Place holder node for 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 6 December 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling - Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.6375 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.7132 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.5837) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 6 December 2013. |
Date of Effect10 December 2013 |
Effective from 10 December 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 23 December 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 10 December 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the Pounds Sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 10 December 2013 for payday 23 December 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C — 22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The contracted mailing house will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 16 December 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 25 June 2013, are: New South Wales — 1137 Queensland 819 Victoria — 1040 Western Australia 181 South Australia — 1016 Tasmania 856 Tasmania Overseas 221 Total5270 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: SA — VSSOPR06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — VVSOPR02 NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPR01 |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Elis Lam (ext 27244). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
06 December 2013
1
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
6 December 2013 |
0.5837 |
1.7132 |
|
16 August 2013 |
6 December 2013 |
0.6107 |
1.6375 |
21 June 2013 |
16 August 2013 |
0.6303 |
1.5865 |
24 May 2013 |
21 June 2013 |
0.6718 |
1.4885 |
5 March 2013 |
24 May 2013 |
0.6978 |
1.4331 |
22 January 2013 |
4 March 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
15 January 08 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
DATE OF ISSUE: 22 November 2013
Bulk Issue of 2014 NSW Transport Concession Card (TC1) and 2014 Victorian Free Travel Voucher (VTV)
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
This Departmental Instruction provides information regarding:
|
NSW Transport Concession Card |
The Transport Concession Card (TC1) provides state funded travel concessions and is issued by DVA on behalf of the New South Wales Government. New South Wales is the only state to issue the TC1. War widows/widowers residing in other states may be eligible for state transport concessions through their DVA Gold Card, CSHC or other transport passes. The TC1 is issued to war widows/widowers who reside in New South Wales and are not in receipt of service pension, income support supplement or age pension paid by DVA or Department of Human Services (Centrelink). From 15 October 2012, some MRCA wholly dependant partners (MRCA widows/widowers) are also eligible to receive the TC1. The eligibility criteria for MRCA widows/widowers are:
This specific information is not recorded in DVA systems currently, so the eligible MRCA widows/widowers cannot be identified automatically and be included in the TC1 bulk issue. The Service Coordinator NSW/ACT has identified eight MRCA widows residing in NSW eligible for the 2014 TC1. Income Support in Sydney will manually issue the TC1 to the eligible MRCA widows following the bulk issue. |
Victorian Free Travel Voucher |
The Victorian Free Travel Voucher (VTV) is issued to war widows/widowers who reside in Victoria and are not in receipt of service pension, income support supplement or age pension paid by DVA or Department of Human Services (Centrelink).
Wholly dependant partners (MRCA widow/widowers) are eligible to receive the VTV. |
Valid |
Both the TC1 and the VTV are valid from 1 January 2014 to and including 31 December 2014. |
Numbers |
The approximate numbers to be produced from the bulk issue are: NSW Transport Concession Card — 7,392 Victorian Free Travel Voucher — 5,316 |
Dates |
The following dates apply to the 2014 annual bulk issue: TaskDate Production data extraction — 24 November 2013 Printing, enveloping and lodgement — 26 – 29 November 2013 Final lodgement with Australia Post — 29 November 2013 |
Reports |
As VIEW does not display TC1 and VTV information, a report listing the clients receiving a TC1 or VTV from the bulk issue will be provided to the location contacts. |
Inserts |
A 2014 DVA fridge calendar magnet will be inserted with the TC1 and the VTV. |
2014 stock |
The 2014 TC1 and VTV stock for daily issue will be sent to the location contacts on completion of the bulk issue. |
Daily Issue |
Current eligible TC1 and VTV clients will receive their 2014 card or voucher in the bulk run. War widows/widowers who gain eligibility for the TC1 or the VTV from Monday, 25 November 2013 should be issued with both a 2013 and 2014 TC1 or VTV together with a 2014 DVA fridge calendar magnet. From 1 January 2014 only the 2014 TC1 or VTV should be issued with a 2014 DVA fridge calendar magnet. |
2013 stock |
Any remaining 2013 stock should be destroyed securely when this stock is no longer required. The location contacts will report to the project coordinator the amount of 2013 unused stock. This information will be used to work out next year's stock order. |
Location Contacts |
The location contacts for this project are: NSW – TC1 — John Eden VIC – VTV — Peter Castleman |
Project Coordinator |
The project coordinator for the bulk issue is: Elis Lam Income Support Phone: 02 9213 7244 E-mail: Elis.Lam@dva.gov.au [5] |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
22 November 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 19 November 2013
Annual Allocated & Market Linked Income Streams Review - 2013
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide staff with information on the review strategy for the 2013 annual allocated and market linked income streams review and to also to provide advice on where to direct client or procedural enquiries. |
Reviewstrategy |
The 2013 review has been initiated during October and November 2013, and processing has commenced within the Income Support Reviews area in Perth. A Risk Analysis has been applied to reduce the number of income streams reviewed. |
Background |
All allocated and market linked income streams are asset tested and have an asset value determined by a current account balance. As the asset value cannot be automatically calculated by DVA, it is necessary to manually obtain and update the current account balance. From 1 July every year, the gross annual payments made by these income streams may also change, for:
|
DRS reviewin 'review set' status |
Departmental Review System (DRS) 'Adhoc' Review functionality will be used to generate a unique DRS Review in 'review set' status for each allocated and market linked income stream selected for review. The DRS Review details will appear on DRS as follows:
|
Number of income streams and DRS reviews |
The risk analysis has reduced the number of cases to be reviewed by excluding allocated income streams that:
The total number of individual allocated and market linked income streams to be reviewed in 2013 will be 7457. These income streams are held by the following client categories : |
Asst Tested Less than maximum rate SP/ISS/AP |
Income Tested Less than maximum rate SP/ISS/AP |
High Risk Maximum Rate SP/ISS/AP |
Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF) |
TOTAL INCOME STREAMS |
2763 |
3574 |
138 |
982 |
7457 |
Review to be initiated by Investment Database Unit |
The Investment Database Unit will:
Robert Vere will then be responsible for:
|
DRS / PIPS Processing |
Processing officers will follow these steps to action the review: |
Step |
Action |
1 |
Upon receipt of the income stream schedule from the provider, access the appropriate DRS Review. |
2 |
Advance the DRS Review to Create PIPS PC worksheet, select 'Notification Rules Do Not Apply' and enter the date of receipt of the income stream schedule as the date of effect. |
3 |
Update the income and asset details on the income stream data collection screen using the income stream schedule and data collection tip sheets. |
4 |
Check the assessment outcome on 'Calculate Pension', and where the:
Where multiple income stream schedules have been received refer to page 4 for more detailed date of effect rules. |
5 |
Add 'Free Text' to the Advices screen as follows: “Following information received from (insert provider name e.g. AMP) your account based income stream details have been updated. You must advise the department within 14 days if you change your gross nominated income payments or make a lump sum withdrawal (i.e. a commutation) from your account balance. If this occurs, please ask your income stream provider to provide you with a new Income Stream Schedule for Veterans' Affairs assessment purposes which shows your new gross nominated income, total commutations and current account balance. This will assist us to accurately update your records and reduce the possibility of any overpayment of your pension”.
|
Income stream schedules sent in by pensioners |
When an income stream schedule is:
|
Date of effect rules |
The 'Annual Allocated & Market Linked Income Streams Review - 2013' is being processed as a Departmentally Initiated Review (DIR) via a DRS 'Adhoc' Review. The review must be processed using DIR date of effect rules. As the review involves processing income stream schedules for each allocated and market linked income stream held in a service pension, age pension or ISS assessment, each income stream will have a DRS Review with a review description and information / comments to identify the income stream the DRS review relates to. Each income stream schedule must be treated as a 'DIR' and processed individually, based on the date of receipt and the review outcome, as follows: For Increases / Continuations:
For Reductions:
|
Multiple income stream schedules |
If multiple income streams are held in a client's assessment, then each income stream schedule must be processed separately based on the date of receipt of the schedule and its review outcome. If multiple income stream schedules are received on the same day for the same case, then all schedules can be processed simultaneously. If multiple income stream schedules are received for the same case, and every schedule results in a pension reduction, then all of the schedules can be processed simultaneously. Where multiple income stream schedules are processed simultaneously, any additional DRS Reviews must be withdrawn to account for each schedule processed with comments added to indicate the reason for the withdrawal. |
Commutations |
If a client has failed to notify of a partial or total commutation from their income stream, and that event would have resulted in a reduction in the assessed rate of service pension, age pension or ISS, follow up action to obtain full details of the event is required (e.g. date of commutation, amount commuted, new payment rate, how commutation proceeds were disposed of and reinvested). The commutation event should be processed separately to calculate an overpayment from the date of the event. These cases may require multiple PIPS actions and multiple dates of effect in order to effect the correct historical reassessments. |
Self managed super fund (SMSF) cases |
All income streams paid from self managed super funds (SMSFs) will also be reviewed. This includes non-allocated income streams where there is an asset test exempt Lifetime or Life Expectancy income stream paid from the SMSF which requires the owner to provide a new actuarial certificate to ensure the income stream continues to qualify for an ongoing asset test exemption. As a result of client feedback from the 2012 exercise a review of client correspondence relating to the request for Self Managed Superannuation Fund information was undertaken to encourage both compliance with the intent of the correspondence or, if required, to encourage impacted clients to seek additional time. |
Enquiries |
All telephone or counter enquires in relation to a request for information regarding this exercise should be directed to Robert Vere (Perth office) on (08) 9366 8248. Any procedural enquiries regarding the 'Annual Allocated & Market Linked Income Streams Review - 2013', including assistance with data collection, follow up of non-returns of income stream schedules, should be directed to Eddie Bolanac, Team Leader Investment Database Unit, (02) 9213 7875 (extension 27875). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants Branch
19 November 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 30 October 2013
November 2013 Deeming Rate Change Letter Production and Mailout
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
This Departmental Instruction is to provide you with information about the processing arrangements for the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change advice letter production and mailout. |
Introduction |
In recognition of the recent interest rate reductions the deeming rate for pension assessment purposes is to be reduced by 0.5%. As a result, there will be a change to the deeming interest rates
The deeming rate change will be processed on the weekend of Saturday 2 November to Sunday 3 November 2013. Any SP/ISS/AP variations resulting from this exercise will be effective from 4 November 2013 for payday 14 November 2013. Payments on 14 November 2013 will comprise 6 days at the old rate and 8 days at the new rate. The full 14-day increase will be made on payday 28 November 2013. About 45,000 advice letters are expected to be produced for clients whose pension has varied due to a change in deemed income. Clients will not receive an advice if their pensions continue at the same rates. This Departmental Instruction provides information about the advice letter production, mailout process and significant issues relating to the mailout. |
Advice Letter Target Audience |
A letter will be produced for the following clients after the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change processing:
|
$ Minimum Rules |
|
No Deeming Rate Change for Bereavement Period cases |
Pensioners currently in a bereavement period will not have the Deeming Rate Change applied to their financial assets in this processing run. A full data refresh should be done as part of their post-bereavement review. |
Introductory Paragraphs |
All letters will have either a single outcome paragraph or a multiple outcome paragraph made up of dot points to advise the pension outcome. Examples are: Single Outcome Paragraph: This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased/reduced/reduced to nil. This change will take effect from 4 November 2013.
Multiple Outcome Paragraphs: This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 4 November 2013.
|
Special Paragraph |
Clients whose payments are varied as a result of the Deeming Rate change will receive a paragraph outlining the change: Deemed Interest Rate Change – Financial Assets With effect from 4 November 2013, the deemed interest rates will change. The new deemed income rates of 2% for amounts up to $46,600 ($77,400 per couple) and 3.5% for amounts over $46,600 ($77,400 per couple), will be used to work out the amount of income calculated from your financial assets. This has resulted in a change to the income amounts used to work out your rate of service pension/age pension/income support supplement. |
Income & Assets |
Clients' full income and assets will not be provided in the advices. However, a table showing the total financial assets, deemed interest rates and deemed income will be provided. |
What is deemed Income? |
An explanatory paragraph about deemed income will also be present in all advice letters. |
Obligations |
Full and Partial obligations are to be suppressed. Reference will be made to obligations issued to clients in previous letters. For SP and ISS recipients, reference will also be made to obligations provided in the 'You and Your Pension' Booklet. A Financial Obligations paragraph (including the Prescribed Rates), will be present in the advice for all clients, except for pensioners who are reduced to nil. AP clients who are reduced to nil, but eligible for payment of DFISA will receive their Financial Obligations paragraph including their prescribed rates. |
Right of Review |
A right of review paragraph will be included in all letters. |
Deeming Rate Change Processing |
November 2013 Deeming Rate Change processing will commence on Friday evening 1 November 2013 and will run through until Sunday 3 November 2013. |
Processing within DVA (includes 'advices' processing) |
Friday evening 1 Nov 2013 – Sunday 3 Nov 2013 |
Transmission of Production Data to Mailing House |
Monday 4 November 2013 |
Mailing House to commence lodgement of Advice Letters with Australia Post |
Friday 8 November 2013 |
Mailing House to complete lodgment of all Advice Letters by COB |
Monday 11 November 2013 |
Estimated number of advices |
The number of letters to be sent nationally is approximately 45,000. |
Printing of Letters |
Computershare located in Ermington NSW will print, fold, insert and lodge the advice letters. |
National Lodgement of Letters |
Letters will be lodged with Australia Post in roughly equal volumes over the two days Friday 8 November 2013 and Monday 11 November 2013. A representative from the Cards and Advices Team will notify and confirm all lodgment details. The Income Support contact officers for this exercise will be given progress reports and advised of any changes to this timetable. |
Holding of daily advice letters |
Daily advice letters produced from Monday 4 November 2013 should be held pending notification that the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change letters have been dispatched. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advice letters in chronological order. |
DFISA Advices from Centrelink Processing |
DVA will be suppressing all Centrelink daily DFISA variation advices with an effective date of 4 November 2013, which are transmitted to DVA following the Centrelink processing run. All other advices will print as part of the normal processing, including Centrelink DFISA cancellation and grant advices. |
Blind Clients will not receive an advice |
Blind clients will not receive an advice. Where a member of a couple is assessed as 'blind', a single advice will be produced for the non-blind member who may be affected by the processing. An exception to this rule is when a Blind client on income support is also in payment of rent assistance (RA). The RA is subject to the income and assets tests, and as such the deeming rate change may result in a variation to their RA payment. Where there is a variation to the RA payment for these clients, an advice will be produced. |
Single & Joint Addressed Letters |
All service pension and income support supplement recipient couples will receive a joint advice, provided the pensioner addresses are identical. This includes illness separated couples. The batch address defaults determining single and joint advices have been aligned with the PIPS PC daily advice defaults. Where both members of a couple have the same postal address recorded, a joint advice will be produced. Important to note: Staff are reminded when granting Age Pension or for those clients in a joint assessment who request separate or single advices, they need to update this information using the mainframe PRODIMS - Client Correspondence Client Options (CO.CO) Screen - prior to the batch processing run to initiate the client request. The advice default requests set in CO.CO will override the DOCGEN and PIPS advice rules Age pensioner couples will receive separate letters, providing the advice default request has been set in CO.CO. |
Treatment Advices to be Checked |
The Enclosure (treatment) advice letters will be printed at the nominated printer at each location. These letters should be checked for accuracy, and reconciled against the reports received in each location to ensure they reflect the correct treatment paragraphs before they are mailed to the clients. |
Tasmanian Clients with Overseas Postal Address |
Advice letters for Tasmanian Office clients with an overseas postal address will be printed and posted from the Mailing House. |
Streamed Advices |
Several categories of advices are streamed out to print at location printers, as they require additional checking and manual actions. The following advice types are streamed:
They are to be printed at state office printers listed below: SA — VSSOPR06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — VVSOPR02 NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPR01 These advices, in particular treatment eligibility change advices, should be checked for accuracy, and reconciled against the reports received by each Office. Reduction to Nil advice letters also require inclusion of Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) claim forms, CSHC fact sheets and reply paid envelopes to the mailpacks. |
ZIP Files of Advice Schedule Reports |
A Zip File listing details of all clients who receive an advice will be emailed to the Contact Officers following the processing run. The Zip File replaces the Advices Schedule Report, which is too large to print on the printers in each office. |
Income Support Contact Officers |
A contact person from each location is required to act as a liaison point for the Cards and Advices Team and is to be the responsible person for distributing any information regarding the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change advices mailout to staff. The Income Support (IS) contacts for the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change processing exercise are listed below: NSW:Genia Sacharczuk / Steven Weston VIC:Greg Heitsch QLD:Sharon Golden / Stephen Hamill SA:Maria Nasilowski WA:Michelle Pauly / Margarete Mumme TAS:Daimeon Horne |
Cards & Advices Team Contact Details |
Any queries regarding this mailout should be referred to: Ganes Jagadeeswaran (02) 9213 7310 or speed dial 27310 |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support and Grants Branch
30 October 2013
Advice Samples |
Details of the proposed content of the November 2013 Deeming Rate Change letters are included in Attachment A.
|
Letter Variables |
Please note, in the enclosed examples:
|
1
EXAMPLE 1A:
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
123 456 789 044 — Facsimile: (07) 3223 8585
JOHN SMITH
MARY SMITH — 2 November 2013
29 MARGARET STREET
IPSWICH QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX999999
Dear Mr and Mrs SMITH,
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 4 November 2013.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
With effect from 4 November 2013, the deemed interest rates will change. The new deemed income rates of 2% for amounts up to $46,600 ($77,400 per couple) and 3.5% for amounts over $46,600 ($77,400 per couple), will be used to work out the amount of income calculated from your financial assets.
This has resulted in a change to the income amounts used to work out your rate of service pension.
FINANCIAL ASSETS VALUE |
DEEMED INTEREST RATE |
DEEMED INCOME PER FORTNIGHT |
$xx,xxx.xx |
2% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
3.5% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
$xxx.xx |
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 is more than $XXXXXX.XX.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'. These obligations still apply.
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.
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 this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT
The Department calculates your payments on a daily basis. This means that your fortnightly payment is made up of 14 days of entitlement. Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight - your payment will be adjusted from that day. For that reason your payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.
Payment for 14 November 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENTxxx.xxxxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Payment for 28 November 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENTxxx.xxxxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Please Note: If you have an overpayment or lump sum advance which is currently being recovered by deductions from your fortnightly payment, the amount paid into your account may be less than the total fortnightly payment shown above.
EXAMPLE 2A:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 4 November 2013.
With effect from 4 November 2013, the deemed interest rates will change. The new deemed income rates of 2% for amounts up to $46,600 ($77,400 per couple) and 3.5% for amounts over $46,600 ($77,400 per couple), will be used to work out the amount of income calculated from your financial assets.
This has resulted in a change to the income amounts used to work out your rate of age pension.
FINANCIAL ASSETS VALUE |
DEEMED INTEREST RATE |
DEEMED INCOME PER FORTNIGHT |
$xx,xxx.xx |
2% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
3.5% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
$xxx.xx |
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas) if you gain or dispose of any assets, or the value of your total existing assets varies, or your gross income from all sources increases above $XXX.XX per fortnight.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters. These obligations still apply.
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.
If you do not agree with this decision, you can contact your nearest Veterans' Affairs office and discuss 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, you can only be paid an adjustment from the date we receive your application. Requests for review may be made in person, by telephone or in writing.
The rate of DFISA paid to you is derived from your age pension assessment. You may seek to have your age pension assessment reviewed if you are dissatisfied with your DFISA rate.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DATE OF ISSUE: 10 September 2013
Annual Bulk Issue – 2014 Pensioner Concession Card (PCC)
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
This Departmental Instruction provides information on the bulk issue of 2014 Pensioner Concession Card (PCC). It also provides information on issuing daily PCCs and travel vouchers. |
Overview |
The PCC is issued by the Australian Government to all income support recipients to prove eligibility for a range of Commonwealth, State/Territory and local benefits and concessions. DVA is responsible for issuing the PCC to DVA clients (including Age Pensioners being paid by DVA). DVA issues the PCC annually in September/October to eligible pensioners. The mailing house contracted to the Department is responsible for printing, enveloping and lodging the cards with Australia Post. The PCC is also issued on a daily basis for new grants and reissues. |
Dates |
The 2014 bulk issue is scheduled to take place between 16 September and 2 October 2013. The following are key dates for this exercise: |
Task |
Date |
Production extract |
15 September 2013 |
Commence using 2014 stock for daily issues |
16 September 2013 |
Reports to contact officers |
16 September 2013 |
Printing, enveloping and lodgment of cards |
17 Sept – 2 October 2013 |
Final lodgment with Australia Post |
2 October 2013 |
Numbers |
The approximate number of carriers to be produced in the annual bulk run based on acceptance testing is 169,533 and the total number of cards to be produced is 212,715 (partnered carriers have two cards). The breakdown of carriers to be produced for each state is: |
State |
Partnered |
Single |
Blind |
Total |
NSW |
12,706 |
40,929 |
733 |
54,368 |
VIC |
8,312 |
27,850 |
494 |
36,656 |
QLD |
11,447 |
27,361 |
487 |
39,295 |
SA |
3,913 |
11,466 |
155 |
15,534 |
WA |
4,626 |
10,932 |
257 |
15,815 |
TAS |
1,467 |
4,282 |
52 |
5,801 |
NT |
118 |
294 |
3 |
415 |
ACT |
593 |
1,030 |
26 |
1,649 |
Total |
43,182 |
124,144 |
2,207 |
169,533 |
Order of Lodgement |
The cards will be printed and lodged with Australia Post in the following order. NSW — Thu 19/09 – Mon 23/09 VIC — Tue 24/09 – Wed 25/09 QLD — Thu 26/09 – Fri 27/09 SA & NT — Mon 30/09 WA — Tue 01/10 ACT & TAS — Wed 02/10 Regular updates will be provided to location contacts to advise of progress. A list of the location contacts can be found on the back page of this instruction. |
2014 PCC Stock |
Minor text and date amendments have been made to the 2014 stock. Daily single stock supplies have been sent to the location contacts and surplus single stock from the bulk issue will be sent on completion of the production run. |
VIC, SA & WA Travel Vouchers |
There are no amendments to the SA and WA travel vouchers. VIC travel vouchers have been updated with the latest travel information. |
PCC Information Insert |
A PCC Information Insert will be included with VIC, SA and WA partnered carriers. The insert contains information that cannot fit on the partnered carriers due to the vouchers. |
Fridge Magnet Calendar Insert |
A DVA fridge magnet calendar will be inserted with all PCCs. To avoid duplicate and wastage, fridge magnet calendars should not be sent with daily PCCs. Instead the calendar is to be included as part of a new grant package, together with the grant advice and You and Your Pension Booklet. A supply of fridge magnet calendars have been sent to the location contacts and VAN representatives. |
Blind Pensioners |
The word 'BLIND' will be printed at the top right hand corner of the card, (just left of the State logo), except for ACT, where it will be printed on the next line down. The card will also be hole-punched at the bottom right hand corner. |
Group Destination – Public Trustee |
Group destination cards will be sent directly to the Public Trustee from the mailing house. |
Cross Reference |
PCCs for cross reference cases will be issued under the active file number which may not always be the prime eligibility file number. |
Listing Dependants on PCC |
The rules for listing dependants on the PCC are outlined below.
|
Eligibility for residents of Norfolk Island |
Norfolk Island residents who are in receipt of SP / ISS are eligible to receive a PCC as part of the bulk run. Age pensioners who are residents of Norfolk Island paid under SSA are not eligible to receive a PCC. This group of clients should not be in payment with DVA. |
Reports |
On completion of the bulk extract, location contacts will be provided with production and error reports via email. The officers should examine the reports and undertake any necessary action. |
Deceased Clients |
Clients who have a date of death recorded after the data extraction date of 15 September 2013 will be excluded from the card production run. Where there is a surviving partner, the data will be reconfigured and a card will be issued on the single carrier. |
2014 Daily Issues |
The procedures for issuing daily PCCs (for new grants and replacements) remain unchanged. The last batch extract for 2013 daily PCCs will be on Thursday night, 12 September 2013. New grant and replacement issues for 2013 will need to be printed by 6.00 pm on Friday, 13 September 2013. State offices can commence using the 2014 stock from Monday, 16 September 2013. |
2013 Voucher Issues (if applicable) |
Any new grants or transfer-ins between 16 September and 31 December 2013 will need to be manually issued with 2013 travel vouchers, if applicable. |
2014 Voucher Issues (if applicable) |
All cardholders are entitled to only one issue of travel vouchers for their residential state each calendar year except where a cardholder transfers to another state. New grants of income support pension must not be provided with concession vouchers if they have received a PCC with vouchers in the same calendar year. Voucher personalisation should be suppressed for all replacement or re-issued cards. The card will be personalised and issued on the carrier, however, the vouchers will remain attached to the carrier but will be voided with XXXX's. This includes clients who:
|
Travel Voucher Replacement |
DVA does not have the authority to issue replacement travel vouchers. |
Location Contacts |
The Location Contacts are as follows: |
Location |
Contact |
NSW / ACT |
John Eden / Sao Lou |
QLD |
Sharon Golden / Katie Sutton |
VIC |
Daniel Luba / Bernadette Fernando |
SA / NT |
Bee Measham / Marion Colliver |
WA |
Michelle Pauly / Margarete Mumme |
TAS |
Daimeon Horne / Guy Siberry |
Please advise the project co-coordinator if there are any changes to the contact officers listed above.
ProjectCoordinator |
The project coordinator for the bulk issue of the 2014 PCC is: Elis Lam Cards & Advices Income Support & Grants Phone:02 9213 7244 Email:elis.lam@dva.gov.au [11] |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
10 September 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 10 September 2013
September 2013 Global Refresh of Managed Investments and Shares, and Overseas Exchange Rates - Letter Production and Mailouts
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
This Departmental Instruction is to provide you with information about the processing arrangements for:
|
Introduction |
Each quarter the Department varies pensions and allowances [13] in accordance with provisions contained in the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 [14] (Statutory Increase or 'SI'). In March and September of each year, the movements in Cost of Living Index and the Global Refresh of Managed Investments (MIs) and Shares (SHs) data are usually combined as one quarterly reassessment process. This quarter the Department will be sending advice letters to pensioners on less than the maximum rate of service pension (SP), income support supplement (ISS) or age pension (AP) who have MIs and/or SHs recorded in their assessment and who are affected by the Global Refresh of MIs and/or SHs reassessment. Advice letters will also be sent to AP recipients who commence receiving Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA), or whose DFISA payment is cancelled following the processing run. AP recipients whose DFISA payment has increased or reduced will only receive an advice following the SI and Global Refresh processing if they have MIs and/or SHs in their assessment. This Departmental Instruction provides information about the advice letter production and mailout process, and provides information on significant issues relating to the mailout. |
Significant Issues |
Issues of significance with regard to this mailout are as follows:
|
Advice Letter Target Audience |
A letter will be produced for the following clients after the September 2013 Global Refresh of MIs and/or SHs processing:
|
||
Introductory Paragraphs |
All letters will have either a single outcome paragraph or a multiple outcome paragraph made up of dot points to advise the pension outcome. Examples are: Single Outcome Paragraph: This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased/reduced/reduced to nil. This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
Multiple Outcome Paragraphs: This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
|
||
Financial Assets Reassess-ment |
The asset value of MI and/or SH data will be reassessed as part of this process. Clients with MI and/or SHs will receive a paragraph advising them of the 'Change to Value of Shares and/or Managed Investments'. This paragraph advises clients about the reassessment program and explains that: 'The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in a variation to the amount of pension paid to you....'
OR
'has resulted in your pension being varied to nil....'
|
||
Managed Investments and/or Shares Information Attachment |
All less than maximum rate income support recipients with MIs and/or SHs will receive a full listing of all their MIs and/or SHs regardless of which MIs and/or SHs have been reassessed. Clients will not be issued with a full listing of their Income and Assets. |
||
Change to Pension due to Indexation Increases |
All letters will continue to have the paragraph advising that 'Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.' Information on indexation adjustments and pension increase will also be provided in the September edition of Vetaffairs, which is to be distributed from Tuesday, 8 October 2013. |
||
Obligations |
Full and Partial obligations are to be suppressed. Reference will be made to obligations issued to clients in previous letters. For SP and ISS recipients, reference will also be made to obligations provided in the 'You and Your Pension' Booklet. A Financial Obligations paragraph (including the Prescribed Rates), will be present in the advice for all clients, except for pensioners who are reduced to nil. AP clients who are reduced to nil, but eligible for payment of DFISA will receive their Financial Obligations paragraph including their prescribed rates. |
||
Right of Review |
A right of review paragraph will be included in all letters. |
||
No MI and SH Refresh for Bereavement Period cases |
Pensioners currently in a bereavement period will not have their MI and/or SH values refreshed in this SI run. The batch processing will only apply the statutory increase to their pension rates. A full MI/SH data refresh should be done as part of their post-bereavement review. |
||
Treatment Advices to be Checked |
The Enclosure (treatment) advice letters will be printed at the nominated printer at each location. These letters should be checked for accuracy, and reconciled against the reports received in each location to ensure they reflect the correct treatment paragraphs before they are mailed to the clients. It should be noted that not all clients who have an advice produced due to a treatment change will have MIs and/or SHs in their assessment. Clients who do not have MIs and/or SHs in the assessment will not have MIs and/or SHs related paragraphs in their advice. |
||
Tasmanian Overseas Clients' Advices |
Advice letters for Tasmanian Office clients with an overseas postal address will have their advices printed and posted directly from the Mailing House. |
||
No Advices for Blind Clients |
Blind clients will not receive an advice. Where a member of a couple is assessed as 'blind', a single advice will be produced for the non-blind member who may be affected by the processing. An exception to this rule is where a 'blind' client with MIs and/or SHs in their assessment is also in payment of RA, which is subject to the income and assets tests and as such, may result in a variation to their RA payment. Where there is a variation to the RA payment for these clients, an advice will be produced. |
||
General Information Sheet |
The General Information Sheet (GIS) will not be produced as part of each client's letter for the September processing. For information, the GIS will only be produced in the following circumstances:
Pensioners who reside overseas permanently will not be given the GIS to avoid confusion, because some components of the pension supplement (PS non-taxable and PS flexible) are not payable to overseas pensioners. |
||
Single & Joint Addressed Letters |
All SP and ISS recipient couples will receive a joint advice, provided the pensioner addresses are identical. The batch address defaults determining single and joint advices have been aligned with the PIPS PC daily advice defaults. Where both members of a couple have the same postal address recorded, a joint advice will be produced. This includes illness separated couples. A — P couples will receive separate letters. Important to note: Staff are reminded when granting A — P or when clients in a joint assessment request separate advices, this information can be recorded in mainframe PRODIMS - Client Correspondence Client Options (CO.CO) Screen. The advice default requests set in CO.CO will override DOCGEN and PIPS advice rules. |
||
SI Processing |
SI Processing will commence on Friday night, 13 September 2013, following the completion of the IPS FORT processing, and will run through until Sunday 15 September 2013. |
Critical Dates |
Processing within DVA (includes 'advices' processing) |
Friday (9 pm) 13 Sept 2013 – Sunday 15 Sept 2013 |
Transmission of Production Data to Mailing House |
Monday 16 Sept 2013 |
Mailing House to commence lodgement of Advice Letters with Australia Post |
Monday, 23 Sept 2013 |
Mailing House to complete lodgment of all Advice Letters by COB |
Tuesday, 24 Sept 2013 |
Expected Client Numbers |
The number of letters to be sent nationally is approximately 26,000 based on September 2012 mailout statistics (the last comparable exercise). For reference, the number of mailpacks generated for each location in the September 2012 mailout are listed below: |
STATE |
NUMBER OF ADVICE LETTERS |
NSW & ACT |
8,154 |
VIC |
6,094 |
QLD |
5,046 |
SA & NT |
3,487 |
WA |
2,472 |
TAS |
871 |
TAS OVERSEAS |
51 |
TOTAL |
26,175 |
Printing of Letters |
Computershare Communication Services located in Ermington NSW will print, fold, insert and lodge the advice letters. |
National Lodgement of Letters |
Letters will be lodged nationally with Australia Post on Monday 23 September and be completed by Tuesday 24 September 2013. A representative from the Cards and Advices Team will notify and confirm all lodgment details. The Income Support contact officers for this exercise will be given progress reports and advised of any changes to this timetable. |
Holding of daily advice letters |
Daily advice letters produced from Monday 1 — 6 September 2013 should be held pending notification that the September 2013 quarterly letters have been dispatched. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advice letters in chronological order. |
DFISA Advices from Centrelink Processing |
DVA will be suppressing all Centrelink daily DFISA variation advices with an effective date of 20 September 2013, which are transmitted to DVA following the Centrelink processing run. All other advices will print as part of the normal processing, including Centrelink DFISA cancellation and grant advices. |
Foreign Pension Refresh Program known as GROOVER |
The foreign pension refresh program referred to as 'GROOVER' (Global Refresh Of Overseas Exchange Rates) is a separate processing exercise to the September 2013 Global Refresh processing and is scheduled to run on the evening of Wednesday, 18 September 2013. The effective date of the Foreign Pensions Refresh Run is 20 September 2013 for payday 3 October 2013. Separate Foreign Income advices are produced for clients who have foreign income, and whose pensions have been varied because of the GROOVER run. A sample GROOVER advice can be found at Attachment B. About 550 GROOVER advices are expected. These advices will be printed at nominated printer of each location. A small number of streamed advices also will be printed at nominated printers at each location. These letters should be checked for accuracy, reconciled against the advice schedule reports, and held pending notification of the successful lodgement of the September quarterly advices. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advice letters in chronological order. Please note: the British Social Security Pension (type 08), British Official Public Service/Forces pension (type 09) and British Other Income (type 07) are not included in the GROOVER update. Instead they are regularly updated in British Pensions exchange rate variation exercises (commonly known as BRI runs) whenever the Pound Sterling exchange rate varies by 2.5% or more. |
Streamed Advices |
Several categories of advices are streamed out to print at location printers, as they require additional checking and manual actions. The following advice types are streamed:
They are to be printed at state office printers listed below: SA — VSSOPR06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — VVSOPR02 NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPR01 |
These advices, in particular treatment eligibility change advices, should be checked for accuracy, and reconciled against the reports received by each Office. Reduction to Nil advice letters also require inclusion of Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) claim forms, CSHC fact sheets and reply paid envelopes to the mailpacks. |
|
ZIP Files of Advice Schedule Reports |
A Zip File listing details of all clients who receive an advice will be emailed to the Contact Officers following the processing run. The Zip File replaces the Advices Schedule Report, which is too large to print on the printers in each office. |
Reprints of Advices Available using VIEW – Advices Tab |
Reprints of individual advice letters produced from the quarterly processing can be requested via VIEW – Advices Tab reprint facility. Quarterly advice reprints are available and can be requested from day one of the next quarter ie., March quarterly advices from 01/04/yyyy, June quarterly advices from 01/07/yyyy and September quarterly advices from 01/10/yyyy. |
'HELD' Advices to be Forced |
Prior to the SI Batch processing run, any advices in 'Held' status will be forced to print to each location nominated printer. Please ensure your designated printer is fully operational during the processing period. These advices will need to be checked to ensure the information in them is correct prior to posting. |
Income Support Contact Officers |
A contact person from each location is required to act as a liaison point for the Cards and Advices Team and is to be the responsible person for distributing any information regarding the September 2013 Global Refresh mailout to staff. The Income Support (IS) contacts for the September 2013 quarterly processing exercise are listed below: NSW:Genia Sacharczuk VIC:Greg Heitsch QLD:Stephen Hamill SA:Maria Nasilowski WA:Michelle Pauly / Margarete Mumme TAS:Daimeon Horne |
Cards & Advices Team Contact Details |
Any queries regarding this mailout should be referred to: Ganes Jagadeeswaran (02) 9213 7 — 310 or speed dial 27 — 310 |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support and Grants Branch
10 September 2013
Advice Samples |
Details of the proposed content of the SI letters are included in Attachment A.
Attachment B contains a sample of the GROOVER advice. |
Letter Variables |
Please note, in the enclosed examples:
|
1
ATTACHMENT A
EXAMPLE 1A:
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 1 — 33 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
123 456 789 044 — Facsimile: (07) 3223 8585
JOHN SMITH
MARY SMITH — 15 September 2013
29 MARGARET STREET
IPSWICH QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX999999
Dear Mr and Mrs SMITH,
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in a variation to the amount of pension paid to you. The value of other income and assets you may have has not been affected by this reassessment.
Please refer to the 'Shares and Managed Investments Information' Attachment included in this letter. This Attachment details all of your shares and/or managed investments regardless of whether there has been a change to that share or managed investment. It is important that you check that this list is a full and accurate statement of your shares and/or managed investments.
We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you have in your assessment, as they remain unchanged. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of pension you are paid.
Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.
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 is more than $XXXXXX.XX.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'. These obligations still apply.
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.
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 this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT
The Department calculates your payments on a daily basis. This means that your fortnightly payment is made up of 14 days of entitlement. Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight - your payment will be adjusted from that day. For that reason your payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.
Payment for 3 October 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENTxxx.xxxxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Payment for 17 October 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENTxxx.xxxxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Please Note: If you have an overpayment or lump sum advance which is currently being recovered by deductions from your fortnightly payment, the amount paid into your account may be less than the total fortnightly payment shown above.
SHARES AND MANAGED INVESTMENTS INFORMATION
(Information currently used to assess your pension)
You are receiving service pension at less than the maximum rate payable. (If the client goes from LMAX to MAX rate this sentence will read: You are receiving service pension at the maximum rate payable.)
You are currently paid under the income test. The total of your assessed gross fortnightly income is $x,xxx.xx. The total of all your assets (excluding any deductible assets) is $xxx,xxx.xx.
Information about your shares and managed investments is provided below.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or your unit based managed investments have been automatically updated.
The asset values of any unlisted public company shares, overseas shares, options, rights and futures or account based managed investments you hold have not been updated. You must tell us if the asset value of these investments has varied by $1,000 or more.
The information below sets out the values for the shares and/or managed investments in your current assessment.
Listed Securities and Unlisted Public Securities
Description |
No. of Shares |
Asset Amount |
XXXXXX |
X,XXX |
$XX,XXX.XX |
QQQQQQQQQQQQQ |
XXX |
$ X,XXX.XX |
Managed Investments
Description |
Units |
Asset Amount |
VVVVVVVVVV |
XX |
$XX.XX |
CCCCCCCCCCCCC |
XXX |
$XX.XX |
Note: Income from financial assets is deemed.
Important Information: We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you may have in your assessment, as they have not been changed in this assessment. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of service pension you are paid. If they have changed, please notify the Department immediately.
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance) if the above list of your Shares and/or Managed Investments is incomplete or incorrect; or if the number of shares or units you hold has changed. Please note that failure to advise of incorrect or missing information about your shares or managed investments, or about other income or asset changes, may lead to your pension being overpaid. Such overpayments are recoverable.
EXAMPLE 2A:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in a variation to the amount of pension paid to you. The value of other income and assets you may have has not been affected by this reassessment.
Please refer to the 'Shares and Managed Investments Information' Attachment included in this letter. This Attachment details all of your shares and/or managed investments regardless of whether there has been a change to that share or managed investment. It is important that you check that this list is a full and accurate statement of your shares and/or managed investments.
We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you have in your assessment, as they remain unchanged. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of pension you are paid.
Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas) if you gain or dispose of any assets, or the value of your total existing assets varies, or your gross income from all sources increases above $XXX.XX per fortnight.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters. These obligations still apply.
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.
If you do not agree with this decision, you can contact your nearest Veterans' Affairs office and discuss 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, you can only be paid an adjustment from the date we receive your application. Requests for review may be made in person, by telephone or in writing.
The rate of DFISA paid to you is derived from your age pension assessment. You may seek to have your age pension assessment reviewed if you are dissatisfied with your DFISA rate.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
EXAMPLE 3A:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in your pension being varied to nil. The value of other income and assets you may have has not been affected by this reassessment.
Please refer to the 'Shares and Managed Investments Information' Attachment included in this letter. This Attachment details all of your shares and/or managed investments regardless of whether there has been a change to that share and managed investment. It is important that you check that this list is a full and accurate statement of your shares and/or managed investments.
We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you have in your assessment, as they remain unchanged. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of pension you are paid.
Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.
Pensioner Concession Card
As your service pension is no longer payable, you no longer qualify for fringe benefits from this Department. Please destroy your existing Pensioner Concession Card as it is illegal for this card to be used after cancellation and use can be checked by electronic validation by some concession providers.
Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
As your income support pension has been cancelled, you may be eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) providing you are of pension age. If granted, you may be eligible for seniors supplement and Clean Energy Supplement. A CSHC claim form and a fact sheet are enclosed for your information. If you do not already have a CSHC from Centrelink and would like to claim a CSHC from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, please return your claim form in the envelope provided.
Seniors Supplement
As your income support pension has been cancelled, your gold card may entitle you to seniors supplement. Seniors supplement is paid quarterly in March, June, September and December. If you are eligible, you will be notified separately.
Your Right to Re-Apply
You may re-apply to have your service pension restored at any time if your income and/or assets fall below the limits that would allow for payment of the pension.
DVA Factsheet IS30 Pension Rates, Limits and Allowances Summary is regularly updated to reflect the latest pension rates and limits. To obtain a copy, please contact us or visit our web site at www.dva.gov.au [9].
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 regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ATTACHMENT B
EXAMPLE OF GROOVER ADVICE:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 20 September 2013.
The rate of exchange used to convert your Foreign Income to Australian Dollars for income support pension assessment purposes has been reviewed. The new rate of exchange is shown below.
If the Foreign Income per fortnight amount shown below is not the same as the gross amount (in foreign currency) you are currently receiving, you should notify the Department within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance). The Foreign Income per fortnight amount shown below may be incorrect if you have received an increase in your foreign payment, or the amount has been recorded incorrectly.
Foreign Income
Description |
Foreign Income per fortnight |
Exchange Rate |
Assessed Income per fortnight |
Euro |
xxx.xxx |
x.xxxx |
$xxx.xx |
Turkish Lira |
xxx.xxx |
x.xxxx |
$xxx.xx |
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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 is more than $XXXXXX.XX.
If you do not agree with this decision, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office. If you do decide to apply for a review, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision. A request for review must be in writing and set out your reasons for seeking this review.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DATE OF ISSUE: 23 August 2013
2014 Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
To provide information about the annual bulk issue of the 2014 Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (C — SHC). |
Background |
The CSHC was introduced on 1 July 1994. The card is re-issued annually and entitles the card holder to pharmaceuticals listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme at a concessional rate, the Medicare Safety Net threshold and concessional fares on the Great Southern Rail service. In addition, CSHC holders may be entitled to further state/territory concessions on presentation of their card to the relevant department or authority. CSHC holders also receive a quarterly payment of Seniors Supplement from DVA. |
Eligibility |
The CSHC is intended to assist eligible veterans and their partners (including widow/widowers, and war widow/widowers) of pension age who fail to qualify for income support due to assets or income in excess of the current limit. Eligibility is determined manually by state office staff. |
Eligibility for residents of Norfolk Island |
Residents of Norfolk Island are regarded as Australian residents for the purposes of determining eligibility for a CSHC. This is due to changes to VEA section 5Q which includes Norfolk Island in the definition of Australia, allowing access to various income support payments and benefits including the CSHC. Residents of Norfolk Island may therefore be issued with a CSHC if all of the eligibility criteria are met. |
CSHC Carrier |
The 2014 CSHC will be issued on a CSHC Carrier sheet which sets out information about the card and the cardholder's obligations. A copy of the CSHC Carrier is included at Attachment A [16]. |
CSHC Adjusted Taxable Income |
The CSHC income test is based on the annual adjusted taxable income. Annual adjusted taxable income is the total of:
|
CSHC Income Limit |
The CSHC income limit is as follows:
The above amounts are increased for each dependent child by $639.60. |
Valid |
The 2014 CSHC will be valid from the date of receipt until 30 September 2014. |
Numbers |
The number of cards and carriers to be produced for the bulk issue is estimated to be around 6,000. Below is a breakdown for each state based on last year's exercise: |
State |
Numbers |
NSW (including ACT and 2 in Norfolk Island) |
2,060 |
VIC |
1,397 |
QLD |
1,203 |
WA |
954 |
SA (including NT) |
598 |
TAS |
1 — 28 |
Total |
6,340 |
Dates |
The following dates apply to the 2014 annual bulk issue: |
Task |
Date |
Production data extract |
25 August 2013 |
Implement changes to daily template |
6:00 pm 23 August 2013 |
Produce reports for states |
26 August 2013 |
Mailing house commence printing, enveloping and lodgement of cards |
26 August 2013 |
Final lodgement date with Australia Post |
6 September 2013 |
Reports |
Summary and Non-Issued Reports for the Income Support Contacts will print on Monday, 26 August 2013 at the nominated printers as listed below. StatePrinter ID NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPR02 SA — VSSOPR06 TAS — VTSOPR03 VIC — VVSOPR02 WA — VWSOPR01 In addition, status reports regarding the progress of the printing, enveloping and lodgement of cards will be provided to the Income Support Contacts, the Client Contact Performance Team and DVA VANQISH as appropriate. |
Daily Template |
Changes to the daily template will be implemented on Friday, 23 August 2013 at 6pm Eastern Standard Time. From this date a 2014 CSHC will be issued for grants and re-issues. This card can be used immediately. |
Daily Stock |
As dates are not pre-printed on the CSHC stock and there is no change to the text on the back of the carrier, each location should continue to use existing stock supply. Unlike previous years, additional stock for daily use will be sent to the Income Support contacts in batches of one hundred as required, on request. This will assist to minimise waste, the inconvenience of storage and the cost of disposal of excess stock. Requests for replenishment of stock should be by e-mail to Advices Helpdesk – ACT mailbox. As the adhesiveness of the card on the carrier may deteriorate over time, it is recommended that the existing stock should be used up before using the new stock. |
Income Support Contacts |
The CSHC Income Support contacts are as follows: NSW/ACT — Sao Lou QLD — Sharon Golden VIC — Daniel Luba SA/NT — Bee Measham WA — Michelle Pauly TAS — Daimeon Horne Please advise the project co-ordinator of any changes to the contact officers as listed above. |
Project Coordinator |
The project coordinator for the bulk issue of the 2014 CSHC is: Elis Lam Cards & Advices Income Support & Grants Phone: (02) 9213 7244 E-mail: Elis.Lam@dva.gov.au [5] |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
August 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 19 August 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling – Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.5865 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.6375 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.6107) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 16 August 2013. |
Date of Effect20 August 2013 |
Effective from 20 August 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 5 September 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 20 August 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the Pounds Sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 20 August 2013 for payday 5 September 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily excha nge rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C — 22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The contracted mailing house will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 26 August 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 25 June 2013, are: New South Wales — 931 Queensland — 1 Victoria — 1 Western Australia — 737 South Australia — 81 Tasmania — 40 Tasmania Overseas — 221 Total82 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: SA — VSSOPR06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — VVSOPR03 NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPR01 |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Ruth Nicholls (ext 27406). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
19 August 2013
1
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
16 August 2013 |
0.6107 |
1.6375 |
|
21 June 2013 |
16 August 2013 |
0.6303 |
1.5865 |
24 May 2013 |
21 June 2013 |
0.6718 |
1.4885 |
5 March 2013 |
24 May 2013 |
0.6978 |
1.4331 |
22 January 2013 |
4 March 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
15 January 08 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
DATE OF ISSUE: 19 July 2013
Annual Property Valuation Exercise – 2012-2013 FY
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide advice and information on the annual valuation exercise and the process used in the 2012-13 FY, and to remind staff of the importance of correct recording of the Australian Valuation Office (AVO) Job Number and ID Number when receiving AVO valuations. |
Overview |
Historically, Income Support cases requiring a property valuation that were within the prescribed parameters were selected and forwarded to the AVO for valuation. DI C — 05/2012 [19] advised that the annual exercise was under review due to savings required in response to the additional efficiency dividend (ED) imposed. A number of changes resulted from this review including changes to the Aged Care valuation process and changes to the conduct of the AVO annual exercise. DVA and the AVO negotiated the criteria for the 2012-13 FY annual exercise resulting in a reduced number of cases undergoing a review and a different methodology being applied. |
Changes to the exercise |
The 2012-13 FY AVO annual exercise leveraged a trial of a new product developed by the AVO enabling DVA to undertake more assessments with the reduced funds available. The product – Valuer Assisted Desk Based Assessment (VADA) – is based on the premise that real estate reviews should be targeted on properties where the property market is more volatile and likely to produce a change in asset value. The VADA product is only relevant to non complex property types such as a house, townhouse, flats and vacant land. VADA is not a valuation. Rather it is being designed as a 'light touch' desk top assessment undertaken by a qualified valuer. The date of the AVO VADA for the 2012-13 FY annual exercise has been amended to 31 May 2013. This is the date that is to be used when actioning cases in the Pensioner Information Processing System (PIPS). The AVO was able to undertake some additional valuations to the initial exercise. The additional cases were not part of the VADA trial and were completed using standard valuation methods. |
Data extraction |
The data extraction provided to the AVO between November 2012 and June 2013 included updated listings. Additional valuations were undertaken in June 2013 that were not part of the VADA trial. |
Criteria for extracting cases |
A sample of Income Support pension recipients (SP, AP or ISS) were selected for a VADA who:
The additional cases criteria was amended to within $100,000 of the PAL. |
Cases excluded from exercise |
The following criteria excluded properties from the 2012-13 FY bulk run:
|
Number of cases extracted |
The following is a breakdown of the total number of cases for the 2012-13 FY annual exercise. Some cases will require a manual update or further investigation. 340 cases were scheduled for the 'auto' run on 8 July 2013. A number of cases could not be included in the run as the previous Job Number and ID number had not been data collected in PIPS. |
State |
Total |
NSW |
157 |
QLD |
119 |
SA |
25 |
TAS |
20 |
VIC |
126 |
WA |
74 |
Total |
521 |
Correct completion of AVO details |
A higher than anticipated number of valuation cases could not be included in the auto update process as some staff failed to correctly record the AVO Job Number and ID Number. The result is manual action on more cases than necessary is required. It is important that, in future, staff follow the correct procedure to minimize manual cases. |
Manual cases |
The Assistant Director Reviews, Income Support & Grants Branch, will oversee the manual cases for the 2012-13 FY exercise. Income Support Adelaide will action the following cases:
Income Support Adelaide will be responsible for the remaining manual cases arising from the annual exercise and cases where the property has been sold or has been incorrectly recorded. |
3 month grace period |
There is a maximum 3 month grace period commencing from the date of the new pension rate determination for those income tested pensioners affected by property reviews. The grace period enables pensioners to rearrange their circumstances, should they choose, before the pension is varied due to the property valuation. For the 2012-2013 FY property valuation exercise 57 cases have been identified as income tested and may be affected by the 3 month grace period. Where the pensioner qualifies for the 3 month grace period the determination to reduce pension will need to be made and the pensioner notified accordingly. |
AVO conduct valuations |
The AVO conducted the property valuations in the period from April 2013 to June 2013. The AVO returned the updated valuation information to DVA on 6 June 2013 for the VADA annual exercise cases and on 3 July 2013 for the additional cases. |
Updating property value and pension |
A run was scheduled on 8 July 2013 to automatically upload and reassess the client's record by the AVO Batch Reassessment program for continuation cases and asset tested reductions. |
Date of valuation to be used in PIPS |
The date of valuation to be used is 31 May 2013 when updating cases in PIPS for this exercise. This is the date used by the AVO to value the properties. Even though the additional cases were valued in June the date of valuation to be recorded is to be 31 May 2013. This will enable easier reference for any future bulk exercises. |
Date of effect – reduction of property value |
The date of effect where the value of the property has reduced is the date the new valuation data was returned from the AVO. There are 2 dates that may be applicable i.e. 6 June or 3 July 2013. |
Date of effect – increase of property value |
For cases where the value of the property has either increased or remained unchanged, the date of effect is to be 9 July 2013, being day 1 of the first full pension period after 1 July which is the usual effective date of the annual indexation of the Ordinary Income Free Area, Asset Value Limit and Adjusted Income Free Area. |
List of extracted cases |
A spreadsheet containing the lists of cases identified for the annual exercise is available from Scott Sandercock, the Team Leader Reviews in Adelaide, on 08 8290 0405 if required. The manual cases will be loaded into DRS. |
Client querying property valuation |
Should a client query the property value assessed by an AVO VADA a request to the AVO for a property valuation through the usual channel should be conducted as the next step prior to a Section 57 request. Please advise the Team Leader Reviews in Adelaide should this occur. |
Duplicate requests |
To avoid submitting duplicate valuation requests to the AVO, staff are encouraged to check the spreadsheet in TRIM or DRS. |
Future Property valuation exercises |
Future annual exercises are under review and an evaluation will be undertaken on this years exercise. DVA and AVO have regular meetings and this will continue to be a standard agenda item. Valuations should continue to be requested from the AVO for clients who are asset tested or within $10,000 of their PAL and there has not been an AVO valuation in the last 12 months. |
Contact Officers |
The annual exercise is managed by Barbara Wozniak A/D QA, Governance & IDU and Rob Manton A/D Reviews Income Support. They can be contacted on 08 8290 0395 and 08 8290 0219 respectively. |
Grant McCorry
A/g Assistant Secretary
Income Support and Grants Branch
19 July 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 8 July 2013
July 2013 – Reassessment of ComSuper and Victoria State Based Superannuation Pensions
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the advice production from the July 2013 ComSuper and Victoria state based superannuation 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 cost of living increase to be applied to the ComSuper pensions in July 2013 is 0.6%. The July 2013 ComSuper reassessment run will also include an update to Victoria state based superannuation schemes (Vic Health Super, Vic ESSSuper and Vic VISION Super). The increase to be applied to the Victoria state based superannuation pensions in July 2013 is 1.59%. |
Processing date |
Reassessment processing to reflect the July 2013 CPI increases is scheduled to run overnight on Tuesday, 9 July 2013. 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 9 July 2013. On pension payday 25 July 2013, 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, Vic Health Super, ESSSuper and VISION Super, whose pension rate is varied by the reassessment run. There will be approximately 20,500 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:
|
Printing and mailing of advice letters |
With some exceptions explained below, the 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, 19 July 2013. |
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, 19 July 2013. The 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 |
Any 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.
|
'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: SA — VSSOPRO06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — VVSOPR02 NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPRO1 |
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 2013 ComSuper processing exercise are as follows: NSW:Genia Sacharczuk VIC:Greg Heitsch QLD:Stephen Hamill SA:Maria Nasilowski WA:Michelle Pauly TAS:Daimeon Horne |
Contacts |
For Advice issues – Ruth Nicholls (02) 9213 7406. For Systems issues – Kevin Chapman (02) 6289 6749. |
Grant McCorry
Ag Assistant Secretary
Income Support and Grants Branch
8 July 2013
ATTACHMENT A
COMSUPER ADVICES FOR CLIENT WITH A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT'
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
123 456 789 044 — Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
JOHN SMITH
MARY SMITH — 9 July 2013
123 SAMPLE STREET
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
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 9 July 2013.
Name |
Description |
Gross Income |
Deductible Amount (tax free component) |
Assessed Income |
JOHN SMITH |
ComSuper (CSS & PSS) |
$585.95 |
$135.50 |
$450.45 |
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,xxx.xx.
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 this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT
The Department calculates your payments on a daily basis. This means that your fortnightly payment is made up of 14 days of entitlement. Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight - your payment will be adjusted from that day. For that reason your payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.
Payment for 25 JULY 2013Veteran Partner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENTxxx.xx xxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xx xxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.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.
CLIENT DOES NOT HAVE A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT' - BOTH VET AND SPOUSE HAVE INCOME FROM SUPER
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
123 456 789 044 — Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
JOHN SMITH
MARY SMITH — 9 July 2013
123 SAMPLE STREET
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
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 9 July 2013.
Name |
Description |
Assessed Income |
JOHN SMITH |
ComSuper (DFRDB & MSBS) |
$450.95 |
MARY SMITH |
ComSuper (CSS & PSS) |
$265.00 |
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,xxx.xx.
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 this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
ATTACHMENT
CLIENT HAS INCOME FROM SUPER WITH A 'DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT' AND WITHOUT A DEDUCTIBLE AMOUNT
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
123 456 789 044 — Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
JOHN SMITH
123 SAMPLE STREET — 9 July 2013
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX123456
Dear Mr SMITH,
This is to advise that your T-PENSION-SP-ISS-AP has been reduced. This change will take effect from 9 July 2013.
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 |
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,xxx.xx.
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 this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
ATTACHMENT
DATE OF ISSUE: 25 June 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling – Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4885 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.5865 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.6303) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 21 June 2013.
|
Date of Effect25 June 2013 |
Effective from 25 June 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 11 July 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 25 June 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the pounds sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 25 June 2013 for payday 11 July 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The contracted mailing house will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 5 July 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 28 May 2013, are: New South Wales — 931 Queensland — 671 Victoria — 801 Western Australia — 737 South Australia — 881 Tasmania — 136 Tasmania Overseas — 225 Total4382 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: SA — VSSOPRO06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — V005P NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPRO1 |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Ruth Nicholls (ext 27406). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
25 June 2013
1
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
21 June 2013 |
0.6303 |
1.5865 |
|
24 May 2013 |
21 June 2013 |
0.6718 |
1.4885 |
5 March 2013 |
24 May 2013 |
0.6978 |
1.4331 |
22 January 2013 |
4 March 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
15 January 08 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
2 August 05 |
29 August 05 |
0.4398 |
2.2738 |
DATE OF ISSUE: 12 June 2013
June 2013 Statutory Increase processing - production and mailout of advice letters with payment summaries, standalone payment summaries (issued without a covering letter), and Medicare levy exemption certificates
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
This Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the processing arrangements for the June 2013 Statutory Increase (SI) processing of advice letters with payment summaries, Standalone Payment Summaries (issued without a covering letter), and Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate production and mailout. |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
12 June 2013
Introduction |
In June each year the Department undertakes a bulk exercise to issue all pensioner households with advice letters to persons in receipt of service pension, age pension including those in payment of Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA) only, or income support supplement. The majority of these letters will include Payment Summaries for the end of the financial year. Standalone Payment Summaries (issued without a covering letter) and Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates will also be issued at this time. The estimated number of mailpacks is given at Attachment A. |
Major features of SI |
Issues of significance with regard to this mailout are as follows:
|
Processing Weekend –14/06/2013 – 16/06/2013 |
Processing is scheduled to run from Friday evening, 14 June 2013 to Sunday, 16 June 2013. Any pension variations resulting from this exercise will be effective from 1 July 2013 for payday 11 July 2013. |
Processing period within DVA – (includes 'advices' processing) |
Friday (pm) 14 June 2013 – Sunday (pm) 16 June 2013 |
Commencement of mailout production for advice letters with payment summaries, SAPS and MLECs |
Wednesday, 19 June 2013 |
Progressive lodgment of all Advice Letters, SAPS and MLECs with Australia Post |
Commencing from Thursday, 27 June 2013 and completed by COB Wednesday, 3 July 2013 |
Letter Production |
Computershare, located in Ermington, New South Wales, will print the advice letters, SAPS and MLECs, insert the ATO flyers where applicable, envelope and lodge all mail with Australia Post. |
Lodgment of Letters |
Letters will be progressively lodged with Australia Post commencing Thursday, 27 June 2013. All letters are to be posted by COB Wednesday, 3 July 2013. |
Letters and Attachments |
Copies of the expected advice letter content for this run are reproduced at Attachment B and a sample of the Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate is reproduced at Attachment C. |
Single and Joint Advices |
All service pensioners and income support supplement recipient couples will receive a joint advice, provided both members of a couple, including the illness separated, have the same IMS postal address recorded. Age pensioners receive single advice letters unless otherwise requested. Important to note: Staff are reminded that if a client in a joint assessment requests separate or single advices, they need to update this information using the mainframe PRODIMS – Client Correspondence (CO.CO) Screen prior to the processing run to initiate the client request. Advice default requests in CO.CO will override the DOCGEN advice rules. |
Full Obligations & Full Income and Assets List |
Full Obligations will be issued to SP/ISS/AP recipients receiving the maximum rate of pension. This is in line with the Repatriation Commission policy that:
Full Obligations and Full Income and Assets will not be issued to pensioners receiving pension at less than the maximum rate. This is in line with the Repatriation Commission policy that:
|
Financial Obligations including Prescribed Rates |
The Financial Obligations paragraph (which includes prescribed rates information) will be present in the advices for all SP/ISS/AP pensioners, except service pensioners and income support supplement recipients who are reduced to nil. Age pensioners who are reduced to nil but eligible for payment of DFISA will receive the Financial Obligations paragraph including the prescribed rates. |
Payment Information Attachment |
SP/ISS/AP pensioners who remain on maximum rate following the processing will not have a Payment Information Attachment printed as part of their advice as they are considered to be continuation cases. SP/ISS/AP pensioners whose pension rates have varied following the processing will receive a Payment Information Attachment. |
Tasmanian Office Clients with Overseas Postal Address |
Advice letters for Tasmanian Office clients with an overseas postal address will have their advices printed and posted directly from the Mailing House. |
Non Taxable Pensioners |
Those pensioners whose pensions are not taxable (eg. those in payment of invalidity service pension and who are under 65 years of age for male clients, 64.5 years for female clients) will receive an advice letter with a payment summary. As the number of Medicare Levy exemption days will be recorded on the payment summary, a separate MLEC will no longer be required. |
PAYG Payment Summary |
Payment summaries will be issued to all clients who received a payment from DVA during the 2012/2013 financial year. Clients will be sent a payment summary listing both taxable and tax exempt (i.e. non-taxable) payments. The tax exempt payment information will be broken into the following categories:
Payment summaries will form part of the advice letter for all income support payment recipients. Where a payment summary is sent without a covering letter, it is referred to as a Standalone Payment Summary (SAPS). Payment summaries will not be sent to clients who are under 16 years of age on 30 June 2013, and did not receive a taxable payment in the financial year 2012/2013. A sample of the payment summary can be found at Attachment C.
|
General Information Sheet (GIS) |
Each advice letter, except those for overseas pensioners, will have a General Information Sheet (GIS). The GIS provides details of payment rates, income and asset thresholds, deeming rates and thresholds, treatment thresholds, rent assistance rates and other payment information. There will be a separate GIS for clients assessed under the transitional rules and for those assessed under the non-transitional rules because different rates and thresholds apply. Some components of the pension supplement (pension supplement non-taxable and pension supplement flexible) are not payable to overseas pensioners. Therefore, the information provided on the GIS is not applicable to them. For this reason, overseas pensioners will not be issued with the GIS to avoid confusion. |
ATO insert – Do you need to lodge a tax return?' |
A 'pensioner flyer' produced by the ATO titled “Do you need to lodge a tax return?” will only be included in the advice letters produced for those in payment of less than the maximum rate of income support pension, those being issued a MLEC or a SAPS. The flyer will not be sent to those clients being paid at the maximum rate of income support pension. Each location will be supplied with a quantity of the flyers to insert with their Enclosures (treatment changes) or Reduction to Nil advice letters which will print at each location's nominated printer. |
Pensioners to Contact ATO with Taxation Questions |
It is important for DVA staff to note that pensioners have been advised in their letters to contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61 if they have any questions about taxation. Should pensioners ring DVA offices with questions relating to taxation matters, staff should refer them to the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61. IMPORTANT NOTE: DVA staff must not offer advice about taxation liability or the need to lodge a tax return. |
Information on Tax Thresholds in VIEW |
The 'Senior Australians Tax Offset' and 'Pensioner Tax Offset' amounts are displayed in the 'Tax Thresholds Amounts' folder in the 'Fin Year Certificate' tab in VIEW. The 2012/2013 threshold amounts will be available in VIEW from 1 July 2013. Additional information about these thresholds is provided via VIEW Online Help. |
SAPS – sent without a covering letter |
SAPS will be produced for the following categories:
|
SAPS – posted directly to clients from the Mailing House |
All SAPS, with the exception for overseas addressees listed above, are to be printed and enveloped at the mailing house, and lodged with Australia Post directly from the mailing house. In June 2012, DVA issued 80,880 SAPS. It is estimated that a similar number of SAPS will be issued in 2013 based on this statistic. |
SAPS - Overseas Addressees |
SAPS for clients who reside overseas and who are no longer in payment will not be printed at the mailing house. A zip file of each SAPS category will be emailed to each location contact officer. It lists the clients who reside overseas who are to receive a SAPS. Staff should request a re-print for those overseas clients listed on the report and send their SAPS directly to them. |
SAPS - Unknown Addressees |
Where a client has an 'unknown address' recorded, a SAPS will not be produced. A listing of clients with an 'unknown address' will be provided to each location contact officer. |
SAPS - For Deceased Clients |
SAPS for clients who have died during the financial year will not be printed at the mailing house. Staff will be able to request a re-print of a deceased client's payment summary when required from 1 July 2013. |
SAPS Reports |
A SAPS report is generated for each of the following categories: MRCA Education Allowance; Education Allowance; Other; Group Destination; Overseas; Unknown Address; and Deceased. A report file for each category will be emailed in a zip file to the contact officer in each location. |
Return Address if not Delivered |
All SAPS sent from the mailing house will be enveloped in a single window-faced envelope with a return address of GPO Box 9998 in your Capital City. |
Payment Summary Reprint Facility - VIEW Advices Tab |
From 1 July 201 — 3, payment summaries for the 2012-2013 financial year may be re-generated using the 'Payment Summary Reprint' facility located under the Advices Tab in VIEW. |
Payment Summary Template |
The June SI Income Support contact officers will be provided with a 2012-201 — 3 Payment Summary Template. |
Medicare Levy Exemption Certificates(MLEC) |
A MLEC will be issued to those Gold Card beneficiaries who are not in receipt of an income support payment and who do not receive an advice letter, that is:
The number of Medicare Levy exemption days, where applicable, will be stated on the payment summary for all other pensioners. A sample of the Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate to be issued in 2013 can be found at Attachment C. |
Medicare levy exemption – For Blind Pensioners |
Blind pensioners in receipt of an income support payment are eligible for full or half Medicare Levy exemption. The number of eligible exemption days will be printed on their Payment Summaries. |
Zip File of MLEC Reports |
A report of all clients who receive a MLEC will be produced and emailed in a zip file to the nominated contact officer. A MLEC will not be produced where a client has an 'unknown address' recorded. However, a report will be produced and emailed in a zip file to all contact officers, listing those clients who are eligible to receive a MLEC but have an unknown address recorded. |
MLEC Template |
The June SI location contact officers will be provided with a MLEC Word template for manual re-issuing of MLECs if required. |
ZIP Files of Advice Schedule Reports |
A Zip File listing details of all clients who receive an advice will be emailed to the nominated contact officer in each location during the week following the processing run. The Zip File replaces the Advices Schedule Report, which is too large to print on printers. |
Enclosure (Treatment change) Advice Letters |
Following the June SI processing, the Enclosure (treatment change) letters will be printed at the nominated printer at each location. It is requested that the streamed advice letters 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 System Support Officers to ensure correct information is provided in the manual replacement advice. |
Reduction to Nil Letters |
Following the June SI processing, any Reduction to Nil advice letters will be printed at the nominated printer at each location. Staff are required to include a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) claim form, a CSHC fact sheet and a reply paid envelope. |
'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 print at the nominated printer in each respective location as part of the production run. All forced advices will need to be checked to ensure the content of the advices is correct prior to posting to clients. |
Handling of Daily Advices |
Cases processed prior to the SI run should have the daily advice dispatched prior to the June advice letter being sent. Daily advices processed after the cutoff date of 1 — 4 June 2013 should be held by staff in each location until confirmation is received from the June SI Business Co-ordinator to release such advices. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advices in chronological order. |
Reprints of June SI Advices via VIEW Advices Tab |
Reprints of individual advice letters produced from the quarterly processing can be requested via VIEW – Advices Tab reprint facility. Quarterly advice reprints are available and can be requested from day one of the next quarter ie. March quarterly advices from 01/04/yyyy, June quarterly advices from 01/07/yyyy and September quarterly advices from 01/10/yyyy. |
Staff Requests for Reprints of Daily Advices – Pre-SI Processing |
The 'Reprint' scheduled jobs which produce the requested reprints of daily advices by staff are postponed as part of the SI processing. Any requests for an advice reprint on the day of the commencement of the SI processing will not be actioned until after the SI run when the next 'Reprint' job is submitted. 'Unprinted' advice reprint requests will then print when the next 'Reprint' job is submitted. |
DVA – Income Support Contact Officers |
A contact person from each location acts as a liaison point for the Advices Team, and to assist with handling of streamed advices printed at each of the nominated location's printers. The Income Support (IS) Contacts for the June 2013 quarterly processing exercise are as follows: |
NSW VIC QLD SA WA TAS |
- Genia Sacharczuk - Greg Heitsch - Stephen Hamill - Maria Nasilowski - Michelle Pauly - Daimeon Horne |
Feedback from Staff |
Any concerns regarding letters produced as part of this run should be directed to the Advices Help Desk – ACT mailbox. Please ensure that any problems are reported without delay. |
Contact Details |
Any queries regarding advice wording, mail house printing and letter lodgement should be directed to the Advices Help Desk – ACT mailbox. |
ATTACHMENT A
HOUSEHOLDS TO RECEIVE ADVICE LETTERS WITH PAYMENT SUMMARIES OR STANDALONE PAYMENT SUMMARIES OR MEDICARE LEVY EXEMPTION CERTIFICATES
ESTIMATE — S BASED ON 2012 STATISTICS
STATE |
JOB 1 - Less than Maximum Rate |
JOB 2 - Maximum rate |
JOB 3 - Overseas |
Total no of advice letters (Job 1+2+3) |
JOB 4 - Standalone Payment Summary |
JOB 5 - Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate |
NSW |
16813 |
41733 |
- |
58546 |
26604 |
526 |
VIC |
12136 |
27707 |
- |
39843 |
16213 |
367 |
QLD |
11766 |
23464 |
- |
35230 |
22594 |
219 |
SA |
8149 |
17248 |
- |
25397 |
5954 |
100 |
WA |
6037 |
10806 |
- |
16843 |
7573 |
100 |
TAS |
2004 |
4324 |
700 |
7028 |
1942 |
43 |
TOTAL |
56905 |
125282 |
700 |
182887 |
80880 |
1399 |
Please note:
ATTACHMENT B
JUNE 2013 SI PARAGRAPH CONTENT
Example 1:
GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-capital city callers: 1800 555 254
Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
17 June 2013
044 123 456 789
MR JOHN SMITH
MRS MARY SMITH
123 SAMPLE STREET
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX000000
Dear Mr and Mrs SMITH,
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 1 July 2013.
Payment Information
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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:
For details on these changes, please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.
Issue of 2012/2013 Financial Year Payment Summaries
As it is the end of the 2012/2013 financial year, Payment Summaries are being issued. You will need this information if you are required to lodge a tax return.
Payment Summary for JOHN SMITH is enclosed with this letter.
Payment Summary for MARY SMITH is enclosed with this letter.
If you are unsure as to whether you are required to lodge a tax return or if you have any questions about taxation matters you should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61.
Department of Veterans' Affairs staff are unable to assist with taxation enquiries.
Medicare Levy Exemption
If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for a full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare levy for that period. The number of days you are eligible for a full or half Medicare levy exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.
Financial Obligations
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance) if you gain or dispose of any assets, or the value of your combined existing assets varies, or your combined gross income from all sources increases above $XXX.XX per fortnight.
Other Obligations
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'. These obligations still apply.
If you have told us recently about a change to your income and assets or your domestic situation, it may not have been processed before this letter was sent. If this is the case, we will send you another letter providing details of your new pension assessment when that change has been finalised. This normally takes no more than 4 weeks.
If you do not agree with this variation to your pension, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office. If you do decide to apply, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision. Such a request for review must be in writing, and must set out your reasons for seeking this review.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
ATTACHMENTS
PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT
The Department calculates pension payments on a daily basis. This means that your fortnightly pension payment is made up of 14 days of entitlement of pension. Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight, your pension will be adjusted from that day. For that reason your pension payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.
Payment for 11 JULY 2013 VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENT$xxx.xx$xxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxx.xx xxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Payment for 25 JULY 2013 VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENT$xxx.xx$xxx.xx
This is made up of:
- xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxx.xx xxx.xx
- xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx x.xx x.xx
Please Note: If you have an overpayment or lump sum advance which is currently being recovered (by deductions from your fortnightly pension), the amount paid into your account may be less than the total fortnightly payment shown above.
Example of the General Information Sheet (GIS) for Service Pensioners (non-transitional). There are separate GIS for transitional, income support supplement and age pension recipients. |
GENERAL INFORMATION ON SERVICE PENSION RATES AND LIMITS
(Information current as at 1 July 2013)
MAXIMUM RATES OF SERVICE PENSION (including supplements)
Singles Rate$XXX.XX (per fortnight)
Couples Rate (each)$XXX.XX (per fortnight)
PENSION INCOME LIMIT (per fortnight) Income Free Area Cut Off
Singles Limit $XXX.XX$X,XXX.XX
Couples Limit (combined) $XXX.XX$X,XXX.XX
INCOME TEST : Pension rate is reduced by 50 cents for each dollar of income above the income free area.
PENSION ASSETS LIMIT Assets Free Area Cut Off
Home Owner
Singles Limit $XXX,XXX $XXX,XXX
Couples Limit (combined) $XXX,XXX$X,XXX,XXX
Non Home Owner
Singles Limit $XXX,XXX $XXX,XXX
Couples Limit (combined) $XXX,XXX$X,XXX,XXX
ASSETS TEST : Pension rate is reduced by 37.5 cents for every $250 of assets above the assets free area.
NOTE:
GOLD CARD INFORMATION
The Gold Card income and assets limits shown in the next section do not apply if:
The Gold Card income and assets limits shown in the next section apply if:
GOLD CARD INCOME CUT OFF LIMITS
Singles Limit $XXX.XX (per fortnight)
Couples Limit (combined) $XXX.XX (per fortnight)
GOLD CARD ASSETS CUT OFF LIMITS
Home OwnerNon Home Owner
Singles Limit$XXX,XXX$XXX,XXX
Couples Limit (combined)$XXX,XXX$XXX,XXX
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:
SinglesLow Rate:- 2.5% interest up to the threshold of $46,600
High Rate:- 4% interest for the remaining balance
CouplesLow Rate:- 2.5% interest up to the threshold of $77,400
High Rate:- 4% interest for the remaining balance
ILLNESS SEPARATED COUPLES
Couples separated due to ill health are paid the single rate of service pension but have their income and assets assessed as a couple.
RENT ASSISTANCE
You may be eligible for rent assistance if you pay rent to a non-government body or landlord. Rent assistance is not payable if you reside in a government funded (approved) nursing home, or in government funded housing.
The amount of rent assistance you received depends on the amount of rent you pay and your family circumstances. Rent assistance is paid at the rate of 75 cents in the dollar for every dollar you pay over the set rent limits.
Maximum Amount of Rent Assistance Payable (per fortnight)
No children1-2 children3 or more children
Singles Rate$XXX.XX$XXX.XX$XXX.XX
Couples Rate(combined)$XXX.XX$XXX.XX$XXX.XX
Rent Limit (per fortnight)
No children1-2 children3 or more children
Singles Limit$XXX.XX$XXX.XX$XXX.XX
Couples Limit (combined)$XXX.XX$XXX.XX$XXX.XX
GIFTING
A gift is an asset which is given away or disposed of without receiving the market value of that gift in return. A gift may be either a cash amount or non cash assets such as a car or other property.
You must notify us if you give away a total of $10,000 or more in a tax year or $30,000 over a rolling five-year period.
The amount above either limit will continue to be counted as if it were still your asset for a period of 5 years and may therefore continue to affect your pension. We will also deem income on the value of any gift above either limit for 5 years.
Example 2:
GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-capital city callers: 1800 555 254
Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
17 June 2013
045 123 456 789
MR ROBERT MURDOCH
223 SAMPLE STREET
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX000000
Dear Mr MURDOCH,
This is to advise you that your:
This change will take affect from 1 July 2013.
Payment Information
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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:
For details on these changes, please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.
Issue of 2012/2013 Financial Year Payment Summaries
As it is the end of the 2012/2013 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 MURDOCH is enclosed with this letter.
If you are unsure as to whether you are required to lodge a tax return or if you have any questions about taxation matters you should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61.
Department of Veterans' Affairs' staff are unable to assist with taxation enquiries.
Medicare Levy Exemption
If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for a full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare levy for that period. The number of days you are eligible for a full or half Medicare levy exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.
If you were previously being paid by Centrelink, they will issue a Payment Summary to you separately.
Financial Obligations
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas) if your total gross income from all sources is more than $XXX.XX per fortnight or the value of your total assets is more than $XXX,XXX.XX.
Other Obligations
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters. These obligations still apply.
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.
If you do not agree with this decision, you can contact your nearest Veterans' Affairs office and discuss 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, you can only be paid an adjustment from the date we receive your application. Requests for review may be made in person, by telephone or in writing.
The rate of DFISA paid to you is derived from your age pension assessment. You may seek to have your age pension assessment reviewed if you are dissatisfied with your DFISA rate.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner as Delegate of the Secretary
ATTACHMENTS
Example 3:
GPO Box 9998 Brisbane QLD 4001 |
|
Telephone:
Capital city callers: 133 254
Non-Capital city callers: 1800 555 254
Facsimile: (07) 3223 8479
17 June 2013
046 123 456 789
MR BILL BROWN
323 SAMPLE STREET
MODELTOWN QLD 4010
YOUR FILE NUMBER IS QX000000
Dear Mr BROWN,
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:
For details on these changes please refer to the General Information Sheet which is attached to this letter.
Issue of 2012/2013 Financial Year Payment Summaries
As it is the end of the 2012/2013 financial year, Payment Summaries are being issued. You will need this information if you are required to lodge a tax return.
Payment Summary for BILL BROWN is enclosed with this letter.
If you are unsure as to whether you are required to lodge a tax return or if you have any questions about taxation matters you should contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61.
Department of Veterans' Affairs' staff are unable to assist with taxation enquiries.
Medicare Levy Exemption
If you have been eligible for full treatment at departmental expense during the past financial year, you are eligible for a full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare levy for that period. The number of days you are eligible for a full or half Medicare levy exemption is shown on your Payment Summary.
Events You Must Tell Us About
Details of your obligations to notify us of changes to your circumstances are included in the attachment 'Statement of Obligations – Important Information You Should Retain'.
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.
If you have any questions regarding this letter please contact the Department on the telephone number shown at the top of this letter. If you prefer to communicate with us by mail, e-mail or in person, please view our website at www.dva.gov.au [9] for contact details.
Yours sincerely,
ALISON STANLEY
Deputy Commissioner
as Delegate of the Secretary and Repatriation Commission
ATTACHMENTS
ATTACHMENT C
GPO Box 9998 in your Capital City
XXXX SMITH
XXXXXXXX STREET
SUBURB STATE POSTCODE
PAYG PAYMENT SUMMARY
INDIVIDUAL NON BUSINESS
Payment Summary for the year ending 30 June 2013
Payee Details
XXXX SMITH
XXXXXXX STREET
SUBURB STATE POSTCODE
DVA file number |
QX000000 |
Payee's tax file number |
444 444 444 |
Total tax withheld |
$XXX.XX |
Gross taxable payments |
$XXXX.XX |
Total tax exempt payments |
$XXXXX.XX |
- Tax-free pensions and benefits |
$XXXX.XX |
- Other tax exempt payments |
$XXXX.XX
|
Medicare levy full or half exemption days |
XXX |
Remote area allowance |
$XXX.XX |
Payer Details
Payer's ABN or withholding number: 2396 4290 824
Payer's name: Department of Veterans' Affairs
Signature of authorised person: ALISON STANLEY
Date: 17/06/13
See notes on reverse.
Notes:
Total tax withheld: The amount Veterans' Affairs has deducted from your payments for tax. If you have an amount in total tax withheld, you should lodge a tax return to ensure that you receive any refund of withheld tax you may be entitled to. If no tax was withheld, you may still have to lodge a tax return.
Gross taxable payments: The amount you should include as income under 'Australian Government pensions and allowances' in the Income section if you are completing a tax return.
Total tax exempt payments: The total of the tax exempt payments you were paid for the tax year, including Tax-free pensions and benefits and Other tax exempt payments.
Tax-free pensions and benefits: Tax exempt payments that you should include on your tax return under 'Tax-free Government Pensions or Benefits'. This amount may also need to be declared on your spouse's tax return as 'spouse's tax exempt pension income'.
Other tax exempt payments: Tax exempt payments that you do not need to show on your tax return.
Medicare levy exemption: A holder of a Veterans' Affairs Gold Card for medical treatment is eligible for a full or half exemption from paying the Medicare Levy. If you are eligible for an exemption, your number of Medicare Levy exemption days is shown on this payment summary. The number of days shown should be included in the Medicare levy section of your tax return.
Remote area allowance: You will need to include your Remote area allowance separately on your tax return if you are claiming a zone tax offset.
Further assistance: If you have any taxation enquiries, including whether you need to lodge a tax return or whether you qualify for a full or half Medicare Levy exemption, read the Individual tax return instructions for the relevant financial year, call the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61 between 8.00 am and 6.00 pm Monday to Friday, or visit www.ato.gov.au [23]. Enquiries about your payments should be directed to the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
The Australian Taxation Office checks information shown in tax returns
against information provided by the Department of Veterans'Affairs.
ATTACHMENT D
SAMPLE OF MEDICARE LEVY EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE
GPO Box 9998
In Your Capital City
Client name
Client address
Client address
Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate
Dear Beneficiary
This is your Medicare Levy Exemption Certificate showing the number of days you were eligible for full or half exemption from payment of the Medicare Levy. This exemption applies because you were eligible for full treatment at the expense of the Department of Veterans' Affairs during those days.
Your File Number is: XXXXXXXX
The number of days you are eligible for a full or half Medicare Levy Exemption during 2012/2013 is: XXX
Please note: If you lodge an income tax return YOU DO NOT NEED TO ATTACH this Certificate to your tax return. However, you should retain this Certificate for your records.
If you need to lodge a tax return, the number of days you were eligible for full or half exemption will need to be stated against the relevant question on your tax return.
If you have any enquiries about the number of days, please contact your nearest DVA office.
If you have any enquiries about whether you are fully or half exempt from the payment of Medicare levy, read TaxPack 2013 or Short tax return instructions 2013 or contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 61.
Yours faithfully
Deputy Commissioner
DATE OF ISSUE: 11 June 2013
Determining claims where a “Ceased Effects” determination was made prior to 2004
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide policy guidance on determining claims relating to an injury or disease for which a “ceased effects” decision was issued under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRCA) prior to 2004. |
Background |
The concept of “ceased effects” determinations under the SRCA originated prior to 2004. “Ceased effects” determinations were routinely issued when medical evidence established that the impairment or incapacity effects of an accepted condition no longer existed or were found to have resolved after liability had been accepted. The effect of such decisions was interpreted at the time as essentially removing a person's future entitlement to treatment (and compensation benefits) for that particular condition. The wording of the ceased effects decision letters may have indicated that future claims would be rejected. In April 2003, the Federal Court issued a decision in the case of Australian Postal Corporation v Oudyn (2003) which was significant to liability determinations under the terms of section 14(1) of the SRCA. |
The Oudyn decision |
The Oudyn decision primarily related to the wording of the letters provided with the ceased effects decisions, stating that the letters illegally indicated that there could be no future liability for the relevant conditions. The decision held that a ceased effect notification did not mean that the Commission could prevent or reject future claims in relation to a condition for which liability had previously been accepted. Effectively, the Oudyn decision meant that any condition that was the subject of a ceased effects decision should still be regarded as having initial liability accepted. A distinction is made between the liability decision made under s 14 of the SRCA and any subsequent decisions made in relation to benefits payable for the effects of the condition. For example, where a condition results in an incapacity for work or an impairment, but that incapacity or impairment ceases, the benefits payable can be terminated. Following the Oudyn decision, a policy directive was issued to DVA claims assessors in May 2004 [TRIM reference 1176034E] advising that the practice of issuing ceased effects decisions which bind the Commission to any future application for compensation should be discontinued. |
Status of conditions subject to a 'ceased effects' decision |
The original decision to accept liability for a condition under s 14 of the SRCA cannot be overturned, unless it was made in error. This means that any ceased effect decision that has been issued should not be regarded as having reversed the liability decision for the condition. Rather, the ceased effect decision should only be regarded as a determination that, at the time, the condition no longer met the legislative requirements to receive payments of permanent impairment, incapacity payments and/or coverage for treatment. A ceased effects decision also does not have the effect of preventing future payments or treatment coverage for the condition should the status of the condition change and once again satisfy those requirements. Any subsequent claim for compensation or treatment relating to the accepted condition must be considered under the premise of the accepted liability. However, it would be appropriate to investigate whether the incapacity for work or impairment is related to the condition for which liability has been accepted. |
Dealing with claims from clients with a previous ceased effects decision |
As the initial liability decision for the relevant conditions was not undone by the ceased effects decision, the most practical way to move forward with these cases is to treat any claim for compensation as a claim for a benefit based on an existing liability, not a new initial liability claim. Incapacity payments may be made for any periods of lost income due to the condition in the intervening period between the ceased effects decision and the new claim, where there is appropriate evidence to support backdated payments. Impairment payments may be payable where it can be established that the condition caused a permanent impairment. As ceased effects decisions were made on the basis of clear medical evidence that the effects of the decision had resolved, it will be important for delegates to be satisfied that any impairment or incapacity claimed subsequent to a ceased effects decision is related to the condition for which liability was originally accepted. Importantly, the investigation of such claims should not be treated as a “request for reconsideration” or a “review of own motion” under s 62 of the SRCA. This would have the unintended effect of removing a person's ability to have a decision reviewed internally by DVA before having to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Instead, claims should be investigated and determined in the same manner as any new claim for benefits which is received under the Act (making specific reference in the determination letter to the fact that the purported removal of ongoing Commonwealth liability in the earlier decision is no longer applicable). |
Suggested paragraph for determination letters |
The following paragraph may be used for determination letters to explain the earlier ceased effects letter and that it is no longer applicable: The Commission has previously accepted liability for this condition, but after liability was accepted it was found that medical effects from this condition had ceased, and payment of benefits was discontinued. In Australian Postal Corporation v Oudyn (2003) the Federal Court clarified that liability for this condition did not cease, even where eligibility for compensation had ceased due to no impairment or incapacity for work being present. As a result, I have considered your claim for compensation for this condition under the premise that liability for this condition has already been accepted. |
Identifying the condition |
It is important to note that there are two situations in which entitlements may be provided in relation to a condition with a previous ceased effects decision:
|
Evidence requirements |
Should a client with a previous ceased effects decision for a condition approach the Department to lodge a claim for entitlements relating to that condition, they should be asked in the first instance to provide a medical opinion from their General Practitioner or treating doctor that:
Once this information is received, the Delegate can identify questions relevant to the particular client and condition and seek further information from the treating doctor or an appropriately qualified specialist. |
System |
Any claims relating to conditions for which liability has been accepted and a ceased effects letter has been issued are to be entered into the existing claim for the condition in Defcare. |
CLIK location |
Chapter 2.3.8 of the SRCA Liability Handbook [25] provides information on the Oudyn decision and the circumstances under which a liability decision can be reversed. |
Further assistance |
Any further queries regarding this instruction can be directed to the Liability & Service Eligibility mailbox [26]. |
Mark Harrigan
Assistant Secretary
Rehabilitation & Entitlements Policy Branch
June 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 24 May 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling – Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4331 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4885 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.6718) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 24 May 2013. |
Date of Effect28 May 2013 |
Effective from 28 May 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 13 June 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 28 May 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the pounds sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 28 May 2013 for payday 13 June 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The contracted mailing house will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 3 June 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 5 March 2013, are: New South Wales — 939 Queensland — 670 Victoria — 779 Western Australia — 751 South Australia — 865 Tasmania — 109 Tasmania Overseas — 225 Total4338 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: NSW — N607P QLD — Q402P SA — S116P TAS — T005P VIC — V005P WA — W010P |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Ruth Nicholls (ext 27 — 406). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
24 May 2013
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
24 May 2013 |
0.6718 |
1.4885 |
|
5 March 2013 |
24 May 2013 |
0.6978 |
1.4331 |
22 January 2013 |
4 March 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
15 January 08 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
2 August 05 |
29 August 05 |
0.4398 |
2.2738 |
21 June 05 |
1 August 05 |
0.4263 |
2.3458 |
1 February 05 |
20 June 05 |
0.4126 |
2.4237 |
4 January 05 |
31 January 05 |
0.4004 |
2.4975 |
DATE OF ISSUE: 12 April 2013
Indexation of British War Pensions (Disability Pensions)
Replaces DI No. |
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 |
The UK Veterans Agency has advised that British war pensions will rise from 8 April 201 — 3. The Veterans Agency has published their rates chart at: http://www.veterans-uk.info/pdfs/publications/va_leaflets/Leaflet%209.pdf [31] |
Effective date and payday |
The effective date for the variation will be Tuesday 1 — 6 April 201 — 3, for payday |
Cases affected |
These changes will affect the following cases:
|
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 ?1 = A$1.4331. These cases are now subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. For further information refer to DI C — 03/2013 [32]. |
Exchange rate for British DP paid direct from the UK |
The exchange rate to use for British DP paid direct from the UK is |
Rates charts in Australian dollars and AIS reports |
British war pension rates converted to $A at both old and new rates have been e-mailed to the Income Support Senior Management group along with the AIS report. EATS and composite cases have been provided to the Rehabilitation Compensation & Systems Support Group. 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 officer listed below |
Manual examination |
No cases will be processed automatically. All cases will be listed for manual examination and updated in PIPS. The Income Support management group will allocate the processing of these cases within the relevant teams in each office location. |
Contact officer |
The Income Support contact officers for this exercise are Greg Doube (ext 50559) and Trevor Catt (ext 48681). |
Richard Magor
National Manager
Income Support and Grants
April 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 12 April 2013
Indexation of British Official Public Service and Armed Forces Pension
Replaces DI No. |
C07/2011 [34] |
Purpose |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to advise of processing arrangements for the automatic indexation of British Official Public Service and Armed Forces pensions (formerly Indexed BRI, code 09). The reason for the change of terminology was explained in DI C04/2004 [35] British Income. |
Increase in Public Service Pensions |
The British Government has announced that British Public Service Pensions will rise in April 2013 by 2.2% in line with their Retail Price Index. The pensions affected are listed below and should be recorded on PIPS as foreign superannuation (British Official Public Service/Forces): British Official Public Service Pension as listed at http://sharepoint/programsandprojects/clik/procedures/Pages/CLIK%20Procedure%20Library%20-%20Links.aspx [36] British Armed Forces pension (ie Royal Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force). |
Date of effect |
The date of effect to be used for the variation is 16 April 2013, for payday 2 May 2013. |
The conversion factor for this indexation is 1.022 |
The new amount of pounds sterling to be recorded will be calculated as follows: The variation percentage (2.20%) __________________________ — _______ + 1 = Conversion factor 100 The Australian dollar amount will then be reassessed accordingly. The conversion factor for this indexation is 1.022. |
Date of processing run |
The processing run for this exercise will take place on Tuesday 16 April 2013. |
Manual cases |
Cases that are in investigation, submission or determination status at the time of the run will be frozen and listed for subsequent manual processing. |
Advice Letters |
A one-page advice will be generated for all clients who have a variation to their rate of DVA pension payment because of the indexation exercise. All advices produced from this processing exercise will be printed as batch advices on printers in the State locations. Please check advice schedules to reconcile Group Destination cases, and check all advices before they are sent to ensure they contain correct information. |
Indexation of British war pensions |
British war pensions (British DP) will also increase by 2.2% on 8 April 2013. A separate Departmental Instruction will be issued about the application of this increase to:
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Indexation of British social security pension |
British social security pensions will not be indexed automatically. See Part 10, Chapter 1, Section 5 of the CLIK Policy [37] and Procedure [38] Libraries for more information. |
Contact officer |
The Income Support contact officers for this exercise are Greg Doube (ext 50559) and Trevor Catt (ext 48681). |
Richard Magor
National Manager
Income Support and Grants
April 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 28 March 2013
Prioritisation of Compensation Claims
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
This Departmental Instruction provides guidance to Rehabilitation and Compensation Staff regarding the prioritisation of compensation claims, and in particular the introduction of the criteria for Defence requested priority cases.
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Background |
In December 2011, the Repatriation Commission and the sub committee of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission approved revised guidance on the prioritisation of claims for compensation under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA), the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRCA) and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA). New prioritisation of compensation claims guidance was promulgated via Businessline (TRIM Ref 127413E) in January 2012. This listing included a priority for claims highlighted by Defence - DVA Priority Guidance No. 5, with advice that the Defence criteria for cases that will require a request of this nature were still to be determined and agreed.
All three services have since agreed to the criteria that will be used to identify Defence requested priority cases and this is included in the below guidance. In addition to this both Defence and DVA have agreed internal procedures for the processing of these claims. This was endorsed by the Repatriation Commission and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission on 7 February 2013.
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Timely Approach to Claims Processing |
It is the duty of all delegates to determine all claims for compensation in an accurate and timely manner. The accuracy of determinations is not negotiable. No compromise can be accepted in the degree of care and diligence in deciding any entitlement under the Act. Claims assessors should always aim to meet the targets for time taken to process of 75 days for the VEA and 120 days for the SRCA and MRCA. Where possible, the assessment of claims should commence as soon as possible after receipt and the regular ongoing management of those claims conducted in a reasonable timeframe. To achieve this it is important that both the claims assessors and their managers closely monitor the claims that are received and on hand to ensure a good awareness of the status of claims and circumstances of the clients. The principles to be applied to claims processing to assist in achieving this goal are as follows;
In some cases however, the urgency associated with the matter means that a claim must be dealt with ahead of older claims and significant attention needs to be given to obtaining the necessary information to make a determination. This is a judgement call for the delegate and/or the manager based on the degree of personal distress, financial hardship and medical or rehabilitation concerns of the client.
Priorities need to be attributed by the claims assessor and their manager, and based on the circumstances of the claim at the time of receipt and allocation. These priorities will need to be regularly reviewed during the progress of the claim where changes to the claimant's circumstances may provide a greater urgency. This regular review can be conducted as part of the case conferencing process between claims assessors and their team leader or Director/Manager.
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Guiding Principles |
Effort should always be made to ensure the determination of claims within the target period. To ensure this, the commencement of the assessment of the claim must occur within 7 days of assignment of a claim to a claims assessor. In some cases claims may take longer to determine due to a number of factors such as non-availability of relevant information or being held within ongoing backlogs. However, claims that have encountered difficulty during assessment must be highlighted as part of a regular case conferencing process. It is during this process that claims nearing the target for processing may be raised to a higher priority.
The other principle in determining any priority is the needs of the client. All clients will have differing needs and expectations, but some clients' circumstances will involve a greater urgency than others. These may be based on the requirement to meet financial/medical/mental health/rehabilitation needs and to alleviate immediate distress so that the client's circumstances and requirement for benefits are met. Guidance on the circumstances in which a claim may be considered as a higher priority is detailed below. In some cases the client's circumstances can change over the course of consideration of a claim. Claims assessors must be aware of the changing circumstances of a client and, if required, reassess the priority for consideration of the claim.
Initially the priority will be assessed through the process of initial assessment of the claim and assignment to a claims assessor. However, the urgency of a claim can change in the process of determination and so the support of team leaders or the regular case conferencing process should be used to ensure that the correct priorities are regularly reviewed and identified.
The following provides guidance on the circumstances that may result in a claims assessor determining that a claim needs to be considered as a higher priority.
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Priority Guidance |
Some of the cases handled by the Client Liaison Unit and/or Case Co-ordinators will be considered under this priority, but it should be noted that these are potentially high profile cases as well.
It is important to take into consideration whether the member is being medically discharged and /or has chosen to have their separation from the ADF Held-In-Abeyance (HIA) pending determination of liability for the compensation claim. If HIA has been chosen, the financial hardship prospect is not as great as previously with the separation held until DVA have determined liability. However, if a member elects to be HIA and fails to submit their claim and/or is obstructive in the claims process, then the ADF may elect to separate the member regardless of the claim status. Also for the purpose of appeals ADF members will not be HIA. Part of the consideration with this priority should take into account the commencement/continuation of medical treatment and an appropriate rehabilitation program particularly vocational rehabilitation.
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Processes for Defence Requested Priority Cases |
The recommendation that the member's compensation claim be highlighted as a priority for consideration by DVA will be passed to an ADF decision maker as part of the review of the person's employment status, or as part of the ongoing management and review of wounded, injured and ill members. The recommendation will be accompanied by a Defence WebForm which contains the following:
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Submission of Defence Requested Priority – New Claim |
Defence Responsibility – new claim Claims may be mailed to DVA or taken to a DVA office or hand delivered through the On Bases Advisory Service (OBAS). In all cases it will be clear the claim is a Defence Priority. Attached to the claim will be a covering notification from Defence, signed by the relevant DGPERS, highlighting the priority and the reasons as listed above. To enable DVA to treat the claim with the required urgency, the claim will be accompanied by the Request For Priority Processing form and the following documentation:
DVA Responsibility – new claim DVA will manage the claim in line with priority protocols as outlined above. As with all claims coming into DVA, they will be screened for validity (e.g. DVA claim form signed, POI satisfied) and ensure that all necessary supporting documentation is with the claim. If any documents are missing, a request will be made to obtain them as soon as possible. DVA may make contact with the member directly or through the OBAS or their Advocate where one has been identified to ensure minimum delays for receipt of all supporting documentation.
A copy of the Defence form (Request for Priority Processing) is to be copied and saved into the clients UIN container in TRIM (where other Defence documents are saved by the DVA SAM team).
Each of the processing systems is to be noted correctly to provide a systems record that this is a Defence requested priority claim by ticking the correct priority identifier as the claim is registered in Defcare, Cadet or CCPS. In addition to this a note is to be put into VIEW under 'Important Information' advising that Defence have the client's authority to discuss their claim. This enables all R&C, Client Contact Support (CCS) and VAN staff to be able to identify this information quickly and easily.
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Highlighting Defence Requested Priority – Existing Claim |
Defence Responsibility – existing claim Where a claim already exists, the relevant area in Defence (DGNP, DGPERS-A, DGPERS-AF) must obtain written acknowledgement from the member that DVA may be approached to seek the status of the claim using the Request for Priority Processing form. The relevant area will then approach the DVA via a single point of contact phone number (managed by the R&C Liability and Registrations area) to seek advice on the claim status and to ascertain whether the relevant documents have been received by DVA. Defence will then highlight the increased priority and client authority using the Request For Priority Processing form which will be scanned and emailed to DVA.
DVA Responsibility – existing claim Defence will contact DVA via a single point of contact phone number which will be managed by the R&C Liability and Registrations area. Staff in the R&C Liability and Registrations area will check VIEW to identify if the client has been assigned to CLU or Case Coordination and if so will transfer the call to them. Staff in the R&C Liability and Registrations area will also check VIEW for a comment to advise that client authority has been given for Defence to contact DVA on their behalf. If no authority has been given, the R&C Liability and Registrations area will not provide any information to the caller, but will identify the delegate responsible for the claim and transfer the call. The R&C delegate will need to explain to the caller the processes for establishing authority via the Request For Priority Processing form.
If authority has been given, staff in the R&C Liability and Registrations area will identify the status of the claim in VIEW before transferring the call to the responsible delegate. The R&C delegate will then provide a status update to the Defence caller, acknowledge the new Defence requested priority, and assure Defence the claim will be processed in accordance with the priority guidelines as listed above. Once the Request For Priority Processing form is received from Defence it is to be saved into the client's e-file in TRIM (via UIN) in line with other documents received electronically from Defence via the SAM process. The appropriate processing system/s (Defcare/CCPS/Cadet) should also be updated to indicate a 'Defence Priority Request'.
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Action Required |
Staff are asked to familiarise themselves with the Priority Guidance for processing compensation claims outlined in this Departmental Instruction.
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John Sadeik
Assistant Secretary
Determination Support & Reviews
28 March 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 22 March 2013
Open Door Policy: Improving DVA's communication with its clients
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose |
The purpose of this instruction is to seek the assistance of compensation delegates to deliver improved client service by incorporating a phone call to applicants at the start of every claim process, whether for a first or subsequent claim. Many delegates already undertake this step and understand the benefits it brings. The procedure set out in this instruction will allow delegates to take ownership of their communication with clients, improve service delivery performance and our clients' understanding of the claim process and thereby increase client satisfaction. Results from other agencies who have implemented similar programs show that adding steps such as this provides mutual benefits to clients and delegates alike, as better client service resulting in increased client satisfaction improves job satisfaction for decision makers. |
Background |
Good communication is the key to a good relationship. Phoning clients at the start of the claim process will build rapport between delegates and their clients from the very beginning, provide a better understanding of the claim process for clients and may make it easier to deliver bad news as well as good news at the end of the process. The purpose of the initial phone call is to establish expectations about the length of time it takes to determine a claim, the likely milestones, any possible delay points and to provide a point of contact for any concerns. This approach also addresses a key concern raised by participants of focus groups conducted by Colmar Brunton, a research agency who have been undertaking a review of the design of the DVA veteran satisfaction survey. One of the common themes emerging from the feedback was that too little personal contact is incorporated into the DVA claims process. |
Empathising with the client |
The aim of this approach is to show that DVA appreciates clients' needs and to help guide client expectations. People often feel high levels of anxiety and uncertainty during a claim for compensation. While DVA aims to avoid an adversarial approach to determining claims, clients can sometimes feel they are 'fighting the system'. Communication at the start of a process can alleviate a significant amount of concern, worry and anxiety. If you did not know what is occurring you may worry, you may make an irate phone call and express displeasure and essentially escalate a common delay into a very stressful conversation (for both parties). When you are given an explanation of what is going to happen and what is the likely timeframe, even if you do not like it, the situation is diffused. Our clients are often facing additional high stress factors – physical and/or emotional ill health, financial concerns, job security worries and uncertainty about their and their family's future. Consider this with respect to the difficult phone calls we often encounter in our roles as delegates become a lot more understandable. |
Will adding this call increase my workload? |
A telephone script is at Attachment A, timed at approximately 2.5 minutes, however, it is acknowledged that this timeframe will be the minimum time as it does not take into account applicants who want further detail about the claim process. Management are aware that adding this step to the claims process will be an additional task and team leaders will be available to help with difficult calls, take over if necessary or even make the call if identified as difficult in advance. Results have shown that adding this step may actually save time in the long run by reducing complaints and generally improving communication. Most importantly it will develop a genuine relationship between delegates and clients. |
Leaving a message |
Some applicants will be difficult to contact. Where an attempt to reach a client results in an option to leave a message and the phone number provided is a work number, delegates must be careful to protect the privacy of the applicant. Delegates are not expected to continue attempting phone calls. If the second call (within the space of a week) is unsuccessful, a follow-up letter should be sent and reference made to the attempt to contact by phone. The department is investigating the use of text messages to communicate with clients, however, this option is not yet widely available. It is expected that this process will also have value for clients who are overseas, and may even simplify some aspects of those claims. However, it is recognised that contacting clients in certain time zones will be difficult to manage and may not be practical. |
Representatives |
If an applicant has an ex-service representative or a legal firm assisting them, it is still important to make the initial contact with the actual claimant [1] [41] .This approach is not intended to interfere with the ESO-client relationship but is focused on strengthening the relationship between DVA and its clients. DVA already spends time investing in the relationship with representatives in other ways, and we have written to ESOs to advise them of this new approach. As this is a change to current practice, the letter at Attachment B should be sent to the ESO or legal firm representing the client as a courtesy to notify them that you have contacted a mutual client and what was discussed. If the client has unequivocally stated that all contact is to be made through a third party this request should be respected and the initial contact with the client should not be made. A statement such as “I appoint Mr Smith as my representative and require you to have contact with him” would not be considered sufficiently unequivocal. When a third party, other than a solicitor or law firm, advises the department that they represent the client, confirmation should always be sought with the client. This is consistent with current guidelines to meet privacy requirements. |
Power of attorney |
Where the applicant is unable to handle their affairs and the nominated representative has power of attorney (POA) delegates should apply the approach outlined in this instruction to the holder of the POA. |
CLU clients |
If an applicant is being managed by the Client Liaison Unit, Service Coordinator or a Case Coordinator, the delegate is not phone the client directly unless the CLU, Service or Case Coordinator agrees it is appropriate to do so. |
The Comcare experience |
This approach has been implemented for over 18 months by Comcare and overwhelmingly the response has been positive. Their experience is that even claims that are not accepted are more easily explained due to the ongoing relationship that has been developed between the applicant and the delegate. Comcare began Project Service Excellence a few years ago, with one of its key deliverables to improve communication and expectation setting with employers and injured workers. The project has resulted in several benefits:
A Comcare a client described their experience: “I used to feel like I was intruding on Comcare and that I had to wait months before anyone would contact me or followed up on things. I am happy with the obvious changes in service delivery. Talking to Comcare is now soothing to my condition after I have worked up the energy to talk to Comcare.” |
Follow-up letter |
In most circumstances it would be considered appropriate to send a follow-up letter, particularly when a representative has been appointed (see Attachment B for an example). |
Secretary's support |
The Secretary and EMG have endorsed this approach to client service. In Volume 11 Issue 3 2012 of @DVA, the Secretary noted that “if you can make a client's life a little easier by simply picking up the phone and giving them a call, I encourage you to do so.” If you know you're going to make your own life a little easier by picking up the phone, then you've got two great reasons to do it! |
Training |
Keeping the phone call professional, short and targeted can be difficult to achieve. Lifeline/Comcare run a course called the "Accidental Counsellor" and one of the skills is about learning to manage time on phone calls. It is proposed that this course will be offered to delegates as required. |
Feedback |
The experience of delegates as they trial this new process is of strong interest. Your feedback is greatly valued, please email your thoughts and experience at any time to Liability & Service Eligibility Policy Section. In one month team leaders will be asked to provide a short summary of experiences through the new process. |
Review |
A review will be conducted in July 2013 at which time an extension to Income Support will be considered. |
Sean Farrelly
First Assistant Secretary
Rehabilitation & Support Division
22 March 2013
ATTACHMENT A
Script for RCG delegates – this is intended as a guide.
Statement |
Supplementary |
"Hello, I am [name] from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and I will be the delegate looking after the claim for [insert condition] you submitted recently. Is now a good time to speak? I am responsible for making the decision about [liability/permanent impairment /incapacity] with respect to your claim. |
If the applicant is unable to talk now, ask when would be a good time for you to call them back. Tell the applicant which DVA office you are located in. If the claim is being determined in a different state, advise the applicant why (eg privacy, conflict of interest). Note: Avoid calling applicants with mental health conditions early in the morning. |
I wanted to let you know that your claim has been allocated to me. I have had a preliminary look through your application and will be starting the process to gather the information I need to determine your claim immediately. |
Prior to phoning, establish what documentation, medical records, appointments and assessments you will require before being able to make your determination. If any information is missing, and they have not appointed a representative, ask if they are able to provide it. If a representative has been appointed, advise the client that you will write to them and their representative seeking further information. |
I want to give you an idea of the timeframe for determining your claim. Currently the whole claim process under [MRCA takes on average 5 months/ SRCA takes on average 5 months/ VEA takes on average 2.5 months]. |
Key performance targets apply to all claims. The timeliness requirements (standard TTTP) for determining a claim are:
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The reason it takes this amount of time is because there are steps I have to go through and I'll quickly explain what they are. Essentially, I need to determine the correct medical name for your condition, then I need to look at the links between that and your service. |
|
This means I will need to order your service documents and health records. |
Do you have any relevant records that you can provide? |
I may need to contact your doctor. I may also need to arrange for you to see specialists. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that DVA treats all information gathered in the claim process confidentially, and that your privacy is protected by law. |
If doctor's details are not on form ask to provide name and contact details. |
I rely on other departments for some of the steps I mentioned before. This accounts for some of the time it takes to determine your claim. |
E.g. the Department of Defence. |
You may have eligibility under more than one Act and this can mean your claim will take longer. |
. |
If applicable: I note that you have nominated X (of X) to act on your behalf with respect to your claim. Where appropriate, I will address communication regarding my investigation of your claim to your representative. However, please be aware that if you should have any concerns with the manner in which X is handling your claim, you can contact me directly. |
Be familiar with the various protocols that apply when dealing with applications under VEA, SRCA or MRCA where a third party representative (ex-service organisation or solicitor) has been authorised to deal with the claim on the veteran or dependant's behalf. |
I will be sending you a letter today which outlines what I have just told you on the phone. If you have any questions throughout this process or just want to check on the progress please do not hesitate to give me a call. Goodbye. |
Provide DVA's general number (133 254 or 1800 555 254) and tell them to ask Veteran's Access Network officer to put them through to you if the call is in relation to their claim. |
1234567 |
I am writing to advise you of contact I made recently with our mutual client, INSERT NAME of INSERT ADDRESS (DVA File Number reference INSERT FILE NUMBER), regarding their claim for INSERT CLAIM TYPE.
The purpose of my phone call was to introduce myself as the delegate who will be assessing their claim and provide them with general information about the Department's claim process. I am sure you will be able to appreciate that this step is also a positive step forward in improving the communication channels for our client, providing each party with the opportunity to put a “human face” to the claim process.
The following issues were also raised during the course of our conversation:
As you are the nominated representative for this claim, I will continue to address any further correspondence regarding the investigation of the claim through you, as per normal procedures.
Yours sincerely
Delegate
INSERT YOUR POSITION
DATE
For all future contact, delegates should continue to follow existing policy as applies to dealing with applications under VEA, SRCA or MRCA where a third party has been authorised to act on behalf of the veteran or dependant. In particular, all requests for information must be made through the representative, and not through this initial phone call.
[1] (go back) [42]DATE OF ISSUE: 8 March 2013
March 2013 Global Refresh of Managed Investments, Shares and Overseas Exchange rates Letter Production and Mailouts
Replaces DI No. |
N/A |
Purpose of Instruction |
This Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the processing arrangements and advice letter production and mailout for:
The Clean Energy Supplement (CES) will commence from 20 March 2013. This instruction also contains information about the advice letter for the CES recipients. |
Introduction |
Each quarter the Department varies pensions and allowances in accordance with provisions contained in the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (Statutory Increase or 'SI'). Each March and September, the movements in the Cost of Living Index and the Global Refresh of Managed Investments (MIs) and Shares (SHs) data are combined as one quarterly reassessment process. In March and September, advice letters are generally sent to only those income support pensioners paid at less than the maximum rate of service pension, income support supplement or age pension who have managed investments and/or shares recorded in their pension assessments and who are affected by the Global Refresh of MIs and/or SHs reassessment. This typically affects approximately 27,000 households. For this quarter there will be a change to the deeming interest rates from 3% to 2.5% for amounts up to and including $45,400 ($75,600 per couple) and from 4.5% to 4% for amounts over $45,400 ($75,600 per couple). This typically increases the number of advice letters produced to approximately 54,000. From 20 March 2013 the Clean Energy Supplement (CES) will commence. The Department will write to all clients in payment following the March 2013 processing of service pension (SP), income support supplement (ISS), age pension (AP), war widow/er pension (WWP), disability pension (DP), seniors supplement (SS), MRCA Special Rate Disability Pension (WDP) and MRCA Wholly Dependent Partner (SRDP) payment who will receive the fortnightly CES from 20 March 2013. It is estimated approximately 240,000 advice letters will be produced. The advice letters will be specially revised versions of the usual 'automatic' advice format. The advices will provide clients with information about the CES and the payment amount. A personalised letter from the Minister will be sent with the advice letter for the CES recipients. Each mailpack will also contain a DL size information flyer about the DVA services available online through MyAccount. |
Significant Issues |
Issues of significance with regard to this mailout are as follows:
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Removal of Contact Details from automatic advice letters |
Individual staff contact details previously appeared at the top left-hand corner of advice letters. The Veterans' Access Network contact number now replaces the individual staff contact information in advice letters, following promotion of VAN as the national point of contact for clients. |
Advice Letter Target Audience |
A letter will be produced for the following clients following processing of the SI, the Global Refresh of MIs and/or SHs, the change of deemed interest rate, and the commencement of CES:
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Introductory Paragraphs for SP/ISS/AP Client's Advices |
AP clients in receipt of DFISA will have 'multiple outcome' paragraphs printing as part of their introductory paragraphs – advising them of a variation to their AP payment and DFISA payment. All AP/SP/ISS client letters will have either the single or multiple outcome introductory paragraphs printing, advising them of the outcome of their payments, as follows: Multiple Outcome Paragraphs: This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 20 March 2013. Single Outcome Paragraph: This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased/reduced/reduced to nil. This change will take effect from 20 March 2013. |
Clean Energy Supplement (CES) |
A paragraph introducing the Clean Energy Supplement will be present for all CES eligible clients. For DP only, WWP only and MRCA WDP and MRCA SRDP recipients, this will be the first paragraph of the letter. Clean Energy Supplement You are now receiving a Clean Energy Supplement as part of your regular payment. This ongoing assistance is part of the Household Assistance Package under the Australian Government's plan for a Clean Energy Future and will help you with household costs associated with the carbon price.
This is a tax exempt payment and does not count as income for income and asset assessment purposes. |
Payment Information |
All letters will contain payment information as an attachment. The following paragraph will appear in the body of the letter. Payment InformationDetails of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment. |
Financial Assets Reassessment |
The asset value of MI and/or SH data will be reassessed as part of the processing. Less than maximum rate income support clients with MI and/or SH data recorded in their assessment will have a paragraph advising of the 'Change to Value of Shares and/or Managed Investments'.
This paragraph advises clients about the reassessment program and explains that: 'The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in a variation to the amount of pension paid to you....' OR 'has resulted in your pension being varied to nil....' Maximum rate clients with or without MI and/or SH in their assessment will not receive this paragraph.
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Managed Investments and/or Shares Information Attachment |
All less than maximum rate clients with MIs and/or SHs recorded in their assessment will receive a full listing of all their MIs and/or SHs regardless of which MIs and/or SHs have been reassessed. Clients will not be issued with a listing of their Full Income and Assets. |
Change to Pension due to Indexation Increases |
All letters will continue to have the paragraph advising that 'Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.' Information on indexation adjustments and pension increase will also be provided in the March edition of Vetaffairs, which is to be distributed from Tuesday, 2 April 2013. |
Deemed Interest Rate Change |
There will be a change to the deemed interest rates from 3% to 2.5% for amounts up to and including $45,400 ($75,600 per couple) and from 4.5% to 4% for amounts over $45,400 ($75,600 per couple). Clients with deemed income will receive an explanatory paragraph advising of the new deemed interest rates and a table showing a breakdown of their deemed income. |
Obligations |
Full and Partial obligations are to be suppressed for all letters produced. Reference will be made to obligations issued to clients in previous letters and in the case of SP and ISS recipients, reference will also be made to obligations provided in the 'You and Your Pension' Booklet. The Financial Obligations paragraph (including the Prescribed Rates), will be present in the advice for all clients, except for pensioners who are reduced to nil. AP clients who are reduced to nil, but eligible for payment of DFISA will receive their Financial Obligations paragraph including their prescribed rates. |
Right of Review |
A right of review paragraph will be present in all letters. |
Treatment Advices to be Checked |
The Enclosure (treatment) advice letters will be printed at the nominated printer at each location. These letters should be checked for correctness, and reconciled against the reports received in each location to ensure they reflect the correct treatment paragraphs. It should be noted that not all clients who have an advice produced due to a treatment change will have MIs and/or SHs in their assessment. Clients who do not have MIs and/or SHs in the assessment will not have MIs and/or SHs related paragraphs printing in their advice. |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients' Advices |
Advice letters for Tasmanian Office clients with an overseas postal address will have their advices printed and posted directly from the mailing house. |
No Advices for Blind Clients |
Blind clients will not receive an advice. Where a member of a couple is assessed as 'blind' - a single advice will be produced for the non-blind member who may be affected by the processing. An exception to this rule is where a Blind client with MIs and/or SHs in their assessment is also in payment RA, which is subject to the income and assets tests and as such, may result in a variation to their RA payment. Where there is a variation to the RA payment for these clients, an advice will be produced. |
General Information Sheet |
The General Information Sheet (GIS) will not be produced as part of each client's letter for the March processing. For information, the GIS will only be produced in the following circumstances:
Pensioners who reside overseas permanently will not be given the GIS to avoid confusion, because some components of the pension supplement listed (PS non-taxable and PS flexible) are not payable to overseas pensioners. |
Single & Joint Addressed Letters |
All service pension and income support supplement recipient couples will receive a joint advice, provided the pensioner addresses are identical. The batch address defaults determining single and joint advices have been aligned with the PIPS PC daily advice defaults. Where both members of a couple have the same postal address recorded, a joint advice will be produced. This includes illness separated couples. Important to note: Staff are reminded when granting Age Pension or when clients in a joint assessment request separate or single advices, they need to update this information using the mainframe PRODIMS - Client Correspondence Client Options (CO.CO) Screen - prior to the processing run to initiate the client request. The advice default requests set in CO.CO will override the DOCGEN and PIPS advice rules. Age pensioner couples will receive separate letters if the advice default request has been set in CO.CO. |
Minister's Letter |
For all CEP recipients, a letter from the Minister regarding the commencement of the Clean Energy Supplement fortnightly payment will be the last sheet of their advice letter. The content of this letter will be provided in a separate Businessline. |
MyAccount Information Flyer |
A MyAccount flyer about the DVA services available online will be included with all advice letters in this mailout. A copy of the flyer will be provided in a separate Businessline. |
SI Processing |
SI Processing, the Global Refresh of Shares, Managed Investments, change to Deemed Interest Rates and CES payment processing are scheduled to commence from Saturday 9 March 2013 through to Sunday 10 March 2013. |
Critical Dates |
Processing within DVA (includes 'advices' processing) |
Friday (9 pm) 8 March 2013 – Sunday 10 March 2013 |
Transmission of Production Data to Mailing House |
Sunday (pm) 10 March 2013 |
Mailing House to commence production of Advice Letters |
Thursday 14 March 2013 |
Mailing House to commence lodgement of Advice Letters with Australia Post |
Thursday 21 March 2013 |
Mailing House to complete lodgment of all Advice Letters with Australia Post by COB |
Wednesday 27 March 2013 |
Expected Client Numbers |
The number of letters to be sent nationally is estimated to be approximately 240,000, which is much higher than the March 2012 exercise, and statistics for that mailout is therefore not comparable. For reference, the estimated number of mailpacks generated for each location in the March 2013 SI mailout is listed below: |
State |
Number Of Advice Letters |
NSW (and ACT) |
78,134 |
VIC |
52,062 |
QLD |
60,055 |
SA |
21,519 |
WA |
22,550 |
TAS |
8324 |
TAS (Overseas) |
700 |
MRCA clients |
629 |
TOTAL |
243,973 |
Production of Letters |
The mailpacks will be produced at Computershare Ermington premises, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. All mailpacks will be lodged with Australia Post from this site. |
Staggered Lodgement of Letters |
Mailpack lodgement with Australia Post will be staggered by state from Thursday 21 March with final lodgement by COB Wednesday 27 March 2013. The lodgement schedule as requested by the Client Contact, Policy & Communications Branch is as detailed below. |
File Name |
Lodgement with Australia Post |
WA |
Thursday 21 March |
SA & MRCA clients |
Friday 22 March |
QLD |
Monday 25 March |
NSW |
Tuesday 26 March |
VIC |
Wednesday 27 March |
TAS & TAS Overseas |
Wednesday 27 March |
Progress Reports |
Regular updates of the mailpack production and lodgement will be provided to the Income Support contact officers by the Cards and Advices Team. |
DFISA Advices from Centrelink Processing |
DVA suppressed all Centrelink daily DFISA variation advices with an effective date of 5 March 2013, which are transmitted to DVA following the Centrelink processing run. All other advices will be printed as part of the normal processing, including Centrelink DFISA cancellation and grant advices. |
Foreign Pension Refresh Program known as GROOVER |
The foreign pension refresh program referred to as 'GROOVER' (Global Refresh Of Overseas Exchange Rates) is a separate processing exercise to the March 2013 Global Refresh processing and is scheduled to run on the evening of Wednesday, 13 March 2013. The effective date of the Foreign Pensions Refresh Run is 20 March 2013 for payday 4 April 2013. Separate Foreign Income advices are produced for clients who have foreign income, and whose pensions have been varied because of the GROOVER run. A sample GROOVER advice can be found at Attachment B. About 500 GROOVER advices are expected and are to be printed locally. The advice letters will be sent to nominated printers at each location for printing and mail processing by Systems Support Officers (SSOs). A small number of streamed advices will also be printed. These letters should be checked for accuracy and reconciled against the advice schedule reports. All GROOVER advices must be held pending notification of the successful lodgement of all the March quarterly advices. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advice letters in chronological order. Please note: The British Social Security Pension (type 08), British Official Public Service/Forces pension (type 09) and British Other Income (type 07) are not included in the GROOVER update. Instead they are regularly updated in British Pensions exchange rate variation exercises (commonly known as BRI runs) whenever the pound Sterling exchange rate varies by 2.5% or more. |
Streamed Advices |
Several categories of advices are streamed out to print at nominated printers at each location, as they require additional checking and manual actions. The following advice types are streamed:
They are to be printed at state office printers listed below: SA — VSSOPRO06 TAS — VTSOPR03 WA — VWSOPR01 VIC — V005P NSW — N607P QLD — VQSOPRO1 These advices, in particular treatment eligibility change ones, should be checked for correctness, and reconciled against the reports received by each Office. Reduction to Nil advice letters also require inclusion of Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) claim forms, CSHC fact sheets and reply paid envelopes to the mailpacks. Please note: A MyAccount flyer should be included with each advice letter. Income Support Contact Officers are to email Advices Help Desk – ACT to advise of the number of flyers required at their location. Supply of the flyers will be sent by internal mail as soon as they are available. |
ZIP Files of Advice Schedule Reports |
A Zip File listing details of all clients who receive an advice will be emailed to the Contact Officers following the processing run. The Zip File replaces the Advices Schedule Report, which is too large to print on the printers in each office. |
Reprints of Advices Available using VIEW – Advices Tab |
Reprints of individual advice letters produced from the quarterly processing can be requested via VIEW – Advices Tab reprint facility. Quarterly advice reprints are available and can be requested from day one of the next quarter i.e. March quarterly advices from 01/04/yyyy, June quarterly advices from 01/07/yyyy and March quarterly advices from 01/10/yyyy. |
'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 Office's nominated printer as part of the production processing. Please ensure your designated printer is fully operational during the processing period. These advices will need to be checked to ensure the information in them is correct prior to posting. |
Holding of daily advice letters |
Daily advice letters produced after the processing run on 9 – 10 March 2013 should be held pending notification that all the March 2013 quarterly letters have been dispatched. This will ensure that pensioners receive their advice letters in chronological order. |
Income Support Contact Officers |
A contact person from each State is required to act as a liaison point for the Cards and Advices Team and is to be the responsible person for distributing any information regarding the March 2013 Global Refresh mailout to staff. The Income Support (IS) contacts for the March 2013 quarterly processing exercise are listed below: VIC:Greg Heitsch QLD:Stephen Hamill SA:Maria Nasilowski WA:Michelle Pauly / Margarete Mumme TAS:Daimeon Horne |
Feedback from Staff |
Any concerns regarding letters produced as part of this run should be directed to the Advices Help Desk – ACT mailbox. Please report any problems without delay and state the nature of the query together with any relevant information. Every effort will be made to develop solutions to address any concerns raised. |
Cards & Advices Team Contact Details |
Any queries regarding this mailout should be directed to the Advices Help Desk – ACT mailbox. |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support and Grants Branch
8 March 2013
Letter Content |
Prior to the issue of this Departmental Instruction, comments were sought from staff regarding the advice content and paragraph sequencing. No feedback was received. |
Advice Samples |
Details of the proposed content of the letters are included in Attachment A.
Attachment B contains a sample of the GROOVER advice. |
Letter Variables |
Please note, in the enclosed examples:
|
ATTACHMENT A
Example 1A
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Mr and Mrs Thompson,
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 20 March 2013.
Clean Energy Supplement
You are now receiving a Clean Energy Supplement as part of your regular payment. This ongoing assistance is part of the Household Assistance Package under the Australian Government's plan for a Clean Energy Future and will help you with household costs associated with the carbon price.
This is a tax exempt payment and does not count as income for income and asset assessment purposes.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or unit based managed investments has been reassessed. The adjusted value of these investments has been used to work out your pension payment and has resulted in a variation to the amount of pension paid to you. The value of other income and assets you may have has not been affected by this reassessment.
Please refer to the 'Shares and Managed Investments Information' Attachment included in this letter. This Attachment details all of your shares and/or managed investments regardless of whether there has been a change to that share or managed investment. It is important that you check that this list is a full and accurate statement of your shares and/or managed investments.
We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you have in your assessment, as they remain unchanged. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of pension you are paid.
Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.
With effect from 20 March 2013, the deemed interest rates will change. The new deemed income rates of 2.5% for amounts up to $45,400 ($75,600 per couple) and 4% for amounts over $45,400 ($75,600 per couple), will be used to work out the amount of income calculated from your financial assets.
This has resulted in a change to the income amounts used to work out your rate of service pension.
FINANCIAL ASSETS VALUE |
DEEMED INTEREST RATE |
DEEMED INCOME PER FORTNIGHT |
$xx,xxx.xx |
2.5% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
4% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
$xxx.xx |
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 is more than $XXXXXX.XX.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters and the booklet 'You and Your Pension'. These obligations still apply.
If you have told us recently about a change to your income and assets or your domestic situation, it may not have been processed before this letter was sent. If this is the case, we will send you another letter providing details of your new pension assessment when that change has been finalised. This normally takes no more than 4 weeks.
If you do not agree with this variation to your pension, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office. If you do decide to apply, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision. Such a request for review must be in writing, and must set out your reasons for seeking this review.
If you have any questions regarding Income Support issues you should contact us on 1300 550 452 (Capital city callers) or 1800 550 452 (Non-Capital city callers). For any other enquiries please contact the Department at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER
SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PAYMENT INFORMATION ATTACHMENT
The Department calculates your payments on a daily basis. This means that your fortnightly payment is made up of 14 days of entitlement. Therefore, when there is a change to your circumstances on any particular day in the fortnight - your payment will be adjusted from that day. For that reason your payment may be different for one or two paydays after a reassessment.
Payment for 4 April 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENT$xxx.xx$xxx.xx
This is made up of:
- Service Pensionxxx.xx xxx.xx
- Pension Supplement xx.xx xx.xx
- Clean Energy Supplement - Service Pension xx.xx xx.xx
Payment for 18 April 2013VeteranPartner
TOTAL FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENT$xxx.xx$xxx.xx
This is made up of:
- Service Pensionxxx.xx xxx.xx
- Pension Supplement xx.xx xx.xx
- Clean Energy Supplement - Service Pension xx.xx xx.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.
SHARES AND MANAGED INVESTMENTS INFORMATION
(Information currently used to assess your pension)
You are receiving service pension at less than the maximum rate payable.
You are currently paid under the income test. The total of your assessed gross fortnightly income is $x,xxx.xx. The total of all your assets (excluding any deductible assets) is $xxx,xxx.xx.
Information about your shares and managed investments is provided below.
The asset value of your shares which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and/or your unit based managed investments have been automatically updated.
The asset values of any unlisted public company shares, overseas shares, options, rights and futures or account based managed investments you hold have not been updated. You must tell us if the asset value of these investments has varied by $1,000 or more.
The information below sets out the values for the shares and/or managed investments in your current assessment.
Listed Securities and Unlisted Public Securities
Description |
No. of Shares |
Asset Amount |
XXXXXX |
X,XXX |
$XX,XXX.XX |
XXXXXX |
X,XXX |
$XX,XXX.XX |
XXXXXX |
X,XXX |
$XX,XXX.XX |
Managed Investments
Description |
Units |
Asset Amount |
CCCCCCCCCCCCC |
XXX |
$XXX.XX |
CCCCCCCCCCCCC |
XXX |
$XXX.XX |
CCCCCCCCCCCCC |
XXX |
$XXX.XX |
Note: Income from financial assets is deemed.
Important Information: We have not provided you with a complete listing of any other income or assets you may have in your assessment, as they have not been changed in this assessment. However, they continue to be used in assessing the amount of service pension you are paid. If they have changed, please notify the Department immediately.
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance) if the above list of your Shares and/or Managed Investments is incomplete or incorrect; or if the number of shares or units you hold has changed. Please note that failure to advise of incorrect or missing information about your shares or managed investments, or about other income or asset changes, may lead to your pension being overpaid. Such overpayments are recoverable.
ATTACHMENTS
Example 1B
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your:
This change will take effect from 20 March 2013.
Clean Energy Supplement
You are now receiving a Clean Energy Supplement as part of your regular payment. This ongoing assistance is part of the Household Assistance Package under the Australian Government's plan for a Clean Energy Future and will help you with household costs associated with the carbon price.
This is a tax exempt payment and does not count as income for income and asset assessment purposes.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
Your pension has been adjusted in line with increases in the cost of living or wages where applicable.
With effect from 20 March 2013, the deemed interest rates will change. The new deemed income rates of 2.5% for amounts up to $45,400 ($75,600 per couple) and 4% for amounts over $45,400 ($75,600 per couple), will be used to work out the amount of income calculated from your financial assets.
This has resulted in a change to the income amounts used to work out your rate of service pension.
FINANCIAL ASSETS VALUE |
DEEMED INTEREST RATE |
DEEMED INCOME PER FORTNIGHT |
$xx,xxx.xx |
2.5% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
4% |
$xx.xx |
$xx,xxx.xx |
$xxx.xx |
You need to tell us within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas) if you gain or dispose of any assets, or the value of your total existing assets varies, or your gross income from all sources increases above $XXX.XX per fortnight.
We have explained your obligations to you in previous letters. These obligations still apply.
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.
If you do not agree with this decision, you can contact your nearest Veterans' Affairs office and discuss 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, you can only be paid an adjustment from the date we receive your application. Requests for review may be made in person, by telephone or in writing.
The rate of DFISA paid to you is derived from your age pension assessment. You may seek to have your age pension assessment reviewed if you are dissatisfied with your DFISA rate.
If you have any questions regarding Income Support issues you should contact us on 1300 550 452 (Capital city callers) or 1800 550 452 (Non-Capital city callers). For any other enquiries please contact the Department at the address or telephone number shown at the top of this letter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER
SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ATTACHMENTS
Example 2A
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clean Energy Supplement
You are now receiving a Clean Energy Supplement as part of your regular payment. This ongoing assistance is part of the Household Assistance Package under the Australian Government's plan for a Clean Energy Future and will help you with household costs associated with the carbon price.
This is a tax exempt payment and does not count as income for income and asset assessment purposes.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER
SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ATTACHMENTS
Example 2B
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clean Energy Supplement
You are now receiving a Clean Energy Supplement as part of your regular payment. This ongoing assistance is part of the Household Assistance Package under the Australian Government's plan for a Clean Energy Future and will help you with household costs associated with the carbon price.
This is a tax exempt payment and does not count as income for income and asset assessment purposes.
Details of your fortnightly payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER
SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ATTACHMENTS
ATTACHMENT B
EXAMPLE OF GROOVER ADVICE:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
STATE SPECIFIC LETTERHEAD
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is to advise you that your service pension has been increased. This change will take effect from 20 March 2013.
The rate of exchange used to convert your Foreign Income to Australian Dollars for income support pension assessment purposes has been reviewed. The new rate of exchange is shown below.
If the Foreign Income per fortnight amount shown below is not the same as the gross amount (in foreign currency) you are currently receiving, you should notify the Department within 14 days (28 days if you are living overseas or receive remote area allowance). The Foreign Income per fortnight amount shown below may be incorrect if you have received an increase in your foreign payment, or the amount has been recorded incorrectly.
Foreign Income
Description |
Foreign Income per fortnight |
Exchange Rate |
Assessed Income per fortnight |
Euro |
xxx.xxx |
x.xxxx |
$xxx.xx |
Turkish Lira |
xxx.xxx |
x.xxxx |
$xxx.xx |
Details of your payments are provided in the Payment Information Attachment.
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 is more than $XXXXXX.XX.
If you do not agree with this decision, you may apply to have it reviewed by a Review Officer at this office. If you do decide to apply for a review, you must do so within three months of being advised of this decision. A request for review must be in writing and 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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SIGNATURE BLOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
DATE OF ISSUE: 7 March 2013
No requirement for Continuous Full-Time Service (CFTS) in order to render Warlike and Non-Warlike Service under the MRCA and VEA
Replaces DI No. |
Note: Section 1.2.3 Requirement for Continuous Full-time Service [45] in the C&S Policy Library relates.
Purpose |
To clarify that there is no requirement for a person to have rendered continuous full-time service (CFTS) in order for that service to be considered:
This issue is particularly relevant for part-time reservists who have not been deployed on CFTS. |
Background |
Prior to the introduction of the current nature of service framework (whereby service is classified by Defence as peacetime, non-warlike or warlike) in the mid-1990s, the VEA required that Reservists be deployed on CFTS in order to have access to compensation coverage under the VEA. This was because before the concepts of warlike and non-warlike service were introduced to the VEA (and subsequently followed in the MRCA), the eligibility provisions for operational service for ADF members generally included the requirement to have rendered CFTS in an operational area. All WWII service required CFTS. This means that in order to be covered under the VEA for service prior to the introduction of the warlike/non-warlike classifications, the relevant service generally must have been undertaken during a period of CFTS, with the exception of service covered by section 6DA of the VEA, which deals with minesweeping and bomb/mine clearance. However, warlike and non-warlike service under the VEA and the MRCA do not require that the person rendered CFTS. |
Legislation |
Under the VEA, the definition of operational service – warlike and non-warlike service in section 6F does not require that the person have rendered CFTS. Similarly, where a person has a period of warlike or non-warlike service, the definitions in the VEA of veteran in section 5C and eligible war service in section 7 do not require that the person have rendered CFTS if their eligibility is via warlike or non-warlike service. Under the MRCA, service with the Defence Force may be characterised as either warlike, non-warlike or peacetime service. The definition of Defence Force in section 5 of the MRCA includes the Permanent Forces and the Reserves (either part-time or continuous full-time reservists). Therefore, either type of reservist service can be warlike, non-warlike or peacetime service, provided all other requirements are met. |
Service determinations |
All members of the Defence Force have coverage under the VEA and/or the MRCA (as applicable) during warlike or non-warlike service, without any requirement to be on CFTS. The requirement to have served on CFTS continues to apply to all types of WWII service and post-WWII operational service under the VEA other than warlike and non-warlike service and minesweeping and bomb/mine clearance. |
Contact |
Please direct any queries on this issue to Kirrily Wasserman, Liability & Service Eligibility Policy Section on (07) 3223 8688. |
Mark Harrigan
Assistant Secretary
Rehabilitation & Support Policy Branch
7 March 2013
DATE OF ISSUE: 4 March 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling – Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4702 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4331 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.6978) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 1 March 2013. |
Date of Effect5 March 2013 |
Effective from 5 March 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 21 March 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 5 March 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the pounds sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 5 March 2013 for payday 21 March 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The contracted mailing house will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 8 March 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 22 January 2013, are: New South Wales — 1295 Queensland — 897 Victoria — 1140 Western Australia — 949 South Australia — 1154 Tasmania — 107 Tasmania Overseas — 343 Total5885 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: NSW — N607P QLD — Q402P SA — S116P TAS — T005P VIC — V005P WA — W010P |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Ruth Nicholls (ext 27 — 406). |
Richard Magor
Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
March 2013
1
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
5 March 2013 |
0.6978 |
1.4331 |
|
22 January 2013 |
4 March 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
15 January 08 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
2 August 05 |
29 August 05 |
0.4398 |
2.2738 |
21 June 05 |
1 August 05 |
0.4263 |
2.3458 |
1 February 05 |
20 June 05 |
0.4126 |
2.4237 |
DATE OF ISSUE: 22 January 2013
Exchange Rate Variation of Pounds Sterling – Effect on Income Support & Disability Pensioners
Replaces DI No. |
Purpose of Instruction |
The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide information about the Pounds Sterling exchange rate variation exercise. |
Introduction |
Following the recent variation in UK – Australian exchange rates, DVA will apply a new exchange rate for the assessment of the rate of income support and disability pensions for those in receipt of all income paid in Pounds Sterling:
|
New Exchange Rate |
The exchange rate used to convert Pounds Sterling to Australian dollars for income support assessment purposes has changed: - from one Pound Sterling equals A$1.5108 - to one Pound Sterling equals A$1.4702 (i.e. A$1 = ?0.6802) This rate reflects the average of the “on demand airmail buying rate” for the two weeks to 18 January 2013. |
Date of Effect22 January 2013 |
Effective from 22 January 2013 the current exchange rate will change. On pension payday 7 February 2013 pensioners with relevant British income will receive a full instalment at the new assessed rate. |
Automatic Processing |
Processing to implement the new exchange rate is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, 22 January 2013. Amounts recorded as foreign super type non-government British other income (07), British Social Security Pension (08) or British Official Public Service/Forces Pension (09) will be varied by applying the exchange rate to the pounds sterling amount recorded, to determine the new rate of pension in Australian dollars. The income support payment will then be reassessed automatically. |
Manual Cases |
Cases with actions in submission or determined status will not be processed automatically and will be frozen. These cases will be listed on the manual listing for follow up action, and CMS/PIPS cases will be created automatically for action. Any cases processed through PIPS should be reassessed with effect from 22 January 2013 for payday 7 February 2013. |
Non-Government British Other Income (07) |
Previously non-government British other income (07) was refreshed every six months in March and September with other foreign currencies (GROOVER). As a result of a review of British pensions approved by the Repatriation Commission all sterling payments, including British other income (07) are adjusted in uniform exchange rate variations. |
British DP Cases |
Income Support pensioners who are in receipt of ISS, age pension (AP) or service pension with rent assistance (SPRA); and, who also receive disability (war) pension direct from Britain should have that disability pension converted to Australian dollars using this exchange rate. ISS, AP and SPRA should be recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location. Note: If DP has already been assessed as income in determining hardship cases it should not also be assessed as income for RA. |
EATS and Composite Cases |
EATS and Composite cases are subject to the daily exchange rate variation of plus or minus 2.5%. These cases can be extracted through AIS by each location and recalculated by doing a PIPS assessment. Attachment A shows the amount per fortnight in Australian dollars to be applied for the varying United Kingdom amounts. For further details refer to Departmental Instruction DI C22/2005 [3] issued by Veterans' Compensation. |
Printing & Lodgement of Letters |
The mailing house contractor will print, envelope and lodge the advice letters with Australia Post on or before 25 January 2013. An advice letter will only be produced for cases where there is a variation in payment. The letters will be four pages and include the new exchange rate, the amount of income and the new ongoing pension amount. Joint letters will be produced where both members of a couple are in receipt of pension from the British government and their pension varies. Age pensioners will receive separate advices unless joint advices have been requested. |
Estimated Number of Advices to be generated |
The approximate number of advices to be produced for each State, based on the previous run of 16 October 2012, are: New South Wales — 948 Queensland — 678 Victoria — 752 Western Australia — 781 South Australia — 860 Tasmania — 128 Tasmania Overseas — 239 Total4386 |
Tasmanian Overseas Clients |
Tasmanian clients who have an overseas postal address will have the full overseas address printed on their advice letters. The advice letters will be printed, enveloped and sent from the mailing house. |
Streamed Advices |
The advices of the following types of cases will be streamed for printing to local printers at each state location:
The nominated local printers are: QLD — Q402P SA — S116P TAS — T005P VIC — V005P WA — W010P |
Contact officers |
The contact officer for this exercise is Ruth Nicholls (ext 27406). |
Jennifer Stephenson
A/g Assistant Secretary
Income Support & Grants
January 2013
1
ATTACHMENT A
POUND STERLING EXCHANGE RATE FOR PENSIONS FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Foreign exchange periodExchange rate
From |
To |
$ in ? |
? in $ |
22 January 2013 |
0.6802 |
1.4702 |
|
16 October 2012 |
21 January 2013 |
0.6619 |
1.5108 |
24 July 12 |
15 October 2012 |
0.6835 |
1.4631 |
23 June 12 |
23 July 12 |
0.6666 |
1.5002 |
26 May 12 |
22 June 12 |
0.6466 |
1.5466 |
17 April 12 |
25 May 12 |
0.6734 |
1.4850 |
7 February 12 |
16 April 12 |
0.6993 |
1.4300 |
10 January 12 |
6 February 12 |
0.6801 |
1.4704 |
29 November 11 |
9 January 12 |
0.6586 |
1.5184 |
1 November 11 |
28 November 11 |
0.6757 |
1.4799 |
18 October 11 |
31 October 11 |
0.6537 |
1.5298 |
3 May 11 |
17 October 11 |
0.6721 |
1.4879 |
25 January 11 |
2 May 11 |
0.6506 |
1.5370 |
11 January 11 |
24 January 11 |
0.6731 |
1.4857 |
5 October 10 |
10 January 11 |
0.6304 |
1.5863 |
1 June 10 |
4 October 10 |
0.6052 |
1.6523 |
23 March 10 |
31 May 10 |
0.6260 |
1.5974 |
20 October 09 |
22 March 10 |
0.5779 |
1.7304 |
6 October 09 |
19 October 09 |
0.5542 |
1.8044 |
19 May 09 |
5 October 09 |
0.5112 |
1.9562 |
7 April 09 |
18 May 09 |
0.4942 |
2.0235 |
10 February 09 |
6 April 09 |
0.4718 |
2.1195 |
13 January 09 |
9 February 09 |
0.4882 |
2.0483 |
18 November 08 |
12 January 09 |
0.4394 |
2.2758 |
21 October 08 |
17 November 08 |
0.4118 |
2.4284 |
23 September 08 |
20 October 08 |
0.4629 |
2.1603 |
26 August 08 |
22 September 08 |
0.4753 |
2.1039 |
20 May 08 |
25 August 08 |
0.4902 |
2.0400 |
26 February 08 |
19 May 08 |
0.4733 |
2.1128 |
25 February 08 |
0.4553 |
2.1964 |
|
9 October 07 |
14 January 08 |
0.4425 |
2.2599 |
28 August 07 |
8 October 07 |
0.4186 |
2.3889 |
3 October 07 |
27 August 07 |
0.4315 |
2.3175 |
27 March 07 |
2 October 07 |
0.4164 |
2.4015 |
10 October 06 |
26 March 07 |
0.4047 |
2.4710 |
11 April 06 |
9 October 06 |
0.4170 |
2.3981 |
30 August 05 |
10 April 06 |
0.4277 |
2.3381 |
2 August 05 |
29 August 05 |
0.4398 |
2.2738 |
21 June 05 |
1 August 05 |
0.4263 |
2.3458 |
1 February 05 |
20 June 05 |
0.4126 |
2.4237 |
4 January 05 |
31 January 05 |
0.4004 |
2.4975 |
Links
[1] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/24577%23comment-form
[2] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22399%23comment-form
[3] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2005/c222005-use-daily-exchange-rate-variations-eats-and-composite-cases
[4] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22646%23comment-form
[5] mailto:Elis.Lam@dva.gov.au
[6] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21675%23comment-form
[7] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22345%23comment-form
[8] mailto:ganes.jagadeeswaran@dva.gov.au
[9] http://www.dva.gov.au
[10] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22627%23comment-form
[11] mailto:elis.lam@dva.gov.au
[12] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22450%23comment-form
[13] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/payment-rates
[14] https://clik.dva.gov.au/legislation-library
[15] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22248%23comment-form
[16] https://clik.dva.gov.au/attachment-commonwealth-seniors-health-card-carrier
[17] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22169%23comment-form
[18] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21638%23comment-form
[19] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2012/c052012-property-valuation-exercise-20112012-financial-year
[20] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22431%23comment-form
[21] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21802%23comment-form
[22] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22590%23comment-form
[23] http://www.ato.gov.au
[24] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21775%23comment-form
[25] https://clik.dva.gov.au/military-compensation-srca-manuals-and-resources-library/liability-handbook/ch-2-initial-liability/23-investigating-liability-principles/238-reversal-liability
[26] mailto:Liability%26ServiceEligibilityPolicy@dva.gov.au
[27] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22157%23comment-form
[28] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22570%23comment-form
[29] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2011/c082011-indexation-british-war-pensions-disability-pensions
[30] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2011/c172011-exchange-rate-variation-pounds-sterling-effect-income-support-disability-pensioners
[31] http://www.veterans-uk.info/pdfs/publications/va_leaflets/Leaflet%209.pdf
[32] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2013/c032013-exchange-rate-variation-pounds-sterling-effect-income-support-disability-pensioners
[33] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21860%23comment-form
[34] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2011/c072011-indexation-british-official-public-service-and-armed-forces-pensions
[35] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-reference-library/departmental-instructions/2004/c042004-british-income
[36] http://sharepoint/programsandprojects/clik/procedures/Pages/CLIK%20Procedure%20Library%20-%20Links.aspx
[37] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-policy-library/part-10-types-income-and-assets/101-ordinary-income/1015-income-overseas-including-pensions-war-pensions-war-widowers-pension-and-restitution-payments
[38] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-procedure-library/part-10-types-income-and-assets/101-ordinary-income/1015-foreign-income
[39] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21940%23comment-form
[40] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22127%23comment-form
[41] https://clik.dva.gov.au/book/export/html/24577#tgt-csref_c13_ftn1
[42] https://clik.dva.gov.au/book/export/html/24577#ref-csref_c13_ftn1
[43] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22468%23comment-form
[44] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22376%23comment-form
[45] https://clik.dva.gov.au/compensation-and-support-policy-library/part-1-service-requirements/12-service-types/123-requirement-continuous-full-time-service
[46] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/22084%23comment-form
[47] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/21913%23comment-form