REQUEST FOR A REVIEW OF THE DECISION TO REMOVE OUR PENSIONS AND TO

REMOVE THE GRANDFATHERED STATUS OF MY VICSUPER PENSION, IN JUNE 2021

        Delivered to               Centrelink, SA      15th September 2022

INFORMATION FOR THE REVIEWING OFFICER – RE LOSS OF PENSION, AND LOSS OF GRANDFATHERED STATUS FOR MY VICSUPER ACCOUNT – in June 2021

In October 2020, we found out that our younger son and his family were moving from Melbourne to South Australia, wife grew up in Adelaide and wanted to return to SA, to grow up with her three sister’s families and to be able to spend time with her parents. We have a son with a severe dual disability of Down Syndrome and Major Depression with serious Catatonia – for which he has spent six months in Upton House Box Hill Victoria mental hospital to try to find appropriate medications, and an effective intervention regime. He has the mental age of a 4 year old, and needs 24/7 care. Realising that we…

• Needed family to help with management of all supports…
• That we could buy a house more cheaply in SA
• That we could make a downsizer payment into super
• That we needed to reduce our possible total asset to retain our pension payments…

We applied first to meet with one of the best lawyers advising on Special Disability Trusts. She said that many of her clients applying for a SDT had enormous difficulty trying to get approval for their children. She said that you just had to keep on contacting Centrelink to get some response from them. We understood very little about the Centrelink process.

We then applied to Centrelink to contact the Special Disability Trust team, in November 2020 - for our son to be approved for a special disability trust - SDT. I said that the processing of our application was very urgent, and that we were having to buy a house in South Australia to be near my other son’s family, some that they would be able to help with the management of our son with all his supports – Occupational Therapist, Psychologist and Bahaviour Managent Support, Psychiatrist, etc.

The reason for this application to Centrelink - was that we could buy a house for us all to live in, in name through a SDT, and so not have to lose our pension, and so that he would not have to move out of the house when we were gone.

I rang Centrelink a number of times during the early months of 2021 to see what progress had been made. We were not allowed to speak directly to the SDT team, and had little idea of what was happening. In the end, we had to buy a house in SA. in late April, and ended up with a total asset that was a small amount over the asset limit for a pension.

We made a number of phone calls to FISK officers at that time, who made calculations and said that we could still keep our pension – his calculation we eventually found to be incorrect.

Review Request

We did not understand that we would lose our pension, and the grandfather status for my VicSuper pension as well, until the day that we were told that our pension was being removed in June 2020. It took until May/June, six months after our original application in November 2020, for the SDT team to contact us, to say that had been approved for an SDT. This was too late for us to be able to organise the purchase of a house in our son name through a SDT. We had already bought a house in to move over to SA with my other son’s family. If we had been given better/correct, more comprehensive information by Centrelink, when we first asked for it and over the following months, and if the Centrelink SDT team had taken our original request seriously and with more compassion, we would never have been placed into the position of losing our pension, and losing the grandfathered status of my VicSuper account. Having a disability of Down Syndrome alone, is an automatic pass of the criteria to be permitted by Centrelink to have an SDT. Taking six months to process our request and to give approval for a SDT - was I believe, a gross miscarriage of justice.

I am requesting that the decision to remove our pensions, and the grandfathered status of my Vicsuper account, be reviewed, since we did everything possible to avoid that possibility, and were seriously let down by Centrelink staff and processes – that caused this loss. We applied for our pensions to be restored and that has happened from June 10th 2022. Also, in a letter from the FISK officer who I spoke to a few weeks ago – it stated that if a customer is in continuous receipt of an incoming support payment for Centrelink purposes, the grandfathered status for an account-based income stream can be retained. My wife has had payments for many years including all of 2020, 2021 and 2022. EG. in Jan 2022 they were $113.64 per fortnight, relating to her care of a son with a serious disability.

I believe at the very least, that the grandfathered status of my VicSuper pension should be restored – and that is what we are requesting, as the outcome of this review. We have suffered substantial financial loss and considerable psychological trauma over the past year, which was precipitated by a number of Centrelink inactions, omissions, mistakes, and failures to act promptly.

• The accompanying document was a submission to the reviewing officer for aCentrelink overpayment request to be reconsidered. This has been dealt with already, and I am expecting a response from the reviewing officer this week.

INFORMATION FOR THE REVIEW OFFICER – REGARDING THE REQUESTS BY CENTRELINK, FOR

BACK PAYMENTS TO BE MADE - SENT IN JUNE AND JULY 2022

Delivered to Centrelink - 20th June 2022

• On the 31st of May 2022 - we applied to have our pensions restored, and handed in the application form, filled out. We visited Centrelink again, on the 10 June at 10.30am, on the 1st July at 2pm, and on the 15th July at 10.30am - having been asked to fill out and supply a number of documents relating to income, assets, and super statements related to the , over these subsequent visits

• Late June 2022 - we each received documents detailing over payments of $1,044.09 from May-June last year, 2021

• On the 1st July 2022, I visited Centrelink to request a review of the debts that we were told we had to repay. I visited Centrelink on the 15th July to put in information for the reviewer to look at

• On the 1st of July - I rang Centrelink to request that the repayment for myself and my wife be put on hold. Multiple requests for repayment kept on being sent, in spite of this

• On the 19th of July - I rang Centrelink again, and this time the Centrelink officer did contact the Dept Recovery Team, and they did put the repayments on hold, pending the review – for myself and my wife. My wife also received another debt recovery payment request on the 19th July 2022, for $606.83, an amount which had just been paid into our joint bank account on the 14th July 2022

• My pension and my wife’s carer payment, were cancelled this time last year, June 2021

• We sold our house in in Victoria and moved to for family reasons, in April last year

• Because the house bought here was much cheaper than the house we sold – we were each able to make down-sizer payments into VicSuper

• I already had a Flexible Income account with Vic Super for many years, which was ‘grandfathered’

• When we arrived in , we went into respite with our son, for one month to try to settle him into a BET home care facility. This was enormously traumatic and did not work. My son was recovering from Major Depression and with serious Catatonia, as well as having Down Syndrome

• Equally traumatic was trying to look after our son in respite, and at the same time attend to organising; our furniture out of storage in Adelaide, the unpacking, our telecom, gas, TV, connections, renewed driver’s licences, car registration and new number plates, etc. We were not able to move into our home until June, and took our son with us. Being nearly 80 and 85 years of age, made this all the more difficult

• I made appointments to speak to FISK officers a number of times to try to clarify and understand our position with Centrelink. The first FISK officer that I spoke to, made a mistake in calculating and said that we would be able to keep our pensions

• I tried to make appointments to speak to staff in the Office. I had to wait some time for an appointment because of new Covid restrictions and minimal staff available. When we went in to the Centrelink Office, we found that the appointment was cancelled without warning, and we had to make another appointment and wait some more time. When we finally got to see one of the staff, we found that they wanted more information, which entailed another appointment, further waiting, and meeting with them. It was not till the day when we went in, with the extra information wanted, that our pensions were removed from us. On that last day that we went in, it was clearly

• explained to us - that while the Flexible Income super account with VicSuper was ‘grandfathered’ - this only applied to when calculating income, and was not now grandfathered when it came to total asset calculations
• Centrelink did not choose to request we make back-payments – but did remove our pensions
• We feel that in view of all the above - that it is unfair to go back and change the decisions of Centrelink from last year
• I am 80 years old. My wife is now 85 years old. She has just broken her pelvis and seriously torn her upper leg muscles. She has spent the past two weeks in hospital. Walking is very painful. In the past few years, she has broken her backbone, and her upper arm as well, in separate falls.
• Our son with a disability is now 45 years old. If the NDIS were to take over responsibility for his care, it would cost them ~ $600,000 per year – over $11,000 per week. This is the amount equivalent, that we have been saving the government for many years
• There is no disability accommodation that would be acceptable to give quality care for him in . We do not have sufficient finances to afford and maintain a second house. There is no future for him other than in our own home, with ourselves giving a substantial part of his care, for the few more years that we are able. There are organisations in Melbourne who are doing creative and affordable things for people with a disability – but not here in South Australia.
• Living with other people with a disability, has in the past, always sent our son into serious depression, hospitalisation and serious compulsive obsessive behaviours, as well as very antisocial behaviours. Going into a group home or a nursing home would very quickly destroy him