Transfer to international social security agreements 061-01110000

Customers who have declared their portability to an agreement country should have already had a portability decision made.

Has a portability decision been made?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, see Portability of payments. Procedure ends here

Customers must provide evidence that they are in an agreement country. The form AUS172 Certification of location in a country with which Australia has a social security agreement may be used for this purpose. Forms must be endorsed by the relevant social security authority in the agreement country.

Note: other evidence of location may be accepted, for example, passport stamps, boarding passes or confirmed bookings and travel itineraries.

The Resources page contains a link to the form and examples of the date of event to use.

Is the delegate satisfied that the customer is located in the agreement country at the date the transfer is to take effect?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, issue the form AUS172 to the customer with the covering letter 'GEN011' using the Multilingual Letters script. Record all details in a DOC. Procedure ends here

Is the customer in receipt of DSP?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 5

Customers must be severely disabled to be able to transfer to Disability Support Pension (DSP) under an agreement.

Note: there are additional requirements under the Agreement with New Zealand, see New Zealand Agreement and foreign pension information.

Previous severely disabled decisions may still be acceptable if all the following conditions are met:

• Severely Disabled Code field on the Pensions Disability Information (PDI) screen has been coded as 'YES' within the last two years
• Impairment Tbl Version field on the Medical Condition Details (MC) screen is '01/01/2012'
• the decision on the Document List (DL) screen was made by an International Disability Officer (IDO) in CIS
• the customer has had nil or less than 8 hours per week of employment recorded on the Employment Income Summary (EANS) or Real Estate/Business Summary (REBS) screen since the previous severely disabled decision

Is a previous severely disabled decision still acceptable?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, see DSP severely disabled assessments for International Agreements. Procedure ends here

Unless specifically requested by the customer, the agreement for the country in which the customer is located should be used in the first instance. Only if the customer is unable to use that agreement should entitlement under any other agreement be considered.

To be able to transfer to an agreement, as at the date of event to be used a customer must:

• Not be entitled autonomously
• Be receiving, or suspended for portability reasons, a payment covered by the relevant agreement
• DSP only: Must be severely disabled for DSP
• Meet the claim requirements under the agreement. Note: this includes a residence determination as well as presence
• If necessary, meet the qualification (totalisation) requirements under the agreement, for example, refugee departing Australia permanently

The Resources page contains examples of the date of event to be used.

Does the customer meet the requirements to transfer as at the date of event to be used?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, customer is unable to transfer to agreement:
• Contact the customer to advise of the negative decision
• Record all details in a DOC. Procedure ends here

Go to the Additional Residence Details (ARD) screen. Update the Agreement Country, Agreement Year and if needed the Australian working life residence. For more information see:

• Coding the Additional Residence Details (ARD) screen
• Working life Residence (WLR)

If suspended, ensure the record is restored from the appropriate date of event, see Restoration of payments (CLK).

• Ensure any other relevant screens are coded correctly, for example:
• Country of Residence (CRES)
• Pension Disability Information (PDI)
• Ensure all customer contact details are up to date
• Record all details of the decision in a DOC

If the customer:

• is departing Australia for 12 months or more, see Customer is going overseas long term – entitlement check and record transfer
• needs to change their bank account to one in the new country, see Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia