3.3.1.1 — Under the authority of section 54A [3] VEA, the Department may periodically issue a prescribed review form to any service pensioner - Statement of Circumstances D2589.
3.3.1.2 — As with PIRs, discrepancies between the new details and the details currently held in the assessment may lead to detection of an overpayment. This also applies to cases where the income support payment is to continue at the current rate or at the maximum rate of payment where information provided may highlight changes not previously notified - e.g. periods of employment, or withdrawals from managed investments where no managed investment had been previously recorded.
3.3.2.1 — In June 2003, the Income Support Review Program was implemented. Specific review is a term chosen to define a range of circumstances for periodic re-assessments by the Department. Examples include earnings, aged care admission, post bereavement and change of address reviews. Analysis of the review process through the Specific Issue Review (SIR) Project found that many of these reviews were not being conducted in accordance with policy, and as a result significant groups of pensioners were at risk of being paid the incorrect rate of pension. As a result, nationally agreed guidelines and procedures were produced for the conduct of SIRs in all States.
3.3.2.2 — The Income Support Review Program Guidelines and Procedures for Specific Reviews Manual may be obtained via Part 12 Chapter 7 of the CLIK Procedure Library. The manual contains:
3.3.3.1 — Other types of departmental initiated reviews include compliance reviews, departmentally initiated review exercises, automatic processing runs and data matching.
3.3.4.1 — Compliance reviews are nationally coordinated exercises targeting assessment of high-risk characteristics. For example, assets tested cases or assessments with real estate that has not been valued for many years. In the 2003-04 Budget, the Federal Government announced funding for an Enhanced Compliance Program to be implemented from April 2004. It is estimated that 10,000 reviews will be conducted each year through the Departmental Review System, which will semi-automate review processes for form generation and provide improved monitoring and reporting. The reviews will be comprehensive in updating all personal, residential and financial information.
3.3.5.1 — Departmental review exercises include reviews of pensioners' personal and financial information initiated at a national level. These include annual property revaluations by DVA's licensed valuer and annual allocated pension reviews.
3.3.6.1 — Periodic automatic processing runs update aspects of pensioners' financial circumstances including:
Note:From 2004 automatic indexation only occurs to UK Government pensions. UK DSS pensions will be processed manually from this date.
Cases that cannot be processed automatically are identified for manual review action in State Offices.
3.3.7.1 — The data matching program involves computerised matching of identity and income data held by various government agencies. Current matching programs include:
In all cases, current records should be updated before any overpayment action is taken.
Links
[1] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24199%23comment-form
[2] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24087%23comment-form
[3] https://clik.dva.gov.au/service-eligibility-assistant-updates/all-determinations-order-date-signed-oldest-most-recent/determinations-under-vea
[4] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24297%23comment-form
[5] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24404%23comment-form
[6] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24143%23comment-form
[7] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24335%23comment-form
[8] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24310%23comment-form
[9] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24365%23comment-form