Complex Assessment Officers (CAO) 101-05070000

The CAO positions were created in 1991 in recognition of the need to have policy officers who specialise in assessing complex income and assets test cases. This is especially for cases involving complex financial arrangements and business structures.

The primary functions and objectives of a CAO are to:

• undertake assessments of certain categories of cases upon referral. The Process page has more information
• provide information, advice and recommendations to Service Officers, Financial Information Service Officers (FISO), Authorised Review Officers (ARO) and Zone office staff
• conduct training and information sessions
• provide information to accountants, financial advisors, solicitors and other third parties

CAOs make assessments on varying categories of complex casework. They have specific delegations and responsibilities in the following cases:

• Attribution of income and assets to a customer resulting from their involvement with a private company or trust on or after 1 January 2002
• Approval or rejection of payment under assets hardship rules
• Assessment of Special Disability Trusts
• Assessment of the Home Equity Access Scheme

A CAO assessment remains current until a customer notifies a change in circumstances.

Information provided by customers or third parties relating to private trusts and companies will be checked for persons listed in forms, financial statements, or other relevant documents who:

• have loaned money to the entity
• have any formal role within the private trust or company, or
• are relevant persons linked to the entity

Where there is:

• a current link, all relevant assessments will be actioned
• no current link, the record will be checked for any:
  • outstanding CAO referrals for assessment of the entity
  • scanned documents or other information disclosing the persons involvement with the entity on their or their partner’s record
  • outstanding assessments to be actioned

Note: except for the customer and their partner, do not link persons involved in the entity to the entity if they are not (or have not been) in receipt of an applicable payment or benefit for a past period.

For persons who are not linked and appear to have undisclosed involvement for a period while in receipt of an applicable payment or benefit:

• the details will be reported using the Report Suspected Fraud and Corruption System. See Report suspected fraud and corruption
• no further action will be taken. The CAO will not:
  • investigate undeclared involvement
  • link to entity record
  • send requests for information

When completing P&I reviews, CAOs liaise with Payment Accuracy Review or Compliance Officersto obtain information. Referrals often involve undeclared structures and need a higher level of investigation.

Teams within the P&I Group initiate P&I CAO referrals. Referrals are allocated from Workload Management (WLM).

The Payment Accuracy Review or Compliance Officer determines the scope of the review. The payment accuracy review or compliance intervention may only request information for a period, when the customer has been in receipt of income support payments (ISP) for prior years with an undeclared business structure.

Serious non-compliance CAO referrals have minimal information on the record. There is often a Display on Access (DOA) DOC advising no direct contact with the customer, and any contact should be directed to the fraud investigation officer.

Full information may not be scanned to customer record in line with serious non-compliance procedures. The CAO may have to contact the fraud investigation officer directly for this information.

Note: for fraud cases, CAOs do not send coercive requests for information. Coercive requests for information advise of consequences for not complying (such as suspension or cancellation of payment).

These matches have occurred as details have been lodged with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) stating that the customer is a beneficiary of a trust and has not disclosed this interest in the Private Trust.