Austria Agreement and foreign pension information 106-04006000

In Austria, the pension insurance legislation requires the compulsory payment of social security contributions on behalf of employees, usually through deductions from paid employment.

Contributions insure employees against disability and unemployment and provides for income in the form of a pension once the person reaches retirement age.

The legislation is the responsibility of the Austrian government but the collection of contributions and payment of pensions is the responsibility of the various pension funds. These are broadly arranged to cover the different industries. There is also a central institution, which oversees all Austrian funds.

There are secondary, voluntary occupational schemes and a universal social protection scheme for those with low incomes.

Widow B Pension and Wife Pension were sunsetted in 1995 and, along with Bereavement Allowance, ceased to be paid from 2020. See:

• Widow B Pension
• Wife Pension, and
• Bereavement Allowance

The revised Agreement consolidated the text of the original Agreement and the changes made under the two Protocols.

The revised Agreement:

• reduced the overall portability limit for non-severely DSP outside Australia to the maximum portability period of an autonomous DSP customer who is not severely disabled, and
• amended the 'claim for one = claim for other' provision to only apply where the claim for Australian pension is received in Australia within 12 months of the date of lodgement of the claim for the corresponding Austrian pension

The original Agreement with Austria covered:

• Age Pensions
• Invalid Pensions (now Disability Support Pension)
• Wife Pensions
• Carer Pensions (now Carer Payment) and
• benefits payable to widowed persons:
• Sole Parent Pension (now Parenting Payment Single)
• Widow Pension
• Bereavement Allowance

Note:

• There was no requirement for Invalid Pensions (DSP) to be severely disabled
• A recipient of carer pension had to be the partner of an Australian pensioner
• Widowed persons had to have been legally married (de jure) or a dependent female
• Austria compensatory supplement (Ausgleichzulage) was exempt for customers in Austria, including autonomous customers
• Any payment granted due to being the partner of an Australian pensioner who was paid under the Agreement, e.g. wife pension or carer pension, was also deemed to be paid under the Agreement

Payments granted under the 1992 Agreement continue to be subject to the provisions of that Agreement and including any relevant savings provisions, for example, portability.

Portability under the 1992 Agreement referred to the same rules for autonomous customers departing Australia. See Portability of payments paid under International Agreements.

The first Protocol:

• limited DSP granted outside Australia to severely disabled,
• limited overall portability for non-severely DSP outside Australia to a maximum of 26 weeks,
• added Double Orphan Pension, and
• limited partner related provision to Wife Pension

The Second Protocol:

• removed Wife Pension from text but still allows transfer for portability
• reduced the overall portability limit for non-severely DSP outside Australia to a maximum of 13 weeks. Further amendment in 2017 removed this limit altogether to align non-severely DSP with autonomous portability rules
• added 26 week temporary departure provision
• removed partner related provision, and
• incorporated Double coverage provisions

For Australia:

Department of Social Services (DSS)

For Austria:

Bundesministerium für Arbeit, Soziales und Konsumentenschutz (BMASK) - Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection

For Australia:

Services Australia

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Austria:

• Hauptverband der Österreichen Sozialversicherungsträger (Central fund)
• Pensionsversicherungsanstalt (PVA) - Employees and Workers
• SVA der Gewerblichen Wirtschaft - Trade and Industry
• SVA der Bauern - Farmers
• SVA fur Eisenbahnen und Bergbau - Railway Workers and Miners

For Australia:

Centrelink International Services (CIS)

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Austria:

See Competent institutions above.

Note: although the Hauptverband is the central agency, all liaison and claims should be sent to PVA.

Under the Agreement with Austria, information held about customers may be exchanged between the liaison agencies to determine entitlement to payments under the Agreement and under either country's domestic legislation (Article 18.3).

For information on bulk data exchange, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

The following liaison form is completed by Centrelink International Services (CIS) and sent to Austria:

• AUS187AT - Australia/Austria Agreement on Social Security

For assistance with creating and completing the liaison form, see: Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

Austrian liaison forms + Read more ...

Under the Administrative Arrangements, each country will arrange for an agreed report to be sent with claims for invalidity/disability pensions.

Medical examinations may be done on request for foreign pension claim purposes. The liaison agency will contact Services Australia and request this. There is no provision for reimbursement of costs to either country.

The customer should contact Services Australia if they receive a direct request from the liaison agency to do a medical examination.

Tell the customer to do the Services Australia foreign pension medical assessment process. If they have already done a medical examination based on a direct request from the Agreement partner without consulting Services Australia, the customer should contact the liaison agency to discuss any possible reimbursement options.

If a customer is claiming reimbursement of costs because they did a medical examination requested by Services Australia for foreign pension purposes, consider all evidence provided. For example, if Services Australia gave incorrect advice to the customer and this caused them to:

• seek an independent medical examination, and
• be out of pocket

See Customer compensation and act of grace payments

The Agreement with Austria includes double coverage provisions. Certificates of coverage are used to confirm exemptions.

Any enquiries about double coverage or certificates of coverage should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Any queries about taxation of pensions or the requirement to lodge a tax return should be directed to:

• In the other country - the tax authority in the other country
• In Australia - the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website

See general taxation information, including issuing Australian payment summaries.

Tax treaty

Australia has a double tax agreement with Austria, which avoids the need for the customer to pay tax in both countries.

A person who is 'resident' in one country (according to the definition in the tax agreement) generally only pays tax on pensions in that country.

Tax deductions from income by one country may be allowed as a credit against tax payable in the other country.

Tax deduction

In Austria, Austrian pensions over a certain level are taxed (Lohnsteuer) at the source. Austrian pensions are not taxed in Australia.

The gross rate of Austrian pension, before any deduction is maintained.

Austrian tax year

Austria uses the calendar year (1 January - 31 December) as the tax year. Individuals must lodge a return by 31 July each year.

Australia does not have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Austria.

See general information on health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Any queries about:

• Health insurance coverage in the other country - the customer should be directed to contact the health insurance authority in the other country
• Medicare coverage - should be directed to Medicare

Pensioners in Austria usually have a health insurance deduction (Krankenversicherungsbeitrag) taken out of their Austrian pension and may receive a positive rate adjustment in some cases.

The rate of Austrian pension, before any deduction, including for health insurance, is assessed.

The official language of Austria is German.

See German naming conventions and pronunciation.

Telephone country code is +43

Street address:

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

Rennbahnweg 25/2/15 [Street, house, block, flat]

1220 WIEN [Postcode + locality]

AUSTRIA

Post Office Box address:

Title FirstName Surname Aaddressee]

Postfach 100 [Post office number]

1220 WIEN [Postcode + locality]

AUSTRIA

Rural address:

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

Pulkau 18 [Village name + house no.]

3741 PULKAU [Postcode + delivery area]

AUSTRIA

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

Weingartenweg 1 [Street + house]

Rafing [Village]

3741 PULKAU [Postcode + delivery area]

AUSTRIA

Same-sex marriage in Austria has been legal since 1 January 2019, following a decision of the Constitutional Court on 4 December 2017.

The country has allowed registered partnerships (Eingetragene Partnerschaft) since 1 January 2010.

For Australia, the Agreement with Austria (Article 2.1) covers

• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Carer Payment (CP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Double Orphan Pension (DOP)

Note:

• Only severely disabled DSP customers can be granted under the Agreement outside Australia (article 5.6). Non-severely disabled customers may be granted only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia. See Lodgement rules and start day
• Carer Payment is limited to carer partners of Age Pension or DSP customers only (Article 1.1(i))
• Only a 'widowed person' can be granted PPS under the Agreement. ‘Widowed person’ means a person (either gender) who stops being a member of a couple because of the death of their partner and who is not currently a member of a couple (Article 1.1(j))
• The DOP and Bereavement Smart Centre Processing Team assess and code all DOP claims. Re-categorise DOP claims to ZIAM_DOP_NCL. For help, see Bereavement/Double Orphan Pension Helpdesk
• While BVA cannot be claimed after 20 March 2020, claims lodged prior to this date may still be received. See Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements use the same methods and processes as domestic claims.

Forms to claim an Australian payment in Austria can be obtained by:

• downloading the relevant form from the Services Australia website. See Resources
• contacting Centrelink International Services (CIS)
• contacting the Austrian authorities

Australian forms needed:

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• AUS140AT - Australian Pension Claim – Social Security Agreement between Australia and Austria
• Mod(iA)AT - Income and Assets - Austria

DSP only:

• AUS142AT - Work Capacity - Customer Information – Austrian
• AUS109 - Treating Doctor's Report - outside Australia
• AUS175 - Medical Assessment Report - Disability Support Pension (Outside Australia)

Austria:

• arranges for the AUS175 to be completed on a case-by-case basis
• sends copies of Austrian medical information to Australia
• provides a completed A/AUS5 - Detailed Medical Report. See Medical assessments

CP only:

• AUS156AT - Assessment for Carer Payment - Austrian
• AUS156ATa - Health Professional Assessment for Carer Payment - Austrian

Forms can be lodged at any Austrian Social Security office.

Under Section 3 of the Administrative Arrangements, the Austrian institutions will:

• accept all forms/documents and date stamp the AUS140 form
• verify the customer’s identity and personal details and
• send the form(s) and any supporting documentation to Services Australia with a liaison form specifying periods of coverage in Austria and information regarding Austrian pensions

See Exchange of information and liaison forms.

If a person is not an Australian resident and in Australia on the date the claim is made, they may use the Agreement to meet the residence rules for claims if, on that date, they are:

• an Australian resident, a resident of Austria or another Agreement country that accepts claims for Australian pension under another agreement (Article 5.4(d)(i)), and
• physically present in Australia, Austria or that third country (Article 5.4(d)(ii))

Note: only severely disabled DSP customers can be granted or transferred under the Agreement outside Australia. Non-severely disabled DSP customers may only be granted/transferred if they are an Australian resident and in Australia (Article 5.6).

Claims under the Austrian Agreement

Claims for Australian payment under the Austrian Agreement may be lodged in some other Australian Agreement countries.

See Claim Lodgement Matrix (CLM) for list of countries.

Accepting other Agreement claims

Austria will accept claims for Australian benefits under other Australian Agreements.

Claim lodgement consideration

The customer must also satisfy any other rules under the other agreement and other social security law provisions, including portability. For example, DSP can be claimed in a third country but has an ongoing residence requirement. Therefore, if the claimant is:

• living in the other country, DSP cannot be paid
• temporarily in the other country, DSP may generally be paid for the period it is portable under domestic legislation

The normal rules for working out the date a claim is 'made' and the start day apply to claims under the Agreement with Austria. However, the Agreement also allows:

• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Australian payment in Austria to be used as the date of lodgement of that claim in Australia (Article 15.1), and
• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Austrian payment in Austria to be used as the date of lodgement of a claim for the corresponding Australian payment (FP claim = AU claim) (Article 15.2), if
• the person declares periods of residence in Australia at the time of claiming the Austrian payment (Article 15.2(a)), and
• the Australian institution receives the claim for the corresponding Australian pension within 12 months of the date of lodgement of the Austrian claim (Article 15.2(b))

Note:

• Carer Payment (CP) is not considered corresponding to Austrian Pflegegeld
• The Austrian institution may send a liaison indicating lodgement of a claim for an Austrian pension claim. In this case, contact the customer to make sure the Austrian claim process is in progress

For coding help, see:

• Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements and
• Start Day

The Agreement allows:

• totalisation of periods of qualifying Australian residence and periods of coverage in Austria to meet any minimum periods to qualify for an Australian pension, for example, 10 years for Age Pension (Article 11.1)
• the total of any non-continuous Austrian periods of coverage to be considered to be continuous to meet any continuous residence requirements (Article 11.2)

Note:

• Overlapping Australian residence and Austrian periods of coverage are only counted once (Article 11.3)
• Adjoining periods of Australian qualifying residence and periods of coverage in Austria, with a break of up to 3 months in between can also be considered to be continuous (Policy)

See Resources in International Social Security Agreements for examples of totalisation.

Austrian period of coverage:

• means a period of insurance, for example, a period during which contributions were paid, as defined in the Austrian legislation
• The Agreement does not include pension insurance for civil servants (Bundesbesoldungsamt)
• may include deemed periods, such as for child rearing or military service
• where both actual and deemed periods may be used when totalising for Australian qualification purposes, as long as they are certified and don’t overlap
• must be certified by the Austrian Competent Institution

To be able to use the totalisation provisions, a person who is not an Australian resident at the date of lodgement must have at least 12 months Australian Working Life Residence (WLR) in Australia of which 6 months must be continuous (Article 11.4(a)).

Note: unlike WLR for rate, this period cannot be rounded.

No minimum WLR is required if the person is an Australian resident at the date of lodgement (Article 11.4(b)).

The Agreement also allows a person to use their deceased partner's periods to totalise for PPS or BVA (Article 11.5).

CP has no qualifying residence periods but does have a Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP). Beside normal exemptions, a NARWP only applies to a person who has 'entered Australia'.

See Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) and Qualifying Residence Period.

A person who is resident and present outside Australia has not entered Australia and therefore does not have a NARWP.

To avoid granting CP to a person who has never been to Australia, the Agreement requires a person to have been an Australian resident at some time (Article 5 4 (b)).

Ongoing residence requirements + Read more ...

For customers outside Australia, the Agreement with Austria (Article 7.1) refers to the overall rate calculation contained in section 12(1) of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999.

This means customers paid under the Agreement have:

• a proportional rate paid according to their Australian Working Life Residence (WLR)
• the Rate Limiter/Limited Rate applied
• additional child amounts (S14A, SS(IA)A 1999) included if eligible
• their Austrian pension proportionalised (Randisi concession) for use in the income test using denominator of 300 (Article 7.1)

Note:

• In some circumstances their partner's WLR may be used. See Working Life Residence (WLR)
• Autonomous customers who are paid a proportional rate and in receipt of an Austrian pension will also have the Randisi concession applied to their Austrian pension (Article 7.2)
• The above outside Australia rates does not apply to Double Orphan Pension (DOP) (Article 7.9)

Non-proportional rate extension

Customers paid under the Agreement and temporarily outside Australia, cannot have their non-proportional portability rate extended if they are unable to return to Australia.

Returns to Australia

While there is no temporary return provision, the inside Australia rate includes a comparison rate which means the proportional rate can continue to be paid if it is higher than the direct deduction rate. See Inside Australia below.

Customers in Australia under the Agreement are paid a direct deduction rate (Article 7.4).

This Agreement includes a comparison rate in Australia (Article 7.5).

Departures from Australia

The inside Australia rate continues to be paid for the first 26 weeks of a temporary departure from Australia (Article 7.5a).

Under the Agreement, provided the customer remains qualified, Australian payments are payable indefinitely in both countries, that is, for temporary or permanent absences (Article 5.1).

Portability to third countries for a customer paid under the Agreement is the same as for an autonomous customer leaving Australia (Article 5.3). See Portability of payments.

Non-severely disabled DSP customers paid under the Agreement are limited to the maximum period of portability for an autonomous DSP (generally 4 weeks temporary absence in a 12 month period) (Article 5.7). This means a non-severely disabled customer can:

• be paid for 4 weeks while temporarily in Austria
• if after 2 weeks in Austria, they go temporarily to a third country they can only be paid for another 2 weeks up to the maximum 4 weeks absence from Australia in any 12 month period
• not be paid if they leave Australia permanently

Severely disabled DSP customer paid under the Agreement are payable indefinitely in Austria, for temporary or permanent absences. Portability to third countries is the same as for an autonomous customer leaving Australia. This means a severely disabled customer can:

• be paid indefinitely in Austria or third country if assessed as having no work capacity (NWC) or meets terminally ill provisions
• be paid for 4 weeks temporary absence in a 12 month period if not assessed as NWC nor terminally ill
• not be paid for permanent absences if not assessed as NWC nor terminally ill

If necessary, a customer who receives an autonomous payment that stops being payable due to portability reasons can transfer to the Agreement to continue payment if the:

• payment is covered by the Agreement
• customer meets any payment limitations, such as severely disabled, and
• customer is able to meet the lodgement provisions of the Agreement

If transferred to the Agreement, all Agreement rules apply to the customer, including portability and rate of payment.

See Transfers to international social security agreements.

A person who would be autonomously qualified but is paid under the Agreement can transfer from the Agreement to autonomous only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia.

On return to Australia, system processing will automatically transfer from the Agreement to autonomous if the person is an Australian resident who has only used the Agreement to extend their portability while outside Australia.

Former resident provisions may affect customers who transfer to autonomous if they leave Australia again within 2 years of becoming an Australian resident.

Australian payments may be issued to customers outside of Australia. If the customer intends to be outside of Australia:

• long-term (12 months or longer), their Australian payment may be issued to an overseas bank account. See Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for payment requirements by country
• for less than 12 months, payment will continue to their normal Australian bank account every 2 weeks

See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia.

For Austria, the Agreement covers pension insurance legislation.

Main payments

• Alterspension - Old age Pension (AGE)
• Vorzeitige/Vorgezogene (Early)
• Korridorpension (Corridor)
• Schwerarbeitspension (Heavy labour)
• Invaliditätspension - Invalidity Pension (INV)
• Berufsunfähigkeit (Incapacity)
• Erwerbsunfähigkeitspension (Disability)
• Knappschaftsvollpension/Knappschaftspension (Miners)
• Hinterbliebenenpension - Survivor Pensions. Paid as either:
• Witwen/Witwerpension (Widow) (WID)
• Waisenpension (Orphan) (ORP)

Supplementary payments/Allowances

Austrian compensatory supplement and social assistance payments:

• Ausgleichzulage (Compensatory supplement)
• Sozialhilfe (Social assistance)
  Note: additional social assistance amounts may be paid for pensioners with dependent children
• Wohnbeihilfe (Housing/Living assistance)
• Pflegegeld (Personal Care Benefit) including Hilflosenzuschuss (Helpless person’s allowance)
• Kinderzuschuss/Kinderzuschlag/Kindergeld (Child allowance)

The following known payments are paid by the Austrian authorities but are not covered under the Agreement:

• Restitution payments
• Arbeitslosengeld/Notstandshilfe - Unemployment benefit/assistance
• Heime Opfer vorsatzlicher Gewalt (HOG) - (Home Victims of Prejudicial Violence)

For help with:

• Assessment of Austrian pensions, see Assessment
• Coding of Austrian pensions, see Eligibility and Coding

The requirement to claim Austrian pensions applies to Austrian AGE and INV.

Customers may voluntarily claim SUR and/or Orphan pension using the AGE/SUR claim pack. If claiming both AGE and SUR, 2 separate claim forms are required.

See Foreign pension claims.

Note: European arrangements may allow periods of coverage in one country to be included in assessment for pensions from other European countries. In some cases, the other country may pay the whole pension.

The Eligibility and coding of foreign pensions tab contains detailed information on Austrian payments that are subject to CFP legislation.

Claim packs are available for AGE/WID or INV.

Claim packs are issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS). See Assisting customers to claim a foreign pension.

Specific requirements for Austrian claims:

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• Additional Information for Processing A Pension Application In Austria (AUS/A2)
• Confirmation of Being Alive (Lebenstätigung)
• Application for Direct Transfer of an Austrian Pension to Abroad, to be stamped by the nominated bank

Note: income declaration is for the current calendar year only, i.e. 1 January to date of claim.

WID only:

• Proof of legal relationship - Marriage certificate or EP registration (See Additional information), and
• Proof of death - Death Certificate

Requests for additional information

If information provided with the claim for Austrian pension is incomplete, Austria will send requests for information in German direct to customers.

Under the Agreement with Austria (Article 9.2), Austria may request confirmation of employment periods in Australia during AWLR for customers that worked in any of the following areas:

• Heavy work (arduous or hazardous occupation) which includes shift work, regular work under hot or cold temperatures, chemical exposure or physical exertion
• Mining (underground or surface)

Periods of self-employment can be counted. See Working Life Residence (WLR).

The Verification of Working life residence and employment in Australia (AUS027US) form may be sent to the customer requesting verification.

Note: if there is no evidence of the customer having worked in the corresponding specific field, treat this request as an ordinary AWLR request and not a request for employment details. See Working Life Residence (WLR).

Under Austrian legislation, income from outside of Austria, which includes any Australian payment, may affect the rate of the customer’s Austrian survivor pension. Austrian pension components affected include:

• the basic rate of pension
• Austrian Equalisation/Compensatory Allowance (Ausgleichzulage)
• health care contributions

For affected customers, the Austrian liaison agency will request Australian rates of payment for a specific period via the Agreement liaison process for both the widow/er and the deceased customer.

Under the Administrative Arrangements, Austrian forms can be lodged in Australia at any service centre. See Processing a foreign pension claim.

• All foreign pension claims and supporting documentation must be scanned, and
• The original foreign claim form and copies of supporting documentation must be sent in paper form to Centrelink International Services (CIS). See Processing a foreign pension claim

Centrelink International Services (CIS) only:

CIS will complete the following or arrange for the following to be completed as necessary and attach the documents to the foreign pension claim to send to the agreement country. See Agreement Liaison Detail (ALD) for method of transmission.

All claims:

• AUS187AT - Australia/Austria Agreement on Social Security

For assistance with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

INV only:

• E213 – Detailed Medical Report. See Foreign pension medical assessments
• Copy of existing Australian medical information

Pflegegeld – Austrian Care Benefit:

Services Australia has agreed to undertake medical assessments for customers to continue to receive Austrian Care Benefit (Pflegegeld) upon request. The Pflegegeld-Gutachten Care Benefit Expert’s Report is used. See Resources in Foreign pension medical assessments.

Enquiries regarding claims for Austrian payments in Austria or a third country should be directed to the Austrian social security authorities.

Austrian pensions are paid through Deutsche Post. Payments may be paid by direct deposit in Australia.

Any queries about the non-payment of Austrian pension should be directed to the Austrian pension authorities.

Agreement pensions are paid as12 regular monthly payments and 2 bonus payments in April and September.

Other benefits or private pensions are paid monthly or annually.

Austrian pensions must be recorded in the source currency - Euro (EUR). Official statements provide the foreign currency amounts.

Amounts recorded in source currency on the Foreign Pensions Details (FPD) screen must not be changed to the Australian dollar amount.

Note: payments into Australia are made in Australian dollars.

Austrian pensions are generally increased for Consumer Price Index (CPI or cost of living) changes from 1 January each year. Customers are only notified in February/March.

AGE/INV:

There is no CPI increase in the first year following grant of Austrian AGE/INV pensions, for example, a customer granted in 2021 will have the first CPI applied in 2023.

SUR (WID):

CPI's do apply to Survivor pensions the year following grant.

For information on bulk data exchanges and auto adjusted CPI increases, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

• directly deducted (Article 7.4) and ignored in the income test (Article 8(8)(zc) Social Security Act 1991) for customers paid under the Austrian Agreement who are in Australia
• proportionalised and assessed as ordinary income (Article 7.1) for customers paid:
• under the Austrian Agreement who are outside Australia
• autonomously who are on a long-term outside Australia rate
• ordinary income (not proportionalised) for customers paid:
• autonomously who are inside Australia
• under another agreement other than Austria or New Zealand who are inside or outside Australia

See Rate Calculation for when a direct deduction or proportional rate is applied.

Note: this does not apply to Double Orphan Pension (DOP) (Article 12.9). DOP is a non-means tested payment.

Each member of a couple is deemed to receive half of the total amount received by the couple (Article 12.7). If any part of an Austrian AGE/INV/WID/ORP pension is paid based on deemed contributions due to persecution by National Socialist (Nazi) Party, the whole payment must be coded as restitution. See Restitution payments below.

• Arbeitslosengeld/Notstandshilfe - Unemployment benefit/assistance:
• may be paid for up to six months, after which the customer must reapply
• Heime Opfer vorsatzlicher Gewalt (HOG) - Home Victims of Prejudicial Violence

Persons placed in a children or youth home run by the Austrian government between 1945 and 1999 who were victims of violence may be awarded a HOG pension.

These payments are exempt income for customers paid under the Agreement or autonomously.

Compensatory supplement or social assistance payments are exempt for customers in Austria (Article 12.3). These include:

• Ausgleichzulage - Austrian Equalisation/Compensatory Allowance:
• a top-up payment where the customer’s total income is below the statutory minimum amount. It is paid 14 times a year.
• Sozialhilfe - Social assistance
• Wohnbeihilfe - Housing/Living assistance

Wohnbeihilfe is a subsidy for people with low income to help with cost of housing.

• Kinderzuschuss, Kinderzuschlag, Kindergeld - child support payments

These payments are always exempt for customers in Austria (Article 12.3).

For customers outside of Austria: it is exempt where the child meets the definition of a dependent child (section 8(8)(j) Social Security Act 1991), see Payment for dependent children. Otherwise assess the same as the main agreement pension.

• Pflegegeld - Personal care benefit /Hilflosenzuschuss - Helpless person’s allowance

Pflegegeld may be paid where a person requires personal care.

It is paid to Australian residents only if in receipt of a Restitution payment.

This payment is exempt in all cases from 17 December 2004 (s.8(8)(zi) by Ministerial Determination under s35A Social Security Act 1991) and assessed as ordinary income prior to that date.

• Austrian Restitution payments

Restitution payment paid for National Socialist (Nazi) persecution are assessed as exempt income (s8(8)(n) Social Security Act 1991). Otherwise, payment is assessed as ordinary income.

Exempt restitution payments are generally identified by:

• name of restitution payment. Known payments include:
• Kriegsopferversorgungsgesetz (KOVG) - Compensation for War Victims Act
• Opferfürsorgegesetz (OFG) - Victim Care Act
• Kriegsgefangenentschadigungsgesetz (KGEG) - Prisoner of War Compensation Act
• the word VERFOLGUNG (Persecution) being present on a statement/letter
• statement/letter may refer to 'compensation' paid under sections 500-508 of Austrian legislation

The Agreement includes embargo provisions (Article 16.3) but are not used.

Arrears debts for customers and their partners are raised under s1228A Social Security Act 1991 and recovered by normal methods under the Act. See Comparable Foreign Payment (CFP) lump sum arrears debts.

Where an arrears period is not provided, the arrears period end date can be assumed to be the end of the month prior to the date on the notice.

A contravention debt may also occur if the customer does not advise of the grant of their Austrian payment within their notification period. See Foreign pension coding.

Austria may grant a pension provisionally while still considering factors that affect the rate of payment. Any changes to the rate of pension will be advised on a liaison form and may require further adjustment of the Australian pension. See Comparable Foreign Payment (CFP) lump sum arrears debts.

Where Austria is paying a pension and Australia grants a corresponding payment, Austria will recalculate their rate in accordance with the Agreement. This may result in a slight reduction in rate applied retrospectively. Austria may request an embargo of the arrears of Australian pension to recover any debt from what they call an 'advance payment'.

Embargo process is no longer used for the Austrian Agreement. Provisions under Article 15 of the Agreement are not applied. The Austrian authority will need to request payments directly from the customer.

Life certificates (Confirmation of Being Alive - Lebenstätigung) are issued to Austrian pensioners regularly but not every year.

Life certificates are also required with new claims for Austrian pensions.

Austrian Life Certificates can be certified by an officer of Services Australia.

For information on assisting customers with life certificates, see Assisting customers to maintain an existing foreign pension.

Customers in Australia are sent notices at grant and for changes of rate, for example, annual indexation.