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Acceptable evidence for verifying income when investigating debts 107-02040020

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This document outlines what evidence, both verbal and written, is acceptable as income verification when a debt is being investigated. Once a debt has been identified, documentary evidence may be requested, for example, Questionnaire to employer (Q146), Reporting Statement (SU19) form, tax returns. Acceptable documentary evidence is needed before referring a case to prosecutions.

Evidence

There must be evidence to substantiate that a debt exists. Evidence is not limited to documentation scanned to the customer's record. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:

  • online updates, for example reporting paid income
  • verbal information provided by the customer, documented by a Service Officer
  • information transferred to the customer record by:
    • an Employment Services Provider
    • education institutions, and
    • other electronic data transfers

Unable to obtain fortnightly employment income

Employment income is assessed from the Entitlement Period Start Date (EPSD) of the entitlement period in which it is paid. Where the information already available, including verbal information, is not sufficient, obtain actual income information.

If there are difficulties in getting the information, other available evidence can be used to raise the debt. For a list of acceptable verification documents for specific scenarios, go to the Process page.

There may be difficulties getting sufficient information to raise a debt, such as:

  • No evidence to support a finding of false or misleading information for any given fortnight. This can occur if a customer has reported fortnightly and has under declared
  • Customer is employed for part of the year. If this happens, averaging over 12 months will not provide a correct result when calculating a debt. This can also create problems if the customer was entitled to full payment at other times of the year
  • If income varied greatly during the year, the result may be incorrect

Evidence must support that a legally recoverable debt exists.

The References page contains links to Accountable Authority instructions (AAIs).

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