56Increases in pensions and associate pensions

56 Increases in pensions and associate pensions

(1) Subject to this Division, if the all groups consumer price index number for the weighted average of the 8 capital cities published by the Statistician in respect of the March quarter or September quarter of the half‑year immediately preceding a prescribed half‑year exceeds the highest all groups consumer price index number for the weighted average of the 8 capital cities published by the Statistician in respect of the March quarter or September quarter of any earlier half‑year, not being a half‑year earlier than the half‑year that commenced on 1 July 1989, then a person (in this rule called the pensioner) who was in receipt of a pension or an associate pension immediately before the commencement of that prescribed half‑year is entitled to an increase in the rate at which the pension or associate pension was payable immediately before the commencement of that prescribed half‑year. (2) The increase provided for by subrule (1) in the rate at which a pension or associate pension was payable to a person immediately before the commencement of a prescribed half‑year, is the percentage of that rate or amount that represents A  B expressed as a percentage of B, where:

A is the all groups consumer price index number for the weighted average of the 8 capital cities published by the Statistician in respect of the March quarter or September quarter of the half‑year immediately preceding the prescribed half‑year; and

B is the highest all groups consumer price index number for the weighted average of the 8 capital cities published by the Statistician in respect of the March quarter or September quarter of any half‑year earlier than the half‑year immediately preceding the prescribed half‑year but not being earlier than the half‑year that commenced on 1 July 1990.

(3) Where, by reason of the death on 30 June or 31 December in the year immediately preceding a prescribed half‑year of a person in receipt of a pension, a pension becomes payable on the following day to another person, that other person is entitled to such an increase in the rate of that pension as he or she would have been entitled to had the pension become payable to him or her on that 30 June or 31 December.