Defence force veterans who say they were left out in the cold at the Banking Royal Commission plan to continue fighting to reclaim money taken from their superannuation funds over decades.
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The veterans are trying to get remedial action on a policy which they say has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in superannuation.
Former Wagga man Ken Stone, who retired as a wing commander after 29 years in the RAAF, said the Royal Commission had not been able to look into the issue because Commonwealth superannuation funds were excluded from its remit.
Instead, Mr Stone said, veterans were left following up the issue alone, although Queensland backbencher Llew O'Brien has recently taken up the issue.
“A lot of issues were raised at the Royal Commission, but not this one. We’re still trying to get somewhere on this,” he said.
Like a lot of veterans, Mr Stone took a lump sum from his defence superannuation on the understanding that this would be repaid by a reduction in his fortnightly payments until he reached an agreed age, calculated on life expectancy.
Mr Stone said that once he and other veterans reached this age, they had expected their fortnightly payments to return to the previous full amount, but this has not happened.
Instead, five years after he reached that agreed deadline, Mr Stone is still losing more than $8000 a year to “repay” a debt that has already been more than paid back and the amounts taken from super funds increase incrementally.
“My reduction in superannuation pay in 1986 was $2645 per annum, but in 2018, it had risen to $8050,” Mr Stone said.
But Mr Stone is not the only veteran who has been affected, with the Vietnam Veterans’ Association estimating that as many as 55,000 people have taken a financial hit.
This group is backing action by Mr O’Brien, who has written to the Minister for Defence Personnel, Darren Chester, for help.
Mr Chester told The Daily Advertiser, there are no plans to make further changes to the schemes “because the commutation payment agreed to by its members is an immediate payment in exchange for a permanent reduction in pension”.
“It was neither an advance nor a loan. Any expectation that a member’s retirement pay should be restored to the original amount once the lump sum has been ‘repaid’ reflects a misunderstanding of the scheme,” he said.
“Given the permanent effect of this decision, all scheme members were advised to seek financial advice when making their commutation election. The scheme does not provide for an increase in pension if the member lives longer than their life expectancy factor.”
Veterans have also sent petitions to Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne.
A spokesperson for Mr Pyne told said the Minister had received the petition and would “respond in due course”.
