Canada About Oz DSP Agreement

[baranghope]

On behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, I am pleased to respond to your correspondence of September 23, 2012, concerning Australia's disability support pension.

Departmental officials have contacted Australia's Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs regarding to your enquiry. We have been informed that there have not been any changes to Australian disability support under the Agreement on Social Security between the Government of Canada and the Government of Australia.

However, there have been changes to the domestic Australian disability support legislation and the general exportability period. We were further informed that the Australian disability support pension under the Agreement is limited to those assessed as being severely disabled, therefore, a person wishing to move to Canada indefinitely would need to qualify under the Agreement (i.e. less than eight hours of work capacity) or qualify under domestic Australian legislation as having a partial impairment and no capacity to work.

Should you wish to obtain more information about the changes to Australian disability support legislation and their applicability to your disability support pension, please refer to Centrelink International Services' web site: www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/international-services <http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/international-services%20> .

The Government of Canada also offers a variety of services and financial benefits to assist people with disabilities and their families. The following web site lists available disability benefits: www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lifeevents/disability.shtml <http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lifeevents/disability.shtml%20> .

I trust that this information is helpful in addressing your concerns. Thank you for writing.

Yours sincerely,


Dominique La Salle
Director General
Seniors and Pensions Policy Secretariat
Income Security and Social Development Branch
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

[Banker]

(i.e. less than eight hours of work capacity)

This is the interesting part. Is this 8 hours per week or per month?

Where are the staff at C/L getting this 2 hour B/S from?

[baranghope]

I don't know Banker. I assume the Canucks have interpreted the CL 0-7 hours JCA category as meaning under 8 hours. Bottom line is Service Canada is buck passing . . . while nothing ostensibly contravenes the joint SS Agreement . . . they are basically saying expats must hang by the Oz CL yardarm. In other words solely up to Oz whether or not they agree to pay a repatriating person a % of their offshore DSP. Might as well not be an Agreement now really, because of the fine print.