Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

SOCIAL SECURITY (ADMINISTRATION) ACT 1999 - SECT 39

             (1)  Subject to subsection (3), if the Secretary does not make a determination regarding a claim within the period of 13 weeks after the day on which the claim was made, the Secretary is taken to have made, at the end of that period, a determination rejecting the claim.

             (3)  If:

                     (a)  a person makes a claim for a social security payment that is a relevant social security payment for the purposes of subclause 4(1) of Schedule 2; and

                     (b)  the person is not, on the day on which the claim is made, qualified for the payment; and

                     (c)  assuming the person does not sooner die, the person will, because of the passage of time or the occurrence of an event, become qualified for the payment within the period of 13 weeks after the day on which the claim is made; and

                     (d)  the person becomes so qualified within that period;

the claim is taken, for the purposes of subsection (1), to be made on the day on which the person becomes qualified.

             (4)  If the Secretary asks a person who has made a claim for a social security payment or a concession card or another person for information in relation to the claim, the period that:

                     (a)  begins on the day on which the Secretary asks for the information; and

                     (b)  ends on the day on which the information is given to the Secretary;

is not counted for the purpose of subsection (1).

             (5)  If:

                     (a)  a person makes a claim (the actual claim ); and

                     (b)  apart from this subsection, the person would, by virtue of section 13 or 14, be taken to have made the claim on a particular day;

then, in spite of section 13 or 14, as the case may be, a reference in subsection (1) of this section to the day on which the claim was made is a reference to the day on which the actual claim was made.