[Elizabeth Fenning]

Our council is reviewing the retention of physical pension concession forms that are not stored electronically. We have pension forms dating back to 1997–2002, and Records is seeking to dispose of them to reduce storage costs.

Given that some pensioners remain eligible for their entire lifetime, we are concerned about potential audit implications if an original form is requested but no longer available. In past Centrelink audits, when a physical form wasn’t on record, we’ve contacted the pensioner to complete a new form, but we are unsure if this is a sufficient long-term approach.

We would appreciate insights on the following:

How long are councils required to retain physical pension forms that are not held electronically?
Are councils required to retain them for as long as the pension remains active?
What are the OLG and Centrelink requirements regarding the storage and disposal of these forms?
Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

[Anthony Egan]

Hi Elizabeth

I suggest that you have a look at State Records NSW Recordkeeping resources for local government web page which should hopefully be of assistance.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/recordkeeping/guidance-and-resources/recordkeeping-resources-for-local-government

Regards

Anthony

[Lyndal McCann]

Hi Elizabeth
I agree with Anthony.
State Records Authority NSW – see FA450. I believe this applies to both physical and digital records.
No 20.6 requires the applications to be retained for 7 years after rebate no longer applies.
I think it would be very difficult to only digitise those physical records that were still current, so would want to do that for all records before they are destroyed. Also important to be able to identify and locate these for any particular property/ratepayer in case of audit.

Our practice has been to keep current records in a specific container in our document management system – that never get destroyed. We then only move them to an annual container in the year the use ceases. That annual container has a 7 year retention on it, although we haven’t been so ruthless to destroy any at this stage.
It’s certainly a lot of work to digitise those, but I think it is worth it in the long run.

Best of luck.
Lyndal

[Andrea Dolan]

Hi Lyndal,

We went through a very similar thing a number of years ago and worked with our Records team to digitise previous year paper forms. Yes it was time consuming and labour intensive, but we worked on a year at a time and got them all done. The only difference we have compared to yourselves, is that form is stored against the property. Now we have only online forms that are submitted through our website, registered against the property through automations and sent to my team directly. Records do not have to deal with them at all.

[Elizabeth Fenning]

Thanks for your feedback the information has been very beneficial and helpful.

[Andrew Butcher]

Hi Liz

Apologies for the delay, the time you need to keep for is a minimum of two years from the date the customer ceases to be your customer.

Attached, and under useful information is the last known version (that I have) of the CCeS guidelines and on page 18 it provides the timeframe.

Like others we have digitised all of our past rebate applications and electronically store all new ones since 2009.
I hope thi is helpful.

Regards,
Andrew

CCeS Procedural Guide

[Author]

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