SFWG minutes, March 2011

6. Scheduling

6.1 Processing activities

Carolyn confirmed:

• payment processing will proceed as previously advised in our calendar and monthly processing updates provided by SFWGSecretariat email
• there will be no monthly SHA special account payment in June 2011
• there are no major backlogs with processing LMS or MCS
• work continues on remediating
• seven funds impacted by duplicates debits on co-contributions remittance advice PVAs and credits on co-contributions recovery notices PVAs
• one fund impacted by unprocessed SHA special account PVAs.

6.2 Credit interest remediation

Carolyn Harris reported progress on the payment of credit interest on late payment of member entitlements.

• At the implementation of superannuation processing in ICP in February 2009, there were a number of issues
• that contributed to a delay in paying member entitlements;
• impacting correct calculation of credit interest.
• We undertook to remediate the payment of credit interest but this has been delayed until recently.
• We have reviewed approx 100,000 accounts and credit interest payments for approx 55,000 accounts were included in the March 2011 monthly co-contribution payment (an average of approx $2.00 per member). Approx 40,000 accounts did not receive a further payment due to rounding up of the credit interest component at the time of initial payment. Funds were advised of this payment in CRT email Alert 009/2011.
• We intend to continue to pay credit interest in batches of 200,000 accounts aligned with the monthly co-contribution payment run in April and May 2011.

April 2011 - 100,000 accounts were reviewed with approximately half of these receiving further payments in the April 2011 monthly run.

Future months - the volume of cases processed each month will be significantly reduced. The remaining cases are impacted by multiple factors and this has reduced the number of cases we action each month. We are likely to continue to remediate co-contribution credit interest beyond the end of the 2011 financial year.

Funds were advised that the credit interest payment is to be treated as a co-contribution payment.

Funds that identify any issue with the acceptance or processing of the monthly files because of the credit interest payments, should escalate the issue to opssupercrt-rundle@ato.gov.au

6.3 Recovery notice processing for co-contribution

Carolyn Harris provided an update on work to remediate issues impacting the calculation of co-contribution recovery amounts and issue impacting correspondence relating to the recovery notice process.

• A small batch of approx 100 accounts was included in small release in March 2011 to test the process from end to end. Funds involved were advised by CRT Alert 012/2011 email issued 24 March 2011.
• The fix to correctly populate the Super/FHSA Product Header Data Record field entitled Sender trans reference number (a mandatory field) in the electronic reporting system remittance advice and recovery notice specification V3.2 has been implemented earlier this week (commencing Monday 28 March 2011) and testing has been successful.
• There remains one known but small issue with the paper correspondence cover letter issued to the fund advising them of the issue of a recovery notice. The template letter has a payment slip at the bottom which includes 'Please pay this amount by ...' but the date field is not populated.
• Funds receiving the electronic recovery notice can identify the due date from the co-contributions recovery notice Super/FHSA Contributions Data Record field for the 'Due date'. Refer to electronic reporting system remittance advice and recovery notice specification V3.2.

We expect to be issue monthly recovery notices in the fifth week (or first week) of the month, keeping them separate from the monthly co-contribution remittance advice process for an interim period to ensure the process is bedded down correctly.

We will provide an update to funds prior to the release of the first monthly recovery notice release.

6.4 General interest charge (GIC)

Carolyn Harris confirmed earlier comments that a number of fixes have been recently been implemented and remediation processes to rectify incorrect GIC calculations is underway. The ATO expects this work to be completed by the end of the 2011 financial year.

6.5 Outcome of lodgment reports (OOLR)

Carolyn Harris provided an update on our work to remediate the OOLR file format issues that have delayed the release of OOLRs generated from our integrated core processing system (ICP) since January 2010.

The system fix was implemented in March 2011 and we have received confirmation this week (Tuesday 29 March) that the fix has delivered the required changes.

We will shortly commence releasing OOLR for new lodgments shortly.

Note: - OOLR impacted are:

• payment variation advices (PVAs) for co-contribution, SHA special account and First Home Savings Account (FHSA)
• MCS
• LMS
• OOLRs for super guarantee PVAs, surcharge assessment variation advices, or USM statements are not impacted as these are processed on our legacy system.

We expect to release the backlogged OOLR from mid April. Further updates regarding the timing of the release will be provided.

Action item	30032011/13 The ATO to provide an update to funds on the release of OOLR: for new lodgments backlogged since January 2010. Completed - CRT Alert 014/2011 email issued 18 April 2011.
Due Date	13 April 2011
Responsibility	Jacqui Walker

Funds were asked for feedback on how they would prefer to receive the backlogged OOLR.

Funds advised it is their preference that the backlogged reports are issued in one batch (if possible), however general discussion highlighted a number of issues associated with potential workflows for funds and the ATO associated with the rejects of MCS, PVA etc, including:

• they want one ECI transmission for each lodgment product (e.g. MCS, Co-contributions PVA, etc.); they don't want multiple ECI transmission files limited to daily lodgment or mixed lodgment types within one transmission;
• what credit interest is payable to a member where their entitlement was PVA'd by the fund to the ATO, but has not yet been credited to their account for transfer to a new fund destination due to the delayed OOLR reported the PVA was rejected
• the timeframe the ATO expects funds to action any corrective action and associated penalties that may be applicable.

Action item	30032011/14 The ATO to confirm that all backlogged OOLR would be delivered to administrators / funds in separate ECI transmissions by report template (eg. MCS, co-contribution PVA, etc).
Due Date	13 April 2011
Responsibility	Jacqui Walker

Action item	30032011/15 The ATO to review and provide advice on credit interest applicable for a member where their entitlement has been PVA'd by a fund back to the ATO but not yet credited to their account because the OOLR delay advising the fund the PVA was rejected.
Responsibility	Carolyn Harris

Fund representatives also raised concerns regarding delays in processing fund claims on behalf of members; only after contact with the CRT was the request actioned.

Action item	30032011/16 The ATO to review business processing timeframes on fund claims lodged on behalf of members.
Due Date	2 May 2011
Responsibility	Carolyn Harris

6.6 Update on LMR outbound campaigns

Due to time restraints, this item was not discussed and will be addressed separately out of session.

Sections within Agenda items

• 1. Opening
• 2. SuperStream and e-commerce overview
• 2. Review of action items from 1 December 2010 meeting
• 4. Product update
• 5. Update on LMR address updates program
• 6. Scheduling
• 7. Revised super deduction form
• 8. False or misleading statements
• 9. Electronic transmission of portability form
• 10. Other business