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

This matter concerned an appeal by Mr Wagner against a decision by the Secretary of the Department of Social Services regarding his entitlement to Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for the 2020/2021 financial year. Mr Wagner had been a recipient of FTB since 2004 and elected to receive his payments as a lump sum at the end of the financial year. He had not received FTB for the 2019-2020 period and had also failed to update his family income estimate by the required date in 2019, leading to the cancellation of his FTB. The dispute arose because Mr Wagner lodged his income tax return for the 2020/2021 financial year on 15 July 2022, which was after the deadline of 30 June 2022, a requirement for claiming a lump sum FTB payment.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether Mr Wagner was entitled to FTB for the 2020/2021 financial year, specifically whether his claim for a lump sum payment was made within the prescribed time, and if not, whether there were special circumstances that prevented him from lodging his income tax return by the deadline. The Tribunal was required to determine if Mr Wagner's call to Centrelink on 17 July 2019 constituted a valid application for the lump sum FTB payment for the 2020/2021 financial year, and if his late lodgement of his tax return was due to special circumstances.

The Tribunal found that Mr Wagner had indeed lodged his income tax return for the 2020/2021 financial year 15 days outside the allowable time. While the Tribunal accepted that Mr Wagner's FTB had been lawfully cancelled in 2019 due to his failure to update his income estimate, it also noted that the advice provided by Centrelink regarding how to make a new claim for FTB was confusing. The Tribunal accepted Mr Wagner's evidence that he believed his call to Centrelink on 17 July 2019 was his application for the lump sum FTB payment, as he had been receiving FTB payments with his tax returns prior to 2019 and had not been required to submit a new claim annually. However, despite finding that Mr Wagner's FTB claim was made in time, the Tribunal concluded that this did not resolve the impediment to accessing his FTB lump sum for the 2020/2021 period, as he had clearly lodged his income tax return out of time.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review.