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

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms Seymour against a decision of the Secretary of the Department of Social Services regarding the payment of rent assistance as part of her Family Tax Benefit (FTB). Ms Seymour had inquired in December 2014 about the absence of rent assistance in her payments, which led to a review by the Secretary. The Secretary subsequently decided to include rent assistance in her ongoing FTB payments and to pay arrears of rent assistance from 1 July 2013. Ms Seymour contended that the arrears should have been backdated further, arguing that she had submitted a Rent Certificate in October 2011 and trusted Centrelink to process it correctly.

The primary legal issue before the court was to determine the correct statutory provisions governing the review of the decision and the appropriate date from which rent assistance arrears could be paid. Specifically, the court had to consider whether the Secretary's review was initiated by Ms Seymour or by the Secretary's own motion, and consequently, which sections of the *Administration Act* applied. A further issue was whether any special circumstances existed that would permit the backdating of arrears beyond the period prescribed by the relevant statutory provisions.

The court found that Ms Seymour initiated the review by her email inquiry in December 2014, and therefore, sections 109A and 109E of the *Administration Act* were the relevant provisions, not sections 105, 106, and 107 which apply to reviews initiated by the Secretary. The court noted that Ms Seymour had received numerous notifications about her FTB payments between October 2011 and December 2014, which provided opportunities to seek a review of the absence of rent assistance. Section 109E(1)(f) prescribed that where an application for review is made more than 52 weeks after notice of the original decision, the review decision takes effect from the first day of the income year before the income year in which the application was made. In this case, the application was made in the 2014/2015 income year, meaning the arrears were correctly limited to the period commencing 1 July 2013. The court also considered section 109E(2), which allows for discretion to backdate arrears further if special circumstances prevented an earlier application for review, but found no such special circumstances were established by Ms Seymour.

The court affirmed the Secretary's decision, concluding that the payment of rent assistance arrears was correctly limited to the period from 1 July 2013 to 2 January 2015. No further backdating was permissible as Ms Seymour had not demonstrated special circumstances that prevented her from seeking a review within the statutory timeframe.