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General debt raising information 107-04010000

For staff responsible for raising debts only.

This document outlines a number of procedures for raising Centrelink debts that are common to all payment types.

On this page:

Information about raising debts

Final checks and adjustments for debt processing

Information about raising debts

Table 1

Step	Action
1	Investigate the potential debt Go to the Document List (DL) screen. Locate any DOC related to the undetermined debt: find the DOC titled Debt Investigation (if available). The information: may help as a starting point is an estimate at a point in time consider other factors that may impact the debt outcome, for example: the presence of limiting dates other waived or determined debts on the Debt List (OPDL) screen where any date overlaps the undetermined debt manual and automatic adjustments, etc follow Business As Usual (BAU) debt investigation and raising processes see Using the correct date of effect when raising debts Check the debt. See: Debt investigation Debt identification Calculating Centrelink entitlements and gathering information when investigating debts Check the debt is accurate, see Table 1 > Step 1 in Debt raising support for customers.
2	Raise the debt See: Raising debts of advance payments Paid Parental Leave (PPL) and Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) debt types and actions Raising Assurance of Support (AoS) debts Child care debts Debt arising from Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation International Social Security Agreements Specific cause of debt raising Raising debts for students and Australian Apprentices Raising ISP debts for customers granted PPL and DAP Go to Step 3.
3	Ensure the debt is recorded on DMIS Action the undetermined debt if the debt is on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS): if a debt is recorded on the host system, but not yet on DMIS: first action the negative adjustment, and then action the undetermined debt on DMIS if there is no debt, create a new debt record manually on DMIS
4	Record the details Record a DOC for all completed debts. The DOC must contain: details of the debt: the decision itself the Act/Guide reference upon which it is based the reason for making the decision, including detail of information viewed when making the decision, and the reason waiver is not appropriate 10% recovery fee (where applicable) evidence and calculation sheets used to determine the debt For more information, see: Calculating Centrelink entitlements and gathering information when investigating debts, and Recording reasons for decisions Mark documents placed on file in relation to a debt 'Overpayment - Do Not Destroy'. See Storing scanned documents. See Table 2 > Step 1.

Final checks and adjustments for debt processing

Table 2

Step	Action
1	Notify the customer or correspondence nominee of the debt See Sending Account Payable letters.
2	Check if account details need changing See Changing account details on debts raised in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS).
3	Check if tax details need adjusting The Component Amount (OPCA) screen auto-populates and is used to breakdown components of a debt by financial years, mainly for tax adjustment purposes. See the Resources page for an OPCA screen example. Make tax adjustments of the customer's tax details, if required. See the Resources page for more information. Avoid common tax adjustment errors Action individual tax adjustments via the OPCA screen: check component(s) breakdown against overpayment calculations on the OPCA screen to ensure the correct payment components are used. check that the component amounts reflect the payment's correct breakdown of periods for each financial year on OPCA as per dates on the Tax Payment Summary (TXGS) screen in which the customer was entitled to payment update the component amounts if they are incorrect Check multiple debts are not raised for the same period and benefit type. This prevents the tax system using the total amount to adjust the Payment summary: examine the debt(s) when a previous debt is manually deducted from a system based calculation, and offset the part of the debts which overlap The OPCA screen may not require adjustment if the difference between ADEX and DMIS is less than or equal to 5 cents. The script will go back to the OPCA screen before finalisation if an adjustment is required. The OPCA screen has tax logic and will generally determine in what financial year to apply the adjustments on payment summaries. Note: the exception to the above is where the final Entitlement Period End Date (EPED) falls on the 29 or 30 June in any given financial year and is paid on or after the 1 July of the next financial year. This will require an additional period to be inserted on OPCA. The amount for the relevant period 17 to 30 June can be found on the Payment Summary (PS) screen, (calculation will be required for the other relevant period). The amount paid to 29 or 30 June but issued within the following financial year, will need to be removed from the first financial year and added to the next financial year. See the Resources page for more information. For compensation charge debts: check the OPCA screen make sure the debt is correctly apportioned by component and the financial year when the Compensation Affected Payments (CAPs) being recovered were received check the delivery dates on the PS screen to determine payments made by tax year incorporate the arrears payment into the financial year the payment was made. See Processing Manual Follow-up (MFU) tax activities for compensation debts
4	QOL check required Complete Quality On Line (QOL). Note: staff must discuss recovery arrangements and where applicable negotiate a repayment arrangement with the customer. See Table 1 > Step 6 in Debt raising support for customers. If the customer has agreed to a repayment arrangement and the debt activity is selected for QOL: record the recovery discussion and agreed repayment arrangement in the debt raising DOC. See Table 1 > Step 6 in Debt raising support for customers use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Debt > Debt Raising > Recovery pending NDB QOL check leave the Fast Note open when the debt activity is released from QOL, code the repayment arrangement and close the Fast Note See Table 2 > Step 4 in Debt raising support for customers.
5	Customer is deceased Start the 'request for refund' process if the customer is deceased.