Restoration of Age Pension 065-03080030

Restoration of Age Pension may be possible when a customer's qualification or payability for payment has been re-established after the payment has been cancelled or suspended. Unless the customer is in an extended employment suspension period, and Age Pension qualification and payability must have continued since the date of suspension/cancellation. When restoring payments it is important to establish continuing qualification for payment. If there have been any changes in the customer's circumstances, these must be recorded before restoring payment to avoid incorrect arrears being generated.

If an Age Pension customer loses payability because they have employment income which precludes them from payment, the customer will initially enter an employment income nil rate period. From 1 January 2023, if the customer’s Australian employment income still precludes them from payment at the end of the employment income nil rate period, their payment will be suspended and can remain suspended for 2 years from the first day their rate of payment reduced to zero. This includes where the customer’s employment income nil rate period commenced before 1 January 2023. If they have a partner who receives Age Pension, Disability Support Pension or Carer Payment, their partner’s payment will also be automatically suspended for 2 years. These records will have a benefit status of SUS-ESP or SUS-EPP. An Age Pension customer may also become suspended with reason EPP if their partner receives DSP or an eligible DVA payment, and their partner enters an extended employment suspension period.

Eligible DVA payments are DVA Age Pension, Invalidity Service Pension, Income Support Supplement and Veteran Payment.

If the customer and their partner (if applicable) becomes payable again within the 2 year suspension period, they can request to have their payment restored instead of completing a new claim. If the customer requests a restoration but is still not payable for any reason (for example, income or assets over the limit) they are still eligible to remain suspended for the remainder of the 2 year period. Both the customer and the partner (if applicable) must individually request a restoration, unless one member of the couple has the appropriate authority to request a restoration on behalf of the other member of the couple.

If a customer (and their partner if applicable) have not had their payment restored before the end of the 2 year suspension period, their payment will automatically cancel with reason ESP or EPP. If they want to receive payment again, a new claim is required.

Before restoring payment for a customer released from prison, the Service Officer must first confirm the date of release with the appropriate state authority. Contacts for confirming release are included in the Resources tab of Confirming prison admission and release dates.

In most cases, payment cannot be restored if the customer makes contact more than 13 weeks after the date of release. The customer must test their eligibility and reclaim the payment.

As long as the customer has continued to be qualified and payable during the entire period of suspension/cancellation (or eligible for an employment income nil rate), their payment may be restored with full arrears.

This can occur when the customer contacts more than 13 weeks after the suspension/ cancellation decision. The customer would not have received advice of the decision to suspend or cancel, if they were not at their known address and/or advice of the decision was returned to Services Australia.

Some Age Pension customers admitted to residential aged care are unable to advise their change of address. Customers living in residential aged care will have a current RCA benefit status. The name of the aged care home will display on the RCA Institution Summary (RIS) screen. Take care to check these details when reviewing suspended WUK cases.

The date of effect is usually the date of the original suspend/cancel decision when a customer has a favourable determination (restoration) resulting from a review of the decision. This includes when payment cancels after it has been suspended for 13 weeks, because the cancellation date of effect is the same as the suspension date of effect. Customers who have entered an extended employment income suspension period may have their payment restored from a later date. See the References page.

If the customer contacts within 13 weeks of the decision to suspend or cancel, and they are not in an extended employment suspension period, check their circumstances to determine if full arrears are payable. Payment can be restored from the date of effect of suspension or cancellation if they:

• retained qualification from the date of effect of the decision, and
• they were payable or eligible for an employment income nil rate period

If they contact more than 13 weeks after the later of the decision to suspend or cancel, check if it is possible they may not have received advice of the decision to suspend/cancel. If so, payment can be restored from the date of effect of the suspension or cancellation, providing the customer retained qualification and they were payable or eligible for an employment income nil rate period.

If the customer's payment was cancelled incorrectly, it can be restored when the error has been corrected. For example, CAN-NSR due to incomplete or wrongly recorded residence details.

A customer is required to reclaim if their payment cannot be restored. For the reclaim process, see Initial contact to claim Age Pension.