Australia. Veterans accuse Federal Government of ‘ripping off’ thousands from retirement benefits
A Federal Coalition backbencher is lobbying the Government to investigate how much money he believes it owes some older Australian military veterans.
Veterans, including some who served in Korea, Malaya and Vietnam, signed up for compulsory superannuation called the Defence Force Retirement Benefits (DFRDB) scheme between 1948 and 1972.
The Defence Force Welfare Organisation (DFWO) estimated there are 2,305 pensioners still covered by this scheme.
It calculated there are 52,000 pensioners who are members of the scheme that operated from 1973 to 1991, and around 1,500 are still serving members of the Defence Force.
Upon retirement, those who served more than 20 years could take a commutation, or advance payment, of part of their pension and repay the money with fortnightly deductions based on their life expectancy or actuarial age.
The veterans believed that once they reached age 72, for example, they would have repaid all money owed and their pension payments would immediately return to the full amount. However they have continued to receive the reduced pension, which has been a bone of contention for them ever since.
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