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

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms Winton against a decision by the Secretary of the Department of Social Services regarding her carer payment. The central dispute revolved around whether Ms Winton had received valid notification of the decision to grant her carer payment, which took into account her fortnightly income of $744.94. The case was heard by Professor R McCallum AO, Member.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Ms Winton had received valid notice of the decision to grant her carer payment on 4 December 2014. This question was critical because if valid notice was not given, section 109(3) of the relevant Act provided that a favourable determination on review could be backdated to the original decision date. Conversely, if valid notice was given, section 109(2) would limit any backdated payments to the date of the appeal. A secondary issue concerned the application of section 109(7), which deems notification of CPI price increases to all social security recipients, and the Electronic Transactions Act 1999, which permits electronic notification with consent.

The Member found that it was more probable than not that Ms Winton made a minor error when entering her mobile phone number while applying for self-service on a Centrelink computer. This conclusion was supported by evidence that the form generated from Centrelink's electronic records contained the incorrect mobile number, despite Ms Winton signing the form and providing her correct mobile number at the end. The Member noted that Ms Winton had also indicated her landline was no longer in use, suggesting she may have overlooked the error in her mobile number due to its minimal difference from the correct one. The Member determined that, as Ms Winton had not received valid notice of the original decision, section 109(3) applied, allowing for backdated payments. However, section 109(7) was also relevant, deeming notification of a CPI price increase on 20 March 2016. As Ms Winton applied for review on 4 April 2016, within 13 weeks of this deemed notification, her payments could be backdated to 20 March 2016.