18   Date of registration

(1)  The date on which a person becomes a registered worker is:

(a)  if the person applied to be registered as a worker—the date on which application for the person’s registration was lodged with the Corporation, or

(b)  if the Corporation registered the person on its own initiative—the date of that registration.

(2)  Despite subsection (1), the Corporation may, on its own initiative or at the request of a person who is registered as a worker, fix, in respect of any person or class of persons, a date of registration that is earlier than the date referred to in that subsection.

(3)  However, if a person who is registered as a worker has requested an earlier date in accordance with subsection (2), the Corporation must not fix a date that is earlier than 2 years before the request was made, unless the Corporation is satisfied that special circumstances warrant its doing so.

(4)  On the fixing of a date in accordance with subsection (2):

(a)  the person or class of persons for whom the date is fixed are taken for all purposes to have been registered on and from that date, and

(b)  service credits to which the person or those persons are entitled under this Act may be credited to the person or those persons in respect of any subsequent dates.