Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Overseas Welfare Recipients Integrity Program) Bill 2019.

As the member for Stirling just said, this government is committed to maintaining a welfare system that is fair and sustainable. The measure introduced in this bill strengthens the integrity of the welfare system by making sure that Australian pensions are only being paid to pensioners who are still alive. There are approximately 96,000 age pension, disability support pension, widow B pension, wife pension and carer payment recipients currently living permanently overseas, in about 100 different countries. Of these, approximately 25,000 are aged over 80.

Currently, the Department of Human Services mostly relies on voluntary reporting by family members or friends on the death of a pension recipient overseas. Payments can continue until this is reported. Sometimes these payments continue through the deliberate and intentional fraud of others. Sometimes it happens unintentionally—people not realising that they need to notify the department of the death of another person. Sometimes it arises through misunderstanding, as many overseas pension or national insurance schemes may be bequeathed to or inherited by partners or family members after the recipient dies. This can create some misunderstanding, with pension recipients and their families living overseas believing that they can continue to receive the Australian pension when the pension recipient dies.

The process being introduced in this bill addresses all three scenarios in a balanced way. It will make sure that only people entitled to an Australian pension continue to receive it and it minimises the impact on pensioners who do the right thing. It is estimated that these measures will identify approximately 6,000 pensioners over the forward estimates who are deceased but to whom payments are still being made. The measure is expected to save around $219 million over the forward estimates from 2019-20 to 2022-23 as a result of identifying deceased pensioners earlier.

Pensioners aged 80 years and over and residing permanently overseas for longer than two years will need to complete and return a proof of life certificate every two years to continue to receive the pension while they are overseas. To help protect against fraud, the certificates will have to be verified. Pensioners will have a range of options available to have their certificate verified. These may include but are not limited to a judge or magistrate of a law court, a medical doctor who is registered or licensed to practise in that country, a police officer, a notary public or an Australian official at an embassy, consulate or high commission. This provides overseas pension recipients with multiple options for verifying the proof of life certificate, making the process as easy and practical as possible.

There are a number of safeguards built within this amendment bill. They include the ability to reinstate a living pensioner's payment if it is suspended or cancelled. The process is as follows. Pensioners will be given 13 weeks to respond to the request for proof of life. If they provide no response, their pension will be suspended for a period of up to 13 weeks. If the pensioner still hasn't responded after this time, a period of 26 weeks in total, their payment will be cancelled. Should that pensioner then make contact with the Department of Human Services and provide their completed proof of life certificate after this time, their payment can be reinstated without the pensioner being required to reclaim. A pensioner who has had their payment reinstated will be paid any arrears to which they are entitled. Provided a pensioner responds and provides their completed proof of life certificate within 39 weeks of the initial request being sent, they will be able to receive full arrears.

Requirements for proof of life certificates are not unusual and are commonly used in other countries. Many European countries—for example, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy—insist upon them, and in some countries they have required these for more than a decade. Some countries require them on an annual basis and some on a biannual basis, and some don't restrict it to any particular age group.

As I said at the outset—and I confirm what the member for Stirling said earlier—this government is committed to maintaining a welfare system that is fair and sustainable. The measure introduced in this bill strengthens the integrity of the welfare system by making sure that Australian pensions are only being paid to pensioners who are still alive. It does so in a balanced way without being too onerous on pensioners themselves and it provides sufficient safeguards and avenues for reinstatement of the pension payments to living pensioners whose payments may have been suspended or cancelled. I commend the amendment bill to the House.

See this speech in context