Part-time and casual work

Full-time vs part-time hours

Quick notes

• You are only eligible to be part-time as a CSS member if you are a permanent employee, as temporary part-time and casual members are not eligible for CSS.
• You must qualify as a 'partial contributor' before part-time hours become effective for CSS purposes.
• You don't qualify as a partial contributor until you have worked part-time for 12 months continuously (or on commencement if you started as permanent part-time).
• As a partial contributor, you do not need to qualify as a full contributor if you revert to full-time employment, though the part-time hours reported on the first birthday after reverting to full time employment is still proportioned across the previous 12 months.

Part-time qualifying

Before you can be part-time for super purposes, you must qualify as a partial contributor. To qualify as a partial contributor, you must have worked part-time hours for 12 months continuously, or commenced a new membership as a part-time employee.

Once you qualify as a partial contributor, your part-time hours are reported to CSC by your employer. Your new hours will affect your contributory service accrual from this time, but not your contributions.

On your next birthday, your part-time hours are reported again to CSC, though these are proportioned based on your part-time and any full-time hours effective for super purposes in that year. The hours reported on the birthday will affect the contributions, but not the contributory service accrual.

On your second and subsequent birthdays after qualifying, hours are proportioned again.

We explore this with an example below.

Example explained

Maria, a full-time CSS member, changed from full-time to part-time at 40/80 hours per fortnight on 20 May 2018. At this time, there is no change to her CSS benefit, she is still full-time for CSS purposes.

It's not until 12 months later, on 20 May 2019, that Maria qualifies as a partial contributor. Maria's employer will report her actual part-time hours to CSC, effective on 20 May 2019. This will affect her contributory service accrual; however, she will continue contributing at a full-time rate.

On Maria's first birthday after qualifying as a partial contributor, 27 April 2020, her employer will report part-time hours to CSC, though this is a proportion of the hours she actually worked and the full-time equivalent hours in the previous twelve months. However, the period prior to qualifying as a partial contributor must be treated as though she worked full-time. Therefore, the part-time hours in effect on her birthday 27 April 2020, will be higher than her actual working hours. These hours will dictate the rate of basic contributions payable for the next 12 months.

Maria does not change her hours and on her following birthday, 27 April 2021, her employer again reports hours to CSC. Technically, these are still proportioned over the previous twelve months, however Maria has been working at 40/80 hours per fortnight for the entire time, so her hours for CSS purposes will be 40/80.

This continues for as long as Maria remains part-time. If/when she changes her working hours, they are reported to CSC with effect on the date that they changed, though this only affects contributory service accrual. Her hours on her birthday will always be proportioned across the previous twelve months.

If Maria regularly changes her part-time hours, then she may never pay contributions at the same proportion of the actual hours she is working as her birthday hours will repeatedly be proportioned.

Reverting to full time employment

If you return to full-time hours, there is no qualifying period. Your new hours are reported immediately, and your contributory service accrual is adjusted.

At your next birthday, proportioned hours are reported, and contributions are calculated from these.

At your second birthday, contributory service and contributions are based on full-time hours.

Example explained:

Continuing with the previous example, Maria had part-time hours of 40/80 reported with effect on her 2021 birthday.

On 20 May 2022 she begins working full-time again. There's no qualifying period for returning to full-time work, so her full-time hours are reported to CSC with effect on that date. This affects her contributory service accrual, however her contributions are still proportioned to the 40/80 part-time hours reported on her previous birthday.

On her next birthday, 27 April 2022, proportioned hours are reported to CSC. These are based on part of the year at 40/80 and part of the year at full-time. These proportioned hours will affect Maria's contributions until her next birthday, but not her contributory service accrual, which still accrues at a full-time rate.

Finally, on her next birthday, 27 April 2023, Maria's full-time hours are reported to CSC, meaning that she will contribute at a full-time rate until her next birthday. Her contributory service was already accruing at a full-time rate.

Calculating contributions

As a CSS member, you will always pay contributions proportional to the full/part-time hours reported on your most recent birthday (or commencement).

Your contributions are calculated by first determining the contributions payable if you were full-time, then applying the proportioned hours effective on your most recent birthday (or commencement).

To calculate the contributions, we first need to calculate the proportioned hours effective on your birthday, then calculate the contribution amount. The proportioned hours are simply the hours you actually worked compared to the hours you would have worked if you were full-time. Periods before qualifying as a partial contributor are treated as though you worked full-time.