Accounting Services
financial resources
Financial resources for the payment of pensions and lump sum benefits are provided from the DFRB and DFRDB special appropriation, which is held by the Department of Defence. Contributions by Members of the DFRDB Scheme are paid into revenue item ‘Superannuation (DFRDB)—payments by Members received’, which is also held by the Department of Defence.
debtors
At 30 June 2008, $1,425,012 was due to the Authority in benefits overpaid under the DFRDB and DFRB Schemes. There are two common causes of overpayment, one being late notification to the Authority that the recipient is deceased and therefore is no longer entitled to receive the benefit. The second relates to re-entered recipients to the Defence Force where delay in notification results in overpayment of pension.
Administrative processes are in place to reduce the chance of overpayments arising. Most overpaid benefits are recovered by the Authority.
During the year, debts totalling $111,767 were written-off. Most write-offs occurred after the death of a pensioner where the bank account had been accessed by a third party for a period after the date of death or the funds had been used for funeral expenses. In some instances the debts were not legally recoverable or it had become uneconomical to pursue them.