9213 7288.

Systems issues - Kevin Chapman (02) 6289 6749.