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Actioning Reviews and Manual Follow-ups (MFUs) associated with End of Year (EOY) processing 110-07080010

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For Service Officers in ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing teams

This page contains information regarding the process of actioning Manual Follow-ups (MFU) relating to End of Year (EOY) circumstance reviews.

On this page:

MFU types for ABSTUDY

Processing MFU

Finalise MFU

MFU types for ABSTUDY

Keywords for ABSTUDY MFUs

Table 1: This table describes the various types of Manual Follow-ups (MFU) associated with the End of Year (EOY) circumstance reviews for ABSTUDY.

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Step

Action

1

The system automatically produces a number of Reviews and Manual Follow-ups (MFU) as part of End of Year (EOY) processing

Processing Team: Typically done by specialised processing teams in a service centre or Smart Centre. Unless otherwise stated, staff may complete this step if they are trained.The MFUs require a particular course of action, whereas the Review activities can be selected as required to locate student records for any manual updates to ensure correct payments in the following year.

The EOY MFUs and Review Activities have various keywords attached which allow identification of MFUs or Review Activities. These keywords include:

  • Education institution code as recorded on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen
  • Community Code as recorded on the Address Details (AD) screen
  • EOY Group Code (for example, Group Code 1, 2, 3, 4)
  • Hostel identifier of 'AHO' (for EOY Group Code 3 and 5 only)

The Operations Management Team will carry out a manual assignment of each education institution's Board and Tuition reviews to individual Service Officers after liaising with the relevant Team Leader.

2

Manual Follow-up (MFU) automatically created

The system action taken on a specific record as part of the End of Year (EOY) processing depends on the group into which the record falls.

A Manual Follow-up (MFU) is automatically created where:

  • ABSTUDY Schooling A is current and the applicant is not qualified (Group Code 2)
  • the student is receiving Schooling A and will be turning 16 years of age between in November or December (Group Code 18), or
  • the student is receiving Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) as a Short Term Boarder or AIC Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) (Group Code 19)
  • the student is a boarder and requires an update to their record with the board provider's board charges for the following year (Group Codes 3 and 5). Note: this MFU matures on 1 February each year

3

Group Code identification

Each Group Code can be utilised to identify specific activities.

4

Group Code 2

Group Code 2 records can be identified by:

  • Keyword: field - 'ABTEOY' and 'GRP 2'

5

Group Code 18

Group Code 18 records can be identified by:

  • Rev Rsn: field - 'G018'
  • Keyword: field - 'GRP 18'

6

Group Code 19

Group Code 19 can be identified by:

  • Rev Rsn: field - 'G019'
  • Keyword: field - 'GRP19'

7

Group Code 3 and 5

Group Code 3 and 5 records can be identified by:

  • Rev Rsn: field - 'G03 or G05'
  • Keyword: field(s)
    • 'GRP 3 or GRP 5'
    • Education institution code (e.g. 64500)
    • Code of AHO to identify students boarding at a hostel

Processing MFU

Actioning the MFU in the system

Table 2: This table describes the steps to process the MFU depending on the Group code.

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Step

Action

1

Check action required

Processing Team: Typically done by specialised processing teams in a service centre or Smart Centre. Unless otherwise stated, staff may complete this step if they are trained.The action required by the MFU depends on the Group Code of the record.

2

Check applicant's record

Check the applicant's record - their Customer Reference Number (CRN) can be found from the Other Customer Links (OCL) screen.

To be qualified for ABSTUDY Schooling A, the applicant must have been eligible for an income support payment, receiving Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) payment, or entitled to a Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) or a Health Care Card (HCC) issued under Family Tax Benefit/long term income support recipient for some period during a term. For further information regarding an applicant's eligibility refer to ABSTUDY School Term Allowance.

Has the applicant been eligible for an income support payment, CDEP payment or entitled to a LIC or HCC?

3

Action payment or raise debt and record decision

4

Continuous entitlement

Has the applicant's eligibility for an income support payment, CDEP payment or entitlement for a HCC or LIC been continuous?

5

Check Payment Summary (PS) screen

Check the Payment Summary (PS) screen on the student's record to see if School Term Allowance (STA) payments were issued for a term in which the applicant had no period of qualification.

Were STA payments made when the applicant was not qualified?


Finalise MFU

Completing the MFU and recording action taken

Table 3: This table describes the steps to finalise the activity, cancelling the MFU and recording details in the system.

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Step

Action

1

Action debt and record decision

Processing Team: Typically done by specialised processing teams in a service centre or Smart Centre. Unless otherwise stated, staff may complete this step if they are trained.There is a debt which must be actioned. See Actioning an undetermined debt on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) for assistance.

Cancel the MFU. Record details on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

2

Cancel MFU and record decision

Cancel the MFU

Record details on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

3

ABSTUDY Schooling A students who turn 16 years old now remain on the more beneficial Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

FTB is nearly always more beneficial than ABSTUDY Living Allowance for a family who has a dependent student living at home and who turns 16 years old. Once an ABSTUDY Schooling A student turns 16 years old, the Schooling A entitlements will automatically cancel, however, FTB continues to be paid.

Cancel the MFU.

4

Send Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Application for Short Term Boarding Allowance SY068 to the applicant

If the first period of Short Term Boarding has passed, the applicant must complete and return the SY068 to the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) processing centre, where eligibility for Short Term Boarding will be assessed.

Record details of action taken on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

5

Update the board and tuition charges for boarding students

This MFU matures on 1 February of each year to remind ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing teams to update the board and tuition charges for a student for the new school year.

Board and tuition charges for the new study year are to be obtained from the relevant boarding school or hostel and Boarding Details (EYSB) screen.

For coding assistance, see ABSTUDY annual board, tuition and scholarship details.

Review the following screens to ensure information on the students record is correct:

  • EDC - check that the school/Institution code and start/end dates are correct
  • NIH - check that the Away from Home (AFH) reason is still valid, i.e. was AFH granted for a school that is no longer auto approved. Is the student in receipt of a scholarship? If yes, scholarship amounts may need to be considered when coding EYSB screen, see Assessing scholarship income
  • PIPI - check that the board and tuition amounts are being paid to the correct payee
  • AC - check the board amount coded is the same as EYSB coding

Record details of action taken on a DOC and once complete cancel the MFU.

Procedure ends here.

6

EOY Processing Review activities

A Future Review activity is automatically created to support manual updates of records in circumstances where additional updates may be required for the following EOY Groups:

  • Group Codes 3 and 5
  • Group Codes 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11

Note: the Future Review activity for Groups 3 and 5 matures as a MFU on 1 February of the new school year. Whereas the Future Review activity for Groups 1-11 auto closes on 1 April.

The Operations Management Team will carry out a manual assignment of each education institution's Board and Tuition reviews to individual Service Officers after liaising with the relevant Team Leader.

Additional updates can include:

  • a student moving between the junior and senior campus of school where the two campuses have different school codes. ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing teams can identify all students at the junior campus across all EOY Groups by school code and select for update of Education Details (EDC) screen
  • a boarding school provides the new board and tuition charges in December for the following year. ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing teams are allocated board and tuition updates via Workload Manager. Service Officers are required to update all student records for the allocated boarding school, refer to coding the School Fees and Boarding Details (EYSB) screen

7

Fields that can be used to identify students at particular education institutions, boarding schools or at hostels

When allocating activities via Workload Manager the Operations Management Team may utilise the following search criteria fields:

  • Keyword: field Education institution code (e.g. 64500 or 6A001)
  • code of AHO to identify students boarding at a hostel
  • Community Code if listed on the Address Details (AD) screen