Reconciliation of Child Care Rebate (CCR) 007-03110020

For 2011-12 financial year and onwards

• Select Workspace > Families Benefits > FTB and CCB Reconciliation > Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) Reconciliation workflow. Check 'Key Events' under 'Child Care Rebate Reconciliation results'

For 2010-11 and prior

• Select Workspace > Family Assistance > Reconciliation > Child Care Benefit Reconciliation to June 2011. Manually navigate to the FAO Reconciliation and Claim Summary (FRCS) screen

Is the Child Care Rebate Reconciliation Result 'Calculation Status', 'Reco Finalised', or 'Re-Reco Finalised'?

• Yes, go to Step 3.
• No, go to Step 2.

Advise the customer their entitlement to CCR will be automatically calculated once CCB reconciliation occurs or their CCB lump sum claim is granted.

Advise them what information is still required for this to occur and update details if necessary, for example, not required to lodge and income estimate details. See Child Care Benefit (CCB) reconciliation or lump sum claim pending.

Zero rate CCB: for customers who elected to receive zero rate CCB only during the financial year, CCB reconciliation will occur during bulk reconciliation, without their actual income being available. CCB bulk reconciliation commences from the 4th Monday in July. This allows their annual CCR entitlement to be determined sooner. There should not be a link with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for these customers, however if actual income details are later received, CCB re-reconciliation will occur and their annual CCR will be recalculated.

Other possible reasons may include:

• Eligibility: To be eligible for CCR, the customer (and their partner) must satisfy the CCR Work/training/study test or an exception applies. Check if the customer needs to update these details. Backdates are limited to the first Monday of the previous financial year for reduced fees or lump sum claim customers. This test is waived for eligible grandparents. Run the CCF New Claim and Update script or CCF Work Training Study Update Guided Procedure to update if necessary. See Eligible hours for Child Care Benefit (CCB).
• Check payment destination details exist for CCB.

Procedure ends here.

For financial years 2011-12 and onwards:

CCR results are displayed in the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) reconciliation results page.

Check the 'Child Care Rebate reconciliation results' section which will display information for the year selected. A different year can be selected from the drop down selection box at the top of the page.

For more details, click on the relevant activity management reference (AMR) to navigate to the Child Care Rebate (CCR) reconciliation - customer year.

Use the information on the screen to explain the CCR result to the customer. For more information about the details on this screen, see Customer enquires about Child Care Benefit (CCB) and/or Child Care Rebate (CCR) reconciliation or lump sum claim outcome.

For financial years 2006-07 to 2010-11, CCR results are displayed on the FAO Reconciliation and Claim summary (FRCS) screen.

'S'elect the most recent CCR finalised line on the FRCS screen to go to the Child Care Tax Rebate Summary (CCRS) screen. This displays a summary of the customer's CCR information for the financial year.

The CCRS screen shows, for each child:

• child care fees charged by all child care services used by the child (the total fee for the customer for that child)
• the customer's CCB entitlement based on the reconciliation or lump sum claim result (CCB entitlement includes any JETCCFA entitlement if applicable)
• annual rebate entitlement
• any CCR payments already paid
• the rebate adjustment (the difference between the annual rebate entitlement and any rebate already paid as quarterly amounts)

Customers who have received CCR instalment payments may incur a debt if the instalment payments already received exceed their annual entitlement amount

• If CCB re-reconciliation has occurred or the lump sum claim has been recalculated, the CCRS screen will also show:
• the New Annual Rebate Entitlement amount
• the Previously assessed Rebate Entitlement (from the last rebate calculation)

If further CCR calculations occur, the above figures will be adjusted accordingly.

Is the customer questioning the amount paid?

• Yes, go to Step 4.
• No, go to Step 5 in the Eligibility and debt offsetting of CCR table.

When reconciliation of CCB for approved care (CCF) occurs and the result is a negative amount (i.e. the customer was overpaid), in some circumstances, a CCF Special Adjustment is applied in the CCF and in the CCR calculation.

Manual adjustments can also be applied to the reconciliation result. Where the CCF reconciliation result has been manually adjusted, the adjusted CCF entitlement amount will be higher if the adjustment was positive or lower if the adjustment was negative.

The adjustment is calculated at the customer level and is attributed to the child/ren across the weeks covered by the adjustment. The adjustment is not applied down to the child care place.

The impact on CCR calculations is that the manual or special adjustment is included in the CCB entitlement first. Then, CCR is calculated as a percentage of out-of-pocket expenses.

Display for 2011-12 and onwards

If there is a twisty next to the AMR, click on the twisty to display 'Key events'. A message will be displayed when a CCF special adjustment has impacted the CCR calculation. Click on the AMR for more information.

Display for 2010-11 and prior

'S'elect the most recent CCR finalised line on FRCS to go to the Child Care Tax Rebate Summary (CCRS) screen.

On the CCRS screen an asterisk (*) beside the CCB Entitlement amount indicates that a special adjustment has been applied to the entitlement amount.

For financial year 2011-12 and onwards

'Key events' message will advise that the maximum CCR amount has been reached. Click on the AMR link to drill down for more details for the relevant child/ren.

For financial year 2010-11 and prior

The CCRS screen will display '#' after the CCR amount for the child indicates that the maximum CCR amount has been reached for that child.

Customers who receive a Child Care Rebate (CCR) Account Payable letter may have incorrect amounts displayed when the previous reconciliation result for CCR for the same year was a debt and the debt amount has changed.

The incorrect amounts may display in the table for the following fields:

• 'Child Care Rebate you have already received'. The amount displayed is the 'previous entitlement amount' rather than the 'amount already received'.
• The 'amount already received' should be the total of the 'previous entitlement amount' plus any 'previous debt'.
• 'Child Care Rebate overpaid amount'. The amount displayed is the 'previous entitlement amount' less the 'current entitlement amount'.
• The 'overpaid amount' should be the 'amount already received' less the 'current entitlement amount'.

The Resources page contains an example of incorrect details which may appear on the letter and a link to mySupport. Further occurrences should be reported to the ICT Service Desk via mySupport webform quoting PM66129.

CCR reconciliation letters (top-up, nil adjustment or overpayment) exclude any amounts of ‘Total Child Care Fees’ and ‘Child Care Benefit’ for weeks the work/training/study test was not met or an exception did not apply.

For example: Customer was paid Child Care Fees of $500 and received $100 Child Care Benefit (CCB), however they did not meet the work/training/study test or have an exception for a period where $100 was the Child Care Fees and $20 CCB entitlement.

The CCR Reconciliation letter will advise the Child Care Fees were $400 and the CCB was $80 (that is, excluding the amount for the periods they did not meet the work/training/study test or have an exception).

However CCB reconciliation letters include all weeks regardless of whether the work/training/study test was met or not or an exception applied/not applied.

For financial year 2011-12 and onwards

Click on the relevant links to drill down to the information at the level required (customer, child or week level).

For 2010-11 year and prior

To view the total amounts for all children navigate to the Child Care Rebate to June 2011 - annual summary (!CCTRA) page.

For all years

To compare the annual amount with periods already paid for a child for a particular child care service, select Workspace > Family Assistance > View child care attendance and navigate to the period.

If the customer disagrees with the total child care fees, advise the customer that this information is provided by the child care service and they should contact their child care service to discuss this.

Any days a customer is assessed as ineligible for CCB, they will also be ineligible for CCR. Reasons may include but are not limited to:

• absences over the 42 day limit (including public holidays which are regarded as an absence)
• immunisation requirements not being met
• work, training, study test not being met

2015-16 CCB immunisation reconciliation impacts

The ‘No Jab, No Pay’ measure resulted in a greater than anticipated demand for vaccinations, putting pressure on state and territories processing these records. To ensure that customers who had made efforts to meet the immunisation requirements were not financially disadvantaged, CCB customers who had a transition immunisation grace period with an end date on or between 18 March 2016 and 30 April 2016 were paid conditional Child Care entitlements until 30 April 2016.

If the CCB child continued to not meet the immunisation requirements when reconciliation occurred for the 2015-16 year, a debt was raised for any conditional payments of CCB or CCR that were made between 18 March and 30 April 2016.

For financial year 2011-12 and onwards

'Key events' message will advise if offsetting or recovery has occurred. Click on the AMR link for more details.

For 2010-11 year and prior

The CCB Debt Withholding for Debt Recovery - CLK (CWDC) screen shows any CCR amount withheld by Services Australia to offset a CCB or CCR reconciliation overpayment. To view CWDC screen, code 'W' on a CCR line on the FRCS screen.

The FAO Debt Withholding for Debt Recovery - ATO (FDWA) screen shows any CCR amounts used by the ATO to recover a commonwealth debt. To view FDWA code 'T' on a CCR line on the FRCS screen and then code 'Y' in the View FWDA: field.

Has CCR been used for offsetting/debt recovery?

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

If the customer has a CCB reconciliation overpayment for the same financial year or an outstanding CCB or CCR reconciliation overpayment, CCR will be used to recover the overpayment(s) according to a hierarchy for debt recovery.

If re-reconciliation or lump sum claim recalculation resulted in a CCR overpayment due to actual income details being transferred from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the CCR debt details may be passed to the ATO for possible debt recovery action.

For more information, see Debt offsetting during family assistance reassessment, reconciliation and claim processing.

Advise the customer of the CCR amount used for offsetting/debt recovery. These details are also included on letters sent to customers including: CCR statements, CCB reconciliation/ lump sum claim letters and CCR account payables.

Record details of the conversation with the customer and include any action taken.

Reassessments/reviews

CCR entitlement will be recalculated if re-reconciliation of a CCB reduced fee entitlement or a recalculation of a CCB lump sum claim is triggered.

This may occur if actual income details are received or attendance information from the service changes, for example.

If CCR entitlement reduces, a separate debt for the CCR amount will be created. Any CCB reconciliation top-up or lump sum claim entitlement will be used to offset the CCR debt.

Normal debt raising, waiving and recovery action applies to CCR debts.

Family assistance review and appeal procedures apply to CCR decisions. See Initial contact about a decision and the review of decision process.