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

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered a dispute between Mrs Wells and the Secretary of the Department of Social Services concerning Mrs Wells' eligibility for an age pension. The core of the disagreement revolved around the valuation of Mrs Wells' assets for the purpose of calculating the rate of her age pension.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether Mrs Wells' assets, specifically the sale proceeds of a property and a mortgage payment, exceeded the asset limit for receiving an age pension. This involved assessing the total value of her assets at two critical points in time: the date of her age pension claim and the date a significant mortgage was paid off.

The Tribunal found that at both relevant times, the value of Mrs Wells' assets exceeded the prescribed asset limit of $821,500. Consequently, she was not qualified for the age pension at the time of her claim. The Tribunal set aside the previous decision and substituted it with a decision that Mrs Wells was not qualified. The Tribunal noted that Mrs Wells was at liberty to lodge a new claim should her asset value subsequently fall below the limit.