A return to the saga of the pension...

I have previously blogged about the ridiculous saga of trying to have my small invalidity pension reinstated and receiving arrears owing to me. I previously warned potential superannuation retirees under Comsuper to be worried. Well things have now well beyond suggesting people be worried. It is instead time to be bloody panic-stricken based on the latest developments.

The latest in this saga is that at long last, after going through three formal complaints processes, Comsuper agree that yes, they still owe me the best part of $1,000 in arrears. But they can't give it to me. Why? Because the stupid phuckers had not been making the correct income tax deductions from my pension last year. Yet this matter came up in early December last year and I was assured that not only had they fixed things, there were no further tax installments outstanding. Complete and utter bullshit as it turns out.

So I now have to wait on an application for compensation to sort the mess out.

Isn't it absolutely outrageous that the Trustee of a Goverment superannuation fund can simply forget to deduct income tax instalments! Even worse when they know about it months earlier, claim to have fixed the problem only to really just let it fester until becoming a much greater concern and financial burden on the pensioner.

Along the way, I have now conclusively proven that:

• Comsuper lose documents but will attempt to put the blame on the superannuation fund member, claiming the documents were not provided;
• It is impossible to sight a copy of your actual file even under Freedom of Information as all Comsuper will allow you to sight is a copy of the electronic file (well it wouldn't do to let the poor sod of a member find hardcopies of all of these documents they claim said member never sent!);
• Comsuper will not initiate any contact with their pensioners whatsoever even when they have overpaid/underpaid/forgotten to pay etc;
• Comsuper routinely do not bother to respond to matters at all;
  
• Comsuper staff think nothing of telling blatant lies to superannuation fund members; and
  
• Comsuper are simply incapable of even elementary mathematics.

Now matters are in the hands of the Comsuper CEO. Assuming it eventually wends its way to his In-Tray. With luck, by about next October he might have gotten around to glancing at it. Of course by that time I will probably be facing prosecution by the Australian Tax Office for failing to pay my income tax deductions, but let's not let a little thing like a criminal conviction get in the way of things, shall we?