Centrelink?s cancelling of 80-year-old?s age pension ?absurd and wrong?, tribunal rules

Centrelink’s decision to cancel the age pension of an 80-year-old man who lives in a nursing home with advanced dementia was “absurd and wrong”, a tribunal has found.

The tribunal heard David Fry was living in an aged care home and his son, John, was appointed his legal guardian, after David was discovered driving on the wrong side of the road and judged to be “mentally incapacitated”.

John Fry became responsible for managing his father’s dealings with Centrelink, which had been paying David the age pension since 2006.

In May 2018, the agency suspended David Fry’s age pension because John failed to provide updated financial details for one of his father’s superannuation accounts.

John, who the tribunal heard was having difficulty obtaining the information and was unfamiliar with Centrelink processes and his father’s finances, called the agency and the payment was reinstated.

However, his father’s pension was suspended again in September for the same reason, before the agency cancelled it altogether in December 2018.

The last letter Centrelink sent before the payment was cancelled, on 20 October, was sent to David Fry, rather than his son.