Actioning compensation interest checks (CLK) 117-01030000

Services Australia must take compensation payments into account when determining eligibility for most social security payments or concessions.

For Centrelink purposes, agency interest exists when compensation payments made periodically or as a lump sum have an impact on past, ongoing or future social security payments or concessions of the compensation recipient and/or their partner. See Resources for a list of social security entitlements that may indicate agency interest.

Payments that do not meet the definition of ‘compensation’ and not recorded in the Compensation Management System (CMS) may still impact on social security payments or concessions.

Note: agency interest is not limited to customers receiving compensation affected payments.

No Agency interest exists if the compensation recipient and/or partner are not receiving or claiming a social security payment or concession and the compensation payment:

• does not result in a future preclusion period
• does not result in a compensation debt

When actioning third party requests to release a lump sum or periodic payment, staff must decide if Services Australia has an interest before recording the information, under The Privacy Act 1988.

An interest check can occur on receipt of a:

• Compensation Advice of Periodic Payments (SS445) form
• Compensation Advice of Lump Sum Payments (SS446) form
• letter from compensation recipient or compensation payer's solicitor

After getting a request from a compensation payer or from a compensation recipient’s solicitor the Compensation Recovery Team (CRT) will:

• authenticate the customer record
• check if all required details have been supplied
• decide if the agency has an interest
• provide a written response to the relevant parties where authority or consent exists

Services Australia protects customer privacy. The agency does not release protected information unrelated to a customer's compensation claim to a:

• compensation payer
• compensation payer’s solicitor

The CRT can only send the below documents to compensation payers and in some cases their legal representatives:

• Preliminary Notice
• Recovery Notice
• Notice of release

The CRT will not release any information if there is any doubt.