Important update for retirees with an Account Based Pension (ABP) assessed by Centrelink March 15th, 2023
Netplan has become aware that Services Australia may be using outdated valuations to calculate entitlements for Pension payments.
This could result in you being under-paid what you are entitled to receive.
What's happened?
Twice per year, usually in February and August, Account Based Pension (ABP) providers are required to provide Services Australia with updated data for individuals with ABPs. This system requires ABP providers to provide data in a batch format, which is then processed by Services Australia. There is no set day for the data to be provided which means it varies between providers.
When the system processes the data, the new balances are used to calculate entitlements. The change in balance can have a dramatic effect. For example, an increase of $40,000 for an asset tested pensioner will result in a decline of 40 X $3 or $120 per fortnight.
We have become aware that some ABP data being used to process the new payment rate, dates back to early February.
At that time, the Australian Share market was about 6 percent higher than it is today.
It means that any ABP fund with any exposure to share investments is likely to have a value that is lower today than it was back in early February.
What you need to do
There is no legislative requirement for Services Australia to re-calculate entitlements where there has been a change in value, other than the next automatic update due in August.
What you can do is manually request a re-calculation:
- Login to your ABP provider(s) and check the current account balance, while you are there, you should be able to request a “Centrelink Schedule” which should be a PDF file you can print-out or upload.
- Login to your Centrelink account via the mygov portal.
- Go to the income and assets section and check to see the ABP balance currently on your Centrelink record.
- If this is higher than the balance of your ABP obtained in 1), you should select the option that allows you to update your details.
- You may have to upload a copy of the Centrelink Schedule obtained in 1)
- If the balance in 3 is lower for some reason, do nothing. It could be that the system has not yet been updated.
- If the system has not yet been updated, then it may end up using data that is more current. In that case, check back weekly until you see the updated valuation.