Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payment Integrity) Bill 2017 [2017] AUSStaCSBSD 244 (9 August 2017)

• Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payment Integrity) Bill 2017
• Retrospective effect 23

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Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payment Integrity) Bill 2017

Purpose	This bill seeks to amend the law relating to family assistance, social security and veterans' entitlements Schedule 1 amends residency requirements for the Age Pension and the Disability Support Pension Schedule 2 ceases the payment of pension supplement after six weeks temporary absence overseas and immediately for permanent departures Schedule 3 introduces a 30 cents in the dollar income test taper for Family Tax Benefit Part A families with a household income in excess of the Higher Income Free Area Schedule 4 extends the maximum liquid assets waiting period for Newstart Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Youth Allowance and Austudy from 13 weeks to 26 weeks
Portfolio	Social Services
Introduced	House of Representatives on 21 June 2017
Scrutiny principle	Standing Order 24(1)(a)(i)

Retrospective effect ^[23]

1.34 Schedule 1 to the bill seeks to amend the residency requirements for the Age Pension and Disability Support Pension (DSP) by changing certain timeframes which need to be met before claims will be deemed payable to eligible recipients. Currently, in order to qualify for the Age Pension or DSP a person must either have been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least 10 years or, alternatively, for an aggregate period in excess of 10 years but including a continuous period of at least 5 years within that aggregate.

1.35 The proposed amendments to the residency requirements would introduce a new requirement that at least 5 years of the 10 year continuous Australian residency period must be during a person's working life. If this 5 year working life test is not met, then a person will be required to demonstrate self-sufficiency by having 10 years continuous Australian residency with greater than 5 years (in aggregate) relating to periods in which the person has not been in receipt of an activity tested income support payment. If a person does not meet either of these new requirements then they will have to demonstrate at least 15 years continuous Australian residency to satisfy the residency requirements for the Age Pension and DSP. The explanatory memorandum notes that 'access to Special Benefit will remain for those people who experience financial hardship, and existing exemptions will remain, such as for refugees or where a person incurs a continuing inability to work after arrival in Australia for DSP'.^[24]

1.36 Although the amendments in this Schedule are to commence prospectively on 1 July 2018, the effect of the proposed amendments is that a person who may have made arrangements based on an understanding of the existing law may have to wait a further five years to satisfy the residency requirements for the Age Pension or DSP. For example, a person who arrived in Australia on 1 February 2009 may have arranged their affairs on the expectation that they would be eligible to receive the Age Pension after 10 years of continuous Australian residence (i.e. from 1 February 2019). However, under the proposed amendments, if the person does not meet the new self-sufficiency test or the requirement for at least five of the 10 years to be within the person's working life, they would not be eligible to receive the Age Pension until 1 February 2024.

1.37 The committee has a long-standing scrutiny concern about provisions that, while not technically retrospective, may raise questions as to the fairness of applying a change in the law to individuals who have arranged their long-standing affairs on the basis of the existing law. The committee has a particular concern if the legislation will, or might, have a detrimental effect on individuals.

1.38 Generally, where proposed legislation will have such an effect the committee expects the explanatory materials should set out whether any persons are likely to be adversely affected and the extent to which their interests are likely to be affected.

1.39 The committee therefore requests the Minister's advice as to why it is considered necessary to apply the amended residency requirements to individuals who may have arranged their affairs on the basis of the existing law, and the number of people likely to be adversely affected by these proposed changes.

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[23] Schedule 1. The committee draws Senators' attention to this provision pursuant to principle 1(a)(i) of the committee's terms of reference

[24] Explanatory memorandum, pp 6–7.