DATE OF ISSUE:  10 July 2012

Reassessment of Comsuper and Victorian Health Superannuation Pensions

Amends DI No.	N/A
Replaces DI No.	N/A

Purpose of instruction	The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the advice production from July 2012 ComSuper and the Victorian Health Superannuation (Vic HealthSuper) reassessment.
Background	ComSuper includes Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS), Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (PSS), Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefit Scheme (DFRDB) & Military Superannuation Benefit Scheme (MSBS) Superannuation pensions.  It is adjusted bi-annually in January and July.  The July 2012 ComSuper reassessment run will also include an update to Victorian Health Superannuation pensions (Vic HealthSuper). The cost of living increase to be applied to the ComSuper pensions in July 2012 is 0.1%.  The increase to be applied to the Vic HealthSuper pensions in July 2012 is 0.62%.
Processing date	Reassessment processing to reflect the July 2012 CPI increases is scheduled to run overnight on Tuesday, 10 July 2012.  Following completion of processing, the advice data files will be transmitted to the mailing house for printing and lodgment.
Effective date	The effective date of the reassessment will be 10 July 2012. On pension payday 26 July 2012, pensioners will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate.
Advice letter target audience	A letter will be produced for income support pensioners in receipt of ComSuper (CSS, PSS, DFRDB & MSBS) and Vic HealthSuper, whose pension rate is varied by the reassessment run. There will be approximately 21,000 advice letters produced nationally.
Advices content and presentation	The advice will comprise of a 2 page letter and a Payment Information Attachment.  The advice will inform clients of the outcome to their pension reassessment and provide information on gross superannuation income, deductible and/or non-deductible amounts.  The information relating to their super payment is presented in a tabular format. The advice will also provide the client with their Financial Obligations (prescribed rates) and a right of review. Please see Attachment A which shows a sample of: A ComSuper advice for clients with a deductible amount; and A ComSuper advice for clients without a deductible amount; and A ComSuper advice for clients with both a deductible and non-deductible amount.
DFISA Payments – Impact on Advices	All DVA age pensioners who are eligible to commence payment of Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA) or whose DFISA payment is varied, continued or cancelled will receive an advice letter following the processing run.
Printing and mailing of advice letters	With some exceptions explained below, t — he advice letters will be printed and mailed through the Department's contracted mailing house, Computershare.  All letters will be lodged with Australia Post as a national lodgment by close of business Friday, 20 July 2012.
Advices for Overseas Addressees	The advice letters produced for Tasmanian State Office clients who have an overseas address will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house.
Enclosure (Treatment change) Advice Letters	Enclosure (treatment change) letters will be printed separately at the nominated printer at each state office location.  They are to be mailed from the state office locations by close of business Friday, 20 July 2012. T — he streamed advice letters should be checked for accuracy, and reconciled against the reports received in each location to ensure they reflect the correct treatment paragraphs. If any advice with incorrect treatment information is found, please consult with the Income Support Contact Officers listed below to ensure correct information is provided in the manual replacement advice.
Reduction to Nil Letters	A — ny Reduction to Nil advice letters will be printed at the nominated printer in each location.  Staff are required to include a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) claim form, a CSHC fact sheet and a reply paid envelope with the advice letter. Care needs to be taken with cases where income support payment is reduced to Nil and War Widow/er pension is continued.  The Payment Information Attachment to the printed letters may show the payments as Payment for 4 OCTOBER 2012, instead of the correct date, 26 JULY 2012.  In such cases, the letter will need to be extracted and destroyed; and a new manual advice letter with the correct payment date produced. Note:  This issue is currently being investigated and will be resolved as soon as possible.  However, an auto-fix cannot be done in the timeframe for this exercise.
'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 the nominated printer in each office.  These advices should then be reviewed for appropriate action.
Location of printers	The streamed advices are to be printed at the following printers: NSW/ACT — N607P QLD — Q402 — P SA/ NT — S116P TAS — T0 — 05 — P VIC — V005 — P WA — W010 — P
DVA – Income Support Contact Officers	A contact person from each location acts as a liaison point for the Advices Team, and to assist with the handling of streamed advices printed at each nominated location printer. The Income Support Location Contacts for the July 2012 ComSuper and Vic HealthSuper processing exercise are as follows: NSW:Genia Sacharczuk VIC:Arthur Morihovitis QLD:Stephen Hamill SA:Maria Nasilowski WA:Michelle Pauly TAS:Bryon Kelly
Contacts	For Advice issues – Ganes Jagadeeswaran (02) 9213 7310. For Systems issues – Kevin Chapman (02) 6289 6749.

Peta Stevenson

Assistant Secretary

Income Support and Grants Branch

10 July 2012

ATTACHMENT A

COMSUPER ADVICES FOR CLIENT WITH A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT'

GPO Box 9998, Brisbane  QLD  4001

Contact:              Brisbane Office

Telephone: Macarthur Tower

              259 Queen Street

              Brisbane QLD 4000

123 456 789  044              Postal Address:

JOHN SMITH              GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001

MARY SMITH

123 SAMPLE STREET              Telephone:

MODELTOWN  QLD  4010              Capital city callers: 133 254

              Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254

              Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479

              10 July 2012

              YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX123456

Dear Mr and Mrs SMITH,

This is to advise that your T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP has been reduced.  This change will take effect from 10 July 2012.

Superannuation Pension Reassessment
Your superannuation fund has notified Veterans' Affairs of the new income details for your superannuation pension.  The new income details are shown in the table below.  This income is used to work out the rate of your T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP.

Name	Description	Gross Income	Deductible Amount (tax free component)	Assessed Income
JOHN SMITH	ComSuper (CSS & PSS)	$585.95	$135.50	$450.45

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

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 $xxx.xx per fortnight or the value of your combined assets is more than $xxx,000.00.

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 regarding the above matters please contact this office at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

ALISON STANLEY

Deputy Commissioner

as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission

PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT

The Department calculates pension payments on a daily basis.  This means that your fortnightly pension payment is 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 26 JULY 2012Veteran Partner

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.

CLIENT DOES NOT HAVE A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT'  - BOTH VET AND SPOUSE HAVE INCOME FROM SUPER

GPO Box 9998, Brisbane  QLD  4001

Contact:              Brisbane Office

Telephone: Macarthur Tower

              259 Queen Street

              Brisbane QLD  4000

123 456 789  027              Postal Address:

JEFFREY LYONS              GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001

LUCY LYONS

123 SAMPLE STREET              Telephone:

MODELTOWN  QLD  4010              Capital city callers: 133 254

              Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254

              Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479

              10 July 2012

              YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX123456

Dear Mr and Mrs LYONS,

This is to advise that your service pension has been reduced.  This change will take effect from 10 July 2012.

Superannuation Pension Reassessment
Your superannuation fund has notified Veterans' Affairs of the new income details for your superannuation pension.  The new income details are shown in the table below.  This income is used to work out the rate of your T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP.

Name	Description	Assessed Income
JEFFREY LYONS	ComSuper (DFRDB & MSBS)	$450.95
LUCY LYONS	ComSuper (CSS & PSS)	$265.00

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

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 $xxx.xx per fortnight or the value of your combined assets is more than $xxx,000.00.

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 regarding the above matters please contact this office at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

ALISON STANLEY

Deputy Commissioner

as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission

ATTACHMENT

• Payment Information Attachment

CLIENT HAS INCOME FROM SUPER WITH A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT' AND WITHOUT A DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT

GPO Box 9998, Brisbane  QLD  4001

Contact:              Brisbane Office

Telephone: Macarthur Tower

              259 Queen Street

              Brisbane QLD 4000

123 456 789  015              Postal Address:

JOHN SMITH              GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001

123 SAMPLE STREET

MODELTOWN  QLD  4000              Telephone:

              Capital city callers: 133 254

              Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254

              Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479

              10 July 2012

              YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX123456

Dear Mr SMITH,

This is to advise that your service pension has been reduced.  This change will take effect from 10 July 2012.

Superannuation Pension Reassessment
Your superannuation fund has notified Veterans' Affairs of the new income details for your superannuation pension.  The new income details are shown in the table below.  This income is used to work out the rate of your T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP.

Name	Description	Gross Income	Deductible Amount (tax free component)	Assessed Income
JOHN SMITH	ComSuper (CSS & PSS)	$585.95	$135.50	$450.45
JOHN SMITH	ComSuper (DFRDB & MSBS)	$846.44	$0.00	$846.44

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

Financial Obligations

You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance) if your gross income from all sources is more than $xxx.xx per fortnight or the value of your total assets is more than $xxx,000.00.

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 regarding the above matters please contact this office at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

ALISON STANLEY

Deputy Commissioner

as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission

ATTACHMENT

• Payment Information Attachment