Carer Payment (CP) cancellations, suspensions and restorations 009-04150000

Cancellation or suspension of Carer Payment (CP) or Carer Allowance (CA) can only be done under the following reasons of the Social Security Administration Act 1999 (SSAA).

• s80 SSAA - loss of qualification
• s81 SSAA - failure to comply with certain notices
• s82 SSAA - failure to take action to obtain a foreign payment, or
• s95CA SSAA - Carer Payment - suspension instead of cancellation under section 93 or 94

The choice to cancel or suspend CP is determined by whether the loss of payment will be temporary or not. Any determination to cancel or suspend must be documented with the reason and the section of the act quoted.

CP can be automatically or manually cancelled when it has been identified a carer is no longer entitled as a result of changes in either their circumstances, or the care receiver's circumstances, or if they have failed to comply with the requirements for payment. Before automatically or manually cancelling CP, care should be taken to establish that the carer is no longer eligible for payment.

See Cancellation and suspension of Carer Payment (CP) and/or Carer Allowance (CA).

CP and/or CA can be suspended and/or cancelled when a customer is no longer entitled to the payment as a result of changes in their or their care receiver's circumstances, or if they have failed to comply with the requirements for payment.

Generally, appropriate requests for information or action are issued to customers before any suspension action being considered and the customer has been given reasonable time to respond to the request.

CP cannot be suspended pending investigation. Before a payment is suspended or cancelled, the decision maker must be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that the carer is either not qualified for the payment or the payment is not payable.

If the decision to suspend CP is made by Centrelink, prompt action should be taken to issue a notice of decision to the carer. This advice must clearly outline the reason their payment was suspended, including the date of effect and the payment type together with the relevant section(s) of the legislation. The advice must also include their review and appeal rights. If it is necessary to suspend CP, and the carer is also receiving CA it may also be necessary to suspend CA.

Notices of Decision must include:

• details as to the information or action required
• a timeframe for response (noting that this must be reasonable)
• consequences of non-compliance
• the relevant legislative reference under which the request has been made, and
• the customers/carers review and appeal rights

A manual review should also be coded for the Service Officer to follow-up the suspension of CP at a later date. See Suspension of payments (CLK).

Carers may be able to enter an extended suspension period for 26 weeks (6 months) instead of their CP cancelling. CP can be suspended where all of the following criteria have been met.

The carer:

• would have had their payment cancelled due to:
• exceeding the 100 hour work limit (where they do not want to use respite or do not have enough respite days) or,
• exceeding the 100 hour work limit on an ongoing basis or,
• exhausting their respite or hospitalisation days and the absence is still temporary or,
• having income from their employment or self-employment which reduces their rate to nil. For employment income, the employment income nil rate period is still applied and the 26 week suspension starts from the date CP was reduced to nil
• is residing in Australia
• remains eligible for all other reasons

If the carer does not meet the above criteria or loses eligibility for another reason, such as exceeding the asset limit or no longer providing care, they are not eligible to enter the extended suspension period. In these cases, their CP is cancelled.

If the CP customer has exhausted the hospitalisation days, they can still continue to use respite days to remain on payment. However, if the carer chooses not to, they may be eligible to enter the extended suspension period.

If the CP customer has a partner who is working and receives Age Pension or Disability Support Pension (DSP), they may be eligible to enter a 2-year extended employment suspension period instead of the 26-week extended suspension period. For more information, see Extended suspension periods for pension payments.

When restoring CP after cancellation or suspension, the carer’s eligibility must be re-established and payment commenced from the date the carer became eligible again. Changes of circumstances since suspension or cancellation must be updated on the system before restoration to make sure correct entitlements are paid.

CP (XWP) can be suspended, cancelled or restored automatically and manually, depending on the reason.

CP (XWP) will automatically be cancelled if:

• the carer’s only or last payment level CA is suspended or cancelled for any reason, or
• changed to CA HCC only or nil rate due to Education, Training and Treatment (ETT)

CP (XWP) will be automatically restored if payment level CA is restored or reinstated without a gap within 13 weeks. A Manual Follow Up (MFU) is produced if reinstated without a gap after 13 weeks.

Certain cancellation codes cannot be used for CP (XWP) because it is not subject to care receiver assessments or to care requirements (for example, constant care and the 100 hour work limit). Carer level assessments such as the pension income and asset tests, portability rules and other carer playability rules still apply as normal. For more information, see Transfer from Wife Pension (WP) to Carer Payment (CP).

When restoring CP, it is important to re-establish the carer's eligibility to recommence payment, from the date the carer became eligible again. If there has been a change in circumstances, update relevant information on the system before restoring payments to avoid incorrect arrears being paid.

The Carer Restoration workflow cannot be used for third party processing where the care receiver is not a dependent child or partner of the carer. Within the workflow there will be detailed help and direct links to Operational Blueprint.

The Centrelink system uses codes when a decision to cancel or suspend a payment, or to reject a claim, is recorded. A description of the code is used when communicating with customers. CP may be cancelled, rejected or suspended due to the customer not meeting specific eligibility requirements or for various other reasons. The customer will receive a letter explaining the reason for non-payment.