Reviews of the Care Receiver Income and Assets (CRIA) test 009-08060050

If a care receiver is selected for the non-customer Care Receiver Income and Assets (CRIA) test, a review will mature on 1 November each year, timed to ensure the care receiver has received their taxation Notice of Assessment (NOA). The system will automatically issue a form, either a:

• Carer Payment - Income and assets details of the person being cared for - 16 years and over (SA304 (a)), or
• Carer Payment Income and assets details - child being cared for - under 16 years (SA304(c))

Reviews for adult care receivers are issued to the care receiver.

Reviews for child care receivers are issued to the carer, with a review form issued to every carer/child care receiver combination. This means a carer caring for 2 or more children will receive a review form for each care receiver. Due to system limitations, this also means 2 carers caring for one care receiver will each receive a review form for the same care receiver. It is expected that the information provided in both forms should be similar. Care should be taken to ensure that the appropriate information is coded if there are discrepancies.

A reminder is issued after 28 days if the Care Receiver Income and Asset Details (CRIA) screen has not been updated.

Care receivers receiving these review forms are not current customers of the agency, so the review forms may be returned by:

• lodging in person at the local Service Centre (this may be the care receiver or the carer)
• returning to the agency by mail
• uploading to the carer’s record (the care receiver may have given the form to their carer to lodge)

Note: if the carer or care receiver contacts the agency in response to a reminder being issued, face to face and telephony staff must check the carer’s record to see if the review form has been uploaded to their record. If this has occurred, and the care receiver is an adult, staff need to move the review form to the care receiver’s record. See Digital image attached to incorrect Centrelink customer record.

• On receipt of the review form, ensure they completed, signed and scanned to the correct record. See Scanning Centrelink documents using an MFD. Procedure ends here
• Go to Step 2

To action the review:

• select the review activity from the Activity List (AL) screen
• update income and assets details as required in relation to the information provided. See Coding the Care Receiver Income and Assets Details (CRIA) screen

Does the care receiver still satisfy the non-customer income and assets requirements?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 4

If the care receiver no longer satisfies the non-customer income and assets test, CP will cancel from 1 January following reassessment:

• ensure date of event on the CRIA screen is 1 January of the next calendar year
• finalise the Assessment Results (AR) screen
• record the details on a DOC
• make genuine attempts to contact the carer as soon as possible to advise CP will cancel from 1 January
• an automatic advice will be sent to the customer notifying of the outcome of the review

If CP was paid based on care receiver estimate passing the income test and the actual taxable income of the care receiver (and any other person included in the care receiver income test) is more than the income limit there may be an overpayment. See the Resources page in Care Receiver Income and Assets.

If a notifiable event has occurred CP would be cancelled from an earlier date. For a notifiable event to occur an event or change of circumstances must be specified in a notice under section 70 of the Administration Act and the notice must have been issued to the care receiver. If a notice has not been issued to the care receiver a notifiable event could not have occurred. See Components of the Care Receiver Income and Assets (CRIA) test.

The date the event occurred would usually be the date the tax return was completed. The care receiver would be aware of their new taxable income on this date.

If the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has assessed a higher taxable income, the date of event might be the date the ATO issued the NOA.

Procedure ends here.

If the care receiver continues to satisfy the non-customer income and assets provisions, CP should continue.

Complete the review:

• ensure the date of event on the CRIA screen is 1 January of the next calendar year
• finalise the Assessment Results (AR) screen
• record the details on a DOC
• an automatic advice will be sent to the customer notifying of the outcome of the review