Instone and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social security)
[2025] ARTA 656
•16 April 2025
Instone and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social security) [2025] ARTA 656 (16 April 2025)
Applicant: Miss Instone
Respondent: Secretary, Department of Social Services
Chief Executive Centrelink
Tribunal Number: 2025/S192731
Tribunal: General Member A Cichypp
Place:Perth
Date:16 April 2025
Decision:The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.
Statement made on 16 April 2025 at 12:41pm
CATCHWORDS
SOCIAL SECURITY – Austudy – Carer Allowance – Carer Supplement – grant date – longer than the authorised respite period – eligibility for Carer Supplement – decision under review affirmed
Names used in all published decisions are pseudonyms. Any references appearing in square brackets indicate that information has been omitted from this decision and replaced with generic information pursuant to subsection 201(1A) of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999.
Statement of Reasons
BACKGROUND
Miss Instone was in receipt of carer allowance for her mother, [Mother A], until this was cancelled on 1 May 2023, after [Mother A] had been overseas for longer than the authorised respite period.
Miss Instone’s new claim for carer allowance was granted on 4 August 2023, from 3 July 2023.
On 7 August 2023[1], Miss Instone requested an internal review of Centrelink’s decision to grant her carer allowance from 3 July 2023, and not an earlier date. The Tribunal notes that in Centrelink’s notes of her request for an internal review of the decision, she was informed that as she was not in receipt of carer allowance from 1 July 2023, she was ineligible for carer supplement.
[1] Folio 63
On 17 December 2024, a Centrelink authorised review officer affirmed the decision.
On 7 January 2025, Miss Instone applied to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) for an independent review of the authorised review officer’s decision. The Tribunal observes that the reason provided by Miss Instone for her application was to appeal the rejection for carer supplement and takes this to be a request for a review of the date at which she was granted carer allowance.
On 11 April 2025, the Tribunal conducted a hearing at which Miss Instone gave oral evidence under affirmation by conference telephone. The Tribunal had before it documents (89 pages) provided by Centrelink from Miss Instone’s computer and paper file and a recording of a telephone conversation between Miss Instone and a Centrelink officer on 30 June 2023, both of which had been provided to Miss Instone prior to the hearing.
LEGISLATION AND ISSUES
The relevant legislation is found in the Social Security Act 1991 (the Act), the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (the Administration Act) and the Social Security (Administration) Class of Persons – Intent to Claim) Determination 2018 (the Determination).
The issue which arises in this case is whether Miss Instone should be paid carer allowance for a date earlier than 3 July 2023.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
The Tribunal notes that Miss Instone’s communications with Centrelink in relation to its decision have been in relation to her qualification for carer supplement, rather than carer allowance.
Under section 992X of the Act, a person is qualified for carer supplement if the person was or is paid an instalment of carer allowance, carer payment or carer service pension in respect of a period that includes 1 July in that year.
If the Tribunal finds that Miss Instone qualified for carer allowance such that it was paid to her in a period including 1 July 2023, it will follow that she is also qualified to receive carer supplement.
Should Miss Instone be paid carer allowance for a date earlier than 3 July 2023?
Miss Instone’s handwritten claim for carer allowance is signed but undated. Nonetheless, Centrelink’s documentation shows that the claim was submitted on 3 July 2023.[2] The Tribunal is satisfied that this is the date at which Miss Instone submitted her claim.
[2] Folio 9
Miss Instone told the Tribunal she clearly recollected the following:
(a)On 29 June 2023, she had an appointment at a Centrelink office with her mother, taking her mother’s passport, in order to reinstate her carer payment. She said that she was told by Centrelink that everything was fine and that she did not need to do anything further for the payment to be reinstated.
(b)On Friday 30 June 2023, she visited Centrelink’s offices twice, requesting further information as she was concerned that her payment would not be reinstated. On the second visit, she requested a conversation with a supervisor and was referred to Centrelink’s call centre, which she phoned from Centrelink’s [Suburb 1] office.
The Tribunal reviewed the recording of Miss Instone’s conversation with the Centrelink call centre of 30 June 2023. In the recording she told the Centrelink staff member that:
(a)Her mother had returned home the previous night.
(b)She was aware that she needed to make a new claim for carer payment.
(c)She collected the forms from Centrelink’s [Suburb 2] office that day, specifically forms SA404 and SA406.
The Tribunal finds that:
(a)Miss Instone visited Centrelink’s offices twice on 30 June 2023, firstly at [Suburb 2] and secondly at [Suburb 3].
(b)Miss Instone was provided with the forms for a new claim for carer payment on 30 June 2023 at Centrelink’s [Suburb 2] office.
(c)Miss Instone did not visit a Centrelink office with her mother on 29 June 2023.
Schedule 2 to the Act provides the rules for working out the start day of a social security payment. The general rule (provided in Part 2) is that a person’s start date for a payment is the day on which the claim is made if, on the day the person makes the claim, they are qualified for the payment.
Section 13 of the Administration Act provides, however, that a claim can be backdated in a limited range of circumstances. In brief, if Centrelink is contacted by a person (or on behalf of a person) in relation to a claim, who, on that day, is included in a class of persons determined in an instrument under section 14A, and that person subsequently lodges a claim, the claim may be deemed to have been made on the day Centrelink was contacted (subject to other criteria being met).
The Determination is the legislative instrument made under section 14A of the Administration Act.
The classes of person to whom section 13 of the Administration Act applies are set out in section 5 of the Determination, as follows:
a)subject to domestic or family violence;
b)homeless;
c)hospitalised or suffering from a temporary incapacity arising from a medical condition;
d)released from prison or psychiatric confinement;
e)experiencing high stress associated with a relationship separation;
f)a parent of a dependent child born during the relevant period;
g)affected by the death during the relevant period of an immediate family member;
h)a person who entered Australia during the relevant period as a humanitarian entrant to Australia;
i)person whose usual place of residence is in a remote area, and the person is physically present in the remote area;
j)a person whose principal place of residence was lost or sustained major damage during the relevant period as a result of an extreme circumstance, or
k)subject to other special circumstances beyond the person’s control.
l)
Miss Instone made submissions with respect to special circumstances beyond her control insofar as she has been subject to verbal abuse and violence from her neighbours. The Tribunal is not satisfied that Miss Instone was unable to lodge her claim on the date because of these circumstances; it is clear that she was able to visit Centrelink’s offices twice on 30 June 2023.
Since Miss Instone does not fall within any of the classes of persons specified in section 5 of the Determination it follows that the date at which her claim is granted must therefore be determined using Schedule 2 to the Act. The correct start date for Miss Instone’s carer allowance is therefore the date that she lodged her claim, that is, 3 July 2023.
DECISION
The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.
| Date(s) of hearing: | Friday, 11 April 2025 |
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