Proof of Life Certificate (AUS061) enquiries and cancellations 061-19120306

If the customer is ringing about a foreign life certificate or the document they have provided is a foreign life certificate, there is no action required. Customers need to send their foreign life certificates to the other country. Procedure ends here.

If the customer is on the phone with an Australian Proof of Life query, go to Step 2.

If processing an Australian Proof of Life Certificate, go to Step 3.

Customers contacting from overseas on the International contact number who select:

• the Proof of Life Interactive Voice Response (IVR) option, will stream directly to Compliance Officers (CO). The CO will action the request if appropriate or transfer the customer to CIS
• any other IVR option, will stream directly to CIS

If the customer/third party contacts CIS about a:

• Proof of Life intervention and customer is deceased, go to Step 3
• Proof of Life intervention, go to Step 4

International services must action a notification and confirmation of a deceased customer. The Proof of Life review will auto complete at the next review point if customer is deceased.

In Customer First/Customer Record, go to Review Summary (IRRS) screen to view the Proof of Life review.

In Process Direct, select:

• Inbox
• Main category menu: select Online Intervention
• Type menu: select Proof of Life Review
• Customer CRN field: enter the customer's Customer Reference Number (CRN)
• Go to search

If the status of the review is:

• Open/started, if the customer is on the phone, refer them to the Compliance Team as an unannounced transfer
• Completed/finalised, and their payment’s benefit status is CAN-POL, go to Step 5
• Completed/finalised, and their payment’s benefit status is CUR, the customer has returned a duplicate certificate. Close the work item, no action required
• No review at all, and their payment’s benefit status is CUR, there was no requirement for the customer to return a Proof of Life Certificate. Close the work item, no action required

The customer’s payment may be restored from a cancellation if they have returned a valid Proof of Life Certificate that has been signed and certified in the 12 month period before the date it was received by Centrelink.

There may be exceptional circumstances where the application of a Proof of Life request may be considered unreasonable for customers under section 64(4) of the SS Admin Act. These include, but not limited to customers who:

• are in hospital/residential care, or
• are medically unable to complete the form, and
• have no nominee/PPE, and
• have an incorrect postal address

Refer customers who meet some or all of the above circumstances, to International Agreements for consideration of restoring without the need to complete the certificate.

International Agreements will consider the request and DOC the record with the recommendation and advise the Service Officer via email.

Check Documents in Process Direct or Document Tools in Customer First, for unstructured documents (UNS) that may be the Proof of Life Certificate (AUS061).

Has an AUS061 been returned since cancellation?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 6

The customer will stay cancelled until Centrelink receives a valid certificate.

Check Proof of Life Certificate languages to confirm translated form availability.

To manually re-issue a Proof of Life Certificate:

• Print AUS061 from Forms Online
• Select the relevant language version is applicable

Using the Multilingual Script, complete and attach the XOB999 POL (Proof of Life cancellation letter). This can be found under ‘International’ on Centrelink Letter templates.

Consider also sending an AUS221 Authorising a person or organisation to enquire or act on your behalf (outside Australia) to the customer.

DOC that the certificate has been reissued.

Procedure ends here.

If a certified Proof of Life Certificate is provided after the cancellation of payment, Services Australia can undertake a review under SS (Admin) Act section 126 and determine that the payment is payable, as if the payment had never been cancelled.

The date of effect rules of SS (Admin) Act section 109 will determine if they are eligible for back pay of arrears.

Has the certificate been completed, signed and verified within 12 months of date received by Centrelink?

Note: new certifiers (officials of pension agencies and local government authorities) have been added to the list of approved certifiers but has not yet been updated on the forms. If a customer has had their form certified by one of the new certifiers it must be accepted as valid. The Resources page has a list of common overseas agencies.

• Yes, and the customer still qualifies for payment:
• Restore the payment from date of receipt of the valid Proof of Life Certificate. This is a favourable decision and the system will restore back to the date of cancellation, the ‘effect date’
• Before finalising the restoration activity, the Service Officer will need to determine if any of the arrears should be zeroed. If the Proof of Life Certificate was received:
  within 13 weeks of cancellation, then all arrears can be released
  after 13 weeks from cancellation, then the arrears can only be paid from date of receipt of the Proof of Life Certificate. Arrears may need to be zeroed from the ‘effect date’ to the day before date of receipt of the Proof of Life Certificate to ensure arrears are only paid from date of receipt of the certificate. For instructions on zeroing arrears, see Table 2, Step 5 in Payment of arrears after reassessment and stopping a payment
• Make any other Change in Circumstance (CIC) updates if provided on the certificate
• DOC the record with the outcome, arrears period, arrears amount and any CIC updates. See Resources for DOC wording
• If arrears have been zeroed a Display on Access (DOA) DOC must also be put on the record so that future re-assessments that generate arrears can take into account the arrears not paid. For instructions on creating DOA DOCs, see Table 2 on the Customer First tab in Creating, reviewing and deleting documents (including Fast Notes and DOA DOCs). See Resources for DOA DOC wording
• Note: it is mandatory that the record be DOCed with the restoration outcome and, where applicable, the DOA DOC for zeroed arrears
• See:
  Restoration of Age Pension
  Restoration of Disability Support Pension (DSP)
  Restoration of Carer Payment (CP)
• Procedure ends here
• No:
• certificate is invalid (for example, not signed, not verified by an approved authority, completed more than 12 months ago)
• customer cannot be restored
• DOC the record with the reason payment cannot be restored
• procedure ends here