Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) Written Submission

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) Written Submission

Order Description

Administrative Law Assignment
(2500-word Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) Written Submission)

Before getting started, please be noted that ALL of your work has to be based on AUSTRALIAN sources and authorities. If you have not complied with any of my

instructions provided below, I will have to ask you to edit the essay. (For your information, this has happened quite often and I had to ask the writer to edit more

than four times in one instance). Thank you for taking my work and I look forward to your awesome work.

Instructions: You will be required to provide a 2500-word written submissions based on a fictional AAT fact scenario. The scenario will include (as much as possible)

tribunal documents as attachments. A more detailed description along with the assignment and other resources will be attached for your information. The aim of this

assessment is to allow students an opportunity to adopt a problem-solving, process-focused approach along with practising the application of legal knowledge in the

manner required by the legal profession.

You MUST footnote in accordance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (3rd edition)
(‘AGLC’). The AGLC is available through the UTS Library in both electronic and hardcopy forms. It is also available here:

http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/files/dmfile/FinalOnlinePDF-2012Reprint.pdf . Do not use previous editions of the AGLC as they are substantially different.

FACT SCENARIO

Mrs. Betty Smith is now 70 years old. She retired in 2012 at the age of 67. She applied for age pension on 15 August 2012. Mrs. Smith lives around the corner from her

local Centrelink branch and walked into this local branch to fill in the appropriate application form for age pension.

The application form asked her to state her financial assets and financial investments. Mrs. Smith stated that she had $10,000 in financial investments as this was the

amount of money she had in her everyday banking account. She omitted to tell Centrelink she had a $50,000 term deposit which would mature on 1 December 2014. As Mrs.

Smith could not access the money in the term deposit, she did not consider this to be money she needed to tell Centrelink about.

The Centrelink customer services officer (CSO), Wilma, took the application form from Mrs. Smith and input the information into Centrelink’s computer system. However,

Wilma mistakenly input $1,000 instead of $10,000 for Mrs. Smith’s financial investments.

On 17 August 2012, Centrelink sent Mrs. Smith a letter asking her to check her details. The letter requested Mrs. Smith to check that the amounts entered on Centrelink

records were correct. The letter stated that Mrs. Smith had $1,000 in her bank account. Mrs. Smith thought this was a typing error and ignored the notice as she had

filled in the application form only a couple of days earlier with $10,000.

On 30 October 2012, Centrelink sent another letter asking Mrs. Smith whether she had more than $1,000 in financial investments. Mrs. Smith, who was still recovering

from her cataract operation, which she had on 15 October 2012, wanted to get her neighbour, Mr. Bye, to read the letter for her but Mr. Bye was away on holidays in the

U.K. Instead, she turned the Centrelink letter into a liner for the bottom of her birdcage.

On 30 June 2013, Centrelink sent Mrs. Smith a further letter requesting her to update her financial investments if they had changed. Mrs. Smith did not read the letter

and used it again to line her birdcage. During this time she was deeply upset by the death of her pet cockatoo, Bertie, who had been her pet
for 30 years.
On 1 October 2014, Centrelink sent a further letter to Mrs. Smith requesting her to update her financial investments. Mrs. Smith did not read the letter.

On 30 October 2014, Mrs. Smith received a letter from Centrelink stating she had been overpaid $21,000.50 in the age pension between 15 August 2012 and 1 October 2014

which was a debt owed to the Commonwealth.

Centrelink has recovered half the debt in a lump sum and the remainder is being deducted from her age pension payments in instalments.

BRIEF FOR THE APPLICANT

You are the legal representative for Mrs. Betty Smith, the Applicant in this application.

Mrs. Smith has made an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) seeking a review of the decision of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT). The

SSAT has affirmed a decision by a Centrelink Authorised Review Officer (ARO) that Mrs. Smith has been overpaid the age pension and has therefore incurred a debt to the

Commonwealth.

Centrelink is the service provider for the Respondent in this application: the Secretary of the Department of Human Services.

From the information provided, you must prepare and present arguments to the AAT as to why Mrs. Smith does not owe the Commonwealth a debt and an alternative argument

that if she does owe a debt, why the debt should be waived.

Your argument must be in the form of submissions and should cite relevant case law and sections of the relevant Act(s) to support your arguments.

NOTE: The calculation of Mrs. Smith’s debt and overpayment is NOT an issue. Please assume that she qualifies for the age pension; that her rate of pension is correct

on the basis of the information she gave to Centrelink, and the debt amount has been calculated correctly.

BRIEF FOR THE RESPONDENT

You are the legal representative for the Secretary of the Department of Human Services, the Respondent in this application.

Mrs. Betty Smith, the Applicant in this application, has made an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) seeking a review of the decision of the

Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT). The SSAT has affirmed a decision by a Centrelink Authorised Review Officer (ARO) that Mrs. Smith has been overpaid the age

pension and has therefore incurred a debt to the Commonwealth. Centrelink is the service provider for the Respondent.

From the information provided, you must prepare and present arguments to the AAT as to why Mrs. Smith owes the Commonwealth a debt and why that debt should not be

waived.

Your argument must be in the form of submissions and should cite relevant case law and sections of the relevant Act(s) to support your arguments.

NOTE: The calculation of Mrs. Smith’s debt and overpayment is NOT an issue. Please assume that she qualifies for the age pension; that her rate of pension is correct

on the basis of the information she gave to Centrelink, and the debt amount has been calculated correctly.

 

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