C06/2006 INDEXATION OF BRITISH WAR PENSIONS (DISABILITY PENSIONS)

Purpose

The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to advise of processing arrangements for the manual indexation of British war pensions.

War pensions to increase by 2.7%

The UK Veterans Agency has advised that British war pensions will rise by 2.7% in line with their Retail Price Index. British war pensioners will receive the increase from 10 April 2006. The Veterans Agency has published their rates chart at http://www.veteransagency.mod.uk/homepages/leafle….

Effective date and payday

The effective date for the variation should be 11 April 2006, for payday 27 April 2006. If processing of income support cases is delayed past 21 April 2006, a later effective date may be used so that no overpayment of rent assistance is raised. Any later effective date used should be the first day of a pension period. Cases with both income support and EATS or composite components should not be delayed.

Cases affected

These changes will affect the following cases:

• Composite cases (with or without income support)
• EATS cases (with or without income support)
• British war pension in assessments of rent assistance, age pension or income support supplement

Exchange rate for EATS and composite cases

The exchange rate to use for EATS and composite cases (DP paid by Australia on behalf of the UK) is A$2.3381/£.  These cases are now subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%.  For further information refer to DI C22/2005.

Exchange rate for British DP paid direct from the UK

The exchange rate to use for British DP paid direct from the UK is A$2.3381/£. This is the same exchange rate used for British Official Public Service and Armed Forces Pensions.  For further information refer to DI C05/2005.  British DP paid direct should be updated whenever there is a variation to the daily exchange rate of plus or minus 2.5%.

Rates charts in Australian dollars

British war pension rates converted to $A at both old and new rates have been e-mailed to state contact officers along with the AIS report.

Manual examination

There will be no cases processed automatically.  All cases will be listed for manual examination and update in PIPS.

AIS reports

A list of cases from AIS has been emailed to all the Income Support Managers and System Support Officers.  There have been occasional problems with the AIS results. If for any reason the list provided appears inconsistent with your expectations please contact the Income Support Officers listed below.

Contact officers

The Income Support contact officers for this exercise are:

• Amy Curry, ext 16734
• Bob Turner, ext. 16079.