International Social Security Agreements

Question

Senator RUSTON: I'm not going to ask you to read this out. I'm assuming there are different arrangements in place with these jurisdictions, so they're not uniform in terms of the reciprocal arrangements-or are they? Maybe that's a question. Mr Flavel: I think what I would say is that there is a sort of standard form that's taken, because generally they apply to things like age pension and the ability to totalise working requirements, for instance, across both countries. So there will be some level of them being bespoke, but they do use what I'd loosely term a kind of standard form or template in relation to social security. Senator RUSTON: For instance, would every one of those 32 agreements have reciprocal arrangements in relation to the age pension? Mr Flavel: They generally would, but I'm being a bit cautious because these are longstanding. Some of them have been in place for decades, and others have just been signed in the last few years, and generally we find that there can be some minor changes, obviously, as we go through time, particularly for those ones that are newer. Senator RUSTON: Even if you can point me to where this information is publicly available, if it is, I'd be interested to understand which payments are contained in each of these arrangements. If it's possible to say, 'Here are the ones that are in every one, and these are the ones that have additional ones, or have the potential to have some level of bespokeness,' could you provide the details. Mr Flavel: I'm happy to do that, but generally they apply to pensions. Senator RUSTON: Pensions, as in the pool of different types of pensions. Mr Flavel: Yes, old age and those sorts of things. Senator RUSTON: Pensions as opposed to working age payments. Mr Flavel: Correct, yes. Senator RUSTON: Alright, it would be great if you could provide that.

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• DSS SQ26-000714.pdf (opens in a new tab)