Agnew and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social services second review)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by Mr Agnew for an Age Pension, seeking payment from an earlier date than 23 July 2020. The dispute centred on the cancellation of his initial claim lodged on 24 February 2020. While Mr Agnew asserted he posted supporting documents and later attended a Service Centre on 11 March 2020 to submit further documentation and verify his identity, the Department of Social Services' records did not show receipt of the posted documents. Crucially, the digital records indicated that Mr Agnew's claim was cancelled on 11 March 2020, a fact Mr Agnew denied, suggesting it was cancelled by a Centrelink employee.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine the correct commencement date for Mr Agnew's Age Pension entitlement. This required the Tribunal to ascertain whether the initial claim lodged on 24 February 2020, or the subsequent claim lodged on 23 July 2020, was the operative claim for determining the payment start date. The Tribunal had to resolve the conflicting accounts regarding the cancellation of the 11 March 2020 claim and the submission of supporting documents.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on the digital evidence. It found that while Mr Agnew created an online claim on 24 February 2020, the supporting documents were not received by the Agency. The Tribunal accepted the digital records indicating that Mr Agnew himself uploaded supporting documents to his MyGov account in the early hours of 11 March 2020, and that he attended a Service Centre later that morning to verify his identity. Critically, the digital records showed that Mr Agnew cancelled his application on 11 March 2020. Despite Mr Agnew's assertion that he did not cancel the claim, the Tribunal found the digital evidence compelling. As no exceptions applied under section 5 of the relevant Determination, the Tribunal affirmed the decision that Mr Agnew's Age Pension payment start date was 23 July 2020.