Scheme administration

Membership data

Table 19: Membership summary 30 June 2009
  Contri−
butors		 Preserved
/deferred
benefit
members		 Pension−
ers		 Total member−
ship 07/08*		 Total member−
ship 08/09*		 Total change % change
CSS Male 12 828 7 803 65 340 149 442 146 277 (3 165) (2.12)
Female 6 979 3 054 50 273
Total 19 807 10 857 115 613
PSS Male 52 272 44 629 9 263 252 487 253 394 907 0.36
Female 72 715 64 960 9 555
Total 124 987 109 589 18 818
PSSap Male 25 485 8 875 n/a 73 983 85 202 11 219 15.16
Female 36 322 14 520
Total 61 807 23 395
Total 206 601 143 841 134 431 475 912 484 873 8 961 1.88

Note: CSS pensioners include 1922 Act scheme members.
* Total membership also includes child/student pensions which are not split by gender.

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Table 20: Member and employer contributions received 2007/08 – 2008/09
  2007/08 2008/09   % change
Member* Employer* Total* Member* Employer* Total* Difference
CSS $119m $41m $160m $109m $39m $147m ($13m) (8.13)
PSS $525m $221m $746m $543m $217m $760m $14m 1.88
PSSap $33m $362m $395m $10m $492m $503m $107m 27.34
Total $677m $624m $1 301m $662m $748m $1 410m $109m 8.38

Note: The dollar amounts have been rounded up from the first decimal place.
* These figures do not include transfers in, co-contributions or any appropriations from the CRF.

Chart 1: Membership by type Chart 2: Membership by scheme
Scheme membership by type Scheme membership by scheme
Chart 3: Membership trend by type Chart 4: Membership trend by scheme
Membership trend by type Membership trend by scheme
Chart 5: Membership enquiries trend (last five years)
Membership enquries trend for the last 5 years
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Member communication and services

ARIA aims to give members information, education and advice to help them make the right super decisions. ARIA does this by giving members clear, concise and tailored communications throughout the year and works with the scheme administrator to deliver websites, contact centres and comprehensive employer support.

At Work for You workshop

ARIA’s member education program, At Work for You continued to be a valuable tool for members. The At Work for You workshops aims to empower members and increase their super confidence through in-house and public workshops.

In 2008/09, ARIA held workshops at more than 38 locations around Australia. There were 293 At Work for You workshops throughout the year with 8 744 members attending a workshop. ARIA also tailors At Work for You workshops for employers to help in times of restructure and redundancies.

Websites and targeted campaigns

ARIA’s websites and targeted campaigns are another way that ARIA helps members to improve their super knowledge and confidence. The scheme websites have a range of online tools and members can find information specific to their super. ARIA conducts research with its members to identify areas of improvement for its online services.

Contact centres

The scheme administrator offers members information through its CSS/PSS and PSSap contact centres. The contact centre was again nominated for the Australian Teleservices Association Awards and was a state finalist in the NSW/ACT division. To further its commitment to high levels of customer service, the scheme administrator introduced enhanced scheme training during the year and continued to focus on employee development through improved quality assurance measures.

Employer support

Employers play an important part in delivering member services and the scheme administrator works closely with 216 participating employers for the CSS, PSS and PSSap. Employers also receive support through phone contact, written advice and a monthly newsletter. The employer service team dealt with more than 36 890 enquiries for the year.

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Scheme administrator

Scheme administration for the CSS, PSS and PSSap is undertaken by ComSuper on the basis of a statutory mandate.

The scheme administrator’s major areas of activity and accountability encompass:

  • receiving and accounting for contributions from employing agencies in respect of their employees
  • maintaining records of contributors, preservers and pensioners
  • calculating and paying benefits (including invalidity benefits)
  • under delegation, reconsidering and reviewing decisions on entitlements
  • providing information to members.

Performance of administrator

Performance standards are set down in the service level agreement between ARIA and ComSuper.

ComSuper provides weekly and monthly reports against the standards in the service level agreement.

ARIA undertakes an annual service provider review of ComSuper, including an assessment of the administrator’s performance during the year against the agreed service standards.

Benefit payments

During 2008/09, the scheme administrator implemented a number of customer service improvements which it identified in focus groups held during the year.

ComSuper restructured its benefit application team to allow members to contact them directly about their benefit application, instead of going through the contact centre. ComSuper also streamlined its benefit application process.This produced the fastest average benefit processing time and the smallest number of applications on hand since 2006/07 for PSSap, PSS and CSS members.

Chart 6: Benefit payments by type 2008/09
Benefit payments by type 2008/09
Table 21: Total number of benefit payments (by type)
  Age/
retirement		 Involuntary retirement Invalidity Death Resignation/ other Early release Total 08/09
Contributor exits 827 571 77 46 1 016 12 2 549
Preserved claims 2 093 0 12 12 2 4 2 123
CSS total 2 920 571 89 58 1 018 16 4 672
Contributor exits 2 294 1 641 280 103 6 267 215 10 800
Preserved claims 1 333 0 34 136 0 496 1 999
PSS total 3 627 1 641 314 239 6 267 711 12 799
PSSap total 500 0 11 22 2 649 42 3 224
Total 7 047 2 212 414 319 9 934 769 20 695

Note: These figures reflect benefits processing and not cases where a member has necessarily taken out all of their funds.

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Pensions

Pensions in force at 30 June 2009 Pensions paid
$		 Weighted average yearly pension
$

 

Age retirement /involuntary retirement Invalidity retirement Spouse Child /other Total
CSS 70 374 16 504 28 674 61 115 613 3 136m 26 058
PSS 15 818 2 169 740 91 18 818 352m 18 616
Total 86 192 18 673 29 414 152 134 431 3 488m 25 050
Chart 7: Pensioner population trend Chart 8: Average pension trend
Pensioner population trend

Average pension trend

Note: The PSSap does not offer a pension product.

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Dispute resolution

Decisions of ARIA and its delegates are subject to internal review (the reconsideration process) and external review. As required under legislation a formal complaints process is also in place.

Internal review - reconsideration

A person affected by a decision of ARIA or a delegate may apply in writing to have it reconsidered. The scheme administrator (ComSuper) investigates requests and prepares cases and puts them before the Reconsideration Advisory Committee (RAC). The role of the RAC is to make recommendations to ARIA concerning requests for reconsideration. The RAC may make a recommendation to affirm or vary the decision, substitute another decision or set aside the decision.

Each applicant receives a written statement of reasons for ARIA’s decision on reconsideration.

The RAC comprises four members (two independent and two scheme administrator representatives) with a quorum of three members, one of whom must be an independent member.

Due to other commitments, both longstanding independent members, Ms Ann Forward and Mr Bill Gray AM, resigned from the RAC during the year. ARIA appointed two new members in February 2009. The committees currently comprise:

  • Ms Elizabeth d’Abbs and Mr Stevan Matheson, as the independent members
  • any two of five nominated scheme administrator representatives.

In 2008/09, 30 applications for reconsideration for the CSS and PSS were received, compared with 24 last year.

Of the requests received, five involved spouse eligibility decisions, five involved late elections for preservation of rights and five involved approval of invalidity retirement. The remaining requests involved limited benefits member status, partial release of preserved benefits and decisions made under various other scheme provisions.

There were 30 CSS and PSS cases finalised during the year, compared with 31 for the previous year. Seven requests lapsed or were withdrawn without proceeding to reconsideration. The original decision was varied in favour of the applicant in four cases, due mainly to additional evidence provided as part of the reconsideration process.

To date there have not been any requests for reconsideration from any PSSap members.

Requests for reconsideration are treated as complaints for the purposes of section 101 of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (the SIS Act) and should a person be unhappy with ARIA’s decision, they may request the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) to review the decision in accordance with the Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993.

Table 23: Reconsideration applications received and outcomes 2008/09
  Decision
of the:		 Brought forward Received Withdrawn or lapsed Decisions affirmed Decisions set aside Resolved*
CSS Delegate 9 13 3 12 3 18
Trustee 0 1 0 1 0 1
PSS Delegate 6 15 4 5 1 10
Trustee 0 1 0 0 0 0
PSSap Delegate 0 0 0 0 0 0
Trustee 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 15 30 7 18 4 29

* Resolved = withdrawn or lapsed + decisions set aside
** Carried forward = brought forward + received - resolved

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External review

Certain ARIA decisions are subject to external review by the Federal Court and other bodies such as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the SCT and the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Complaints lodged with the SCT

Table 24: Complaints lodged with the SCT for all schemes 2008/09
  Carried over Received Completed On-hand
Total 34 73 55 52

Federal Court

Decisions of the SCT are reviewable by the Federal Court under section 46 of the Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993 (the SRC Act). Appeals, on the grounds of an error of law only, must be initiated within 28 days of notification of the SCT decision.

ARIA appealed one SCT decision to the Federal Court. This is reported at Australian Reward Investment Alliance v Superannuation Complaints Tribunal [2008] FCA 1548. ARIA’s appeal was upheld.

Administration decisions are subject to review by the Federal Court under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (the AD(JR) Act).

Decisions which may be reviewed under the AD(JR) Act include decisions made by ARIA and its delegates.

Claims against ARIA

During the year, ARIA received 68 claims for compensation concerning benefit entitlements. A further 29 claims were still outstanding at 30 June 2008. ARIA and its delegates considered 67 claims during the year with 30 cases outstanding at 30 June 2009.

Of the 67 claims considered during 2008/09 liability was accepted in 34 cases, for which total compensation payments (including claimants’ legal costs) amounted to $396 241 in lump sums.

Complaints and representations

There was a decrease in the number of complaints received this year over last. This was mainly due to a number of processes that were automated or issues that were resolved that were previously a cause of complaint.

The most common cause of complaints in the last financial year in order of frequency were:

  • quality of service
  • delays in service and failure to respond to requests
  • delays in paying benefits
  • incorrect statements
  • delays in providing estimates
  • investment switch issues
  • earning rate policy and allocation of funds
  • problems with the payment of benefits
  • incorrect information given
  • problems with insurance premiums payable.
Table 25: Complaints and representations
  Total received
CSS Complaints 400
  Ministerials 12
  Ombudsman enquiries 9
PSS Complaints 324
  Ministerials 7
  Ombudsman enquiries 6
PSSap Complaints 128

 

Ministerials

1

 

Ombudsman enquiries

0
Total 887
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