Sick or injured CSS and PSS customers

Customers of CSS and PSS who are totally and permanently incapacitated (TPI) may be able to medically retire and claim an invalidity benefit through us.
Medical retirement is not possible unless we issue an Invalidity Retirement Certificate (IRC) for any employees who are:

• customers of CSS and under age 65 or
• customers of PSS and under age 60

Is your employee over these age limits?  Find out what we’ll need here.

Your application must include medical reports, but how many?

Your IRC application should include at least two medical reports support that your employee is TPI. However, if your employee’s personal or medical circumstances mean that you’re unable to get more than one medical report, we might still be able to approve an IRC. We call this ‘clear entitlement’.¹ 

Clear entitlement is met when we’re satisfied there’s no reasonable doubt that your employee is TPI. We might be satisfied of this after reviewing just one recent medical report and any other information or matters we consider relevant.

If we’re satisfied that your employee is TPI under clear entitlement, we’ll issue an IRC so you can medically retire your employee. If we’re not satisfied, we may ask you to provide us additional information or take other appropriate steps before we progress the application.

You can find more helpful information about invalidity retirement via the links below:

• Applying for a CSS or PSS invalidity retirement certificate
• Assisting terminally ill CSS and PSS members
• CSS and PSS doctor’s report checklist for invalidity retirement
• CSS and PSS application for issue of invalidity retirement certificate form

You can also request that we send an invalidity benefit estimate to an employee by completing our estimate request form.

¹This isn’t a legislative term used in the Superannuation Act 1976. See subsection 54H(1) of the Superannuation Act 1976 for the CSS equivalent of ‘clear entitlement’.

Below is a list of the current AMP providers who are to be used when obtaining a report on whether or not your employee is totally and permanently incapacitated in preparation for an IRC application.

Employees who are customers of CSS and PSS may be eligible to receive PAPs before an IRC is issued if they:

• are likely to be totally and permanently incapacitated
• have been off work for 28 consecutive days
• have expired all of their sick leave
• are not receiving compensation payments
• are not a limited benefits member.

You can find more information on applying for and paying PAPs in our guide.

Our PAP calculator will assist you to pay and seek reimbursement of PAPs paid to a customer.

Customers of CSS and PSS may be eligible for a PIP if they have suffered a permanent decrease in salary due to a change to their work hours and/or redeployment to a lower position which is attributed to a physical or mental incapacity.

Use the links below to learn more about PSS PIPs:

• Applying for a PSS partial invalidity pension
• Reviewing a PSS partial invalidity pension
• Paying PSS partial invalidity pensions
• Informal reduction in hours – delegate’s instrument
• Informal redeployment – delegate’s instrument
• PSS medical officers’ report checklist for PIP applications
• PSS medical officers’ report checklist for reviewing PIPs
• PSS PIP application (SPP) form

Our PSS PIP calculator will assist you to pay and seek reimbursement of a PSS PIP.

Use the links below to learn more about CSS PIPs:

• Applying for a CSS partial invalidity pension
• CSS medical officers’ report checklist for PIP applications