Commonwealth Numbered Acts

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT 1991 No. 46, 1991 - SECT 139

139. If:

   (a)  a person is qualified for payments under this Subdivision in relation
        to the death of the person's partner; and

   (b)  the person dies within the bereavement period; and

   (c)  the Secretary does not become aware of the death of the person's
        partner before the person dies; there is payable, to such person as
        the Secretary thinks appropriate, as a lump sum, an amount worked out
        using the lump sum calculator at the end of this section.
LUMP SUM CALCULATOR This is how to work out the amount of the lump sum:
Method statement Step 1. Add up:

   (a)  the amount that, if neither the person nor the person's partner had
        died, would have been payable to the person on the pension payday
        immediately after the day on which the person dies; and

   (b)  the amount that, if neither the person nor the person's partner had
        died, would have been payable to the person's partner on that
        pension payday; the result is called the combined pensioner couple
        rate. Step 2. Work out the amount that, but for section 138, would
        have been payable to the person on the pension payday immediately
        after the day on which the person died if the person had not died: the
        result is called the person's individual rate. Step 3. Take the
        person's individual rate away from the combined pensioner couple rate:
        the result is called the partner's instalment component. Step 4. Work
        out the number of pension paydays in the period that commences on the
        day after the person dies and ends on the day on which the bereavement
        period ends. Step 5. Multiply the partner's instalment component by
        the number obtained in Step 4: the result is the amount of the lump
        sum payable under this section.