Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

This bill, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Overseas Welfare Recipients Integrity Program) Bill 2019, implements a measure announced in the 2018-19 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to confirm that Australian pensions are being paid only to overseas pensioners who are still alive. Voluntary third-party reporting, such as by family members, is the primary method by which the Department of Human Services learns of the death of an overseas pensioner. Data shows that there is a disparity between the death rates of pensioners aged 80 years and above overseas and in Australia. This disparity is significantly large enough to suggest that DHS is not being notified in all cases or in a timely manner when a person dies overseas. Analysis of a sample of pensioners overseas in a target group highlighted that many of these pensioners go years without further contact with the Australian government. In some cases this has been more than 20 years.

This change will help to protect the integrity of government outlays for welfare payments overseas, ensuring a fair and sustainable welfare system. The introduction of a proof-of-life process will also bring Australia into line with international practice. Because Australia is a multicultural country, with a large proportion of Australians having been born overseas, the government recognises that many people choose to return to their country of birth upon retirement. However, there is some confusion with some pensioners and their families overseas that Australian pensions can be inherited by partners or family. This misunderstanding is compounded when a person is concurrently receiving pensions from Australia and another country where the other pension may remain payable to a widow or widower. There are approximately 96,000 age pension, disability support pension, widow B pension, wife pension and carer payment recipients currently residing permanently overseas. Of these, approximately 25,000 are aged 80 years and over, and they live in around a hundred different countries. The top five countries of residence are Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and New Zealand. Australia has international social security agreements with 31 countries that allow people to claim an Australian pension while living overseas.

It is estimated that this measure will identify approximately 6,000 pensioners aged 80 years and over who are deceased and still receiving payments overseas. This measure is expected to save around $219 million from 2019 to 2023 as a result of identifying deceased pensioners earlier. Pensioners aged 80 and over and residing permanently overseas for longer than two years will need to complete and return a proof-of-life certificate every two years in order to continue to receive their pension overseas. To help protect against fraud, the certificates will have to be verified. Pensioners will have a range of options available to have their certificate verified so as to make their process as easy and practical as possible. Pensioners will be given 13 weeks to respond to the request. If there's no response their pension will be suspended for up to 13 weeks. If they still haven't responded after this time—26 weeks in total—their payment will be cancelled. Should they make contact and provide their completed proof-of-life certificate after this time their payment will be able to be reinstated without requiring the pensioner to reclaim. A pensioner who has their payment reinstated will be paid any arrears to which they're entitled. Provided a pensioner responds and provides their completed proof-of-life certificate within 39 weeks of the initial request being sent, they will be able to receive full arrears. Life certificates or proof-of-life requests are commonly used for pension eligibility confirmation by European countries—

Debate interrupted.