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Processing claims for Double Orphan Pension (DOP) 007-06010010

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Letters

Services Australia has endorsed the letters or electronic messages for use. They are the latest versions. Do not use locally produced letters or electronic messages.

Q888 - DOP - Invitation to claim FTB

QSS32 - DOP - New claim follow up questions for claimant

Contact details

Bereavement/Double Orphan Pension Helpdesk

Level 2 Policy Helpdesk

Office Locator

Processing Services details for: Double Orphan Pension (DOP)

Long term and indefinite period

The below information is for staff processing DOP claims only and should be referred to when making decisions regarding a parent who is in long term imprisonment.

Clarification on 'long term' and 'indefinite period'

For the purpose of DOP:

  • 'long term' refers to the period of time that the Secretary is satisfied that a parent who is a patient in a psychiatric hospital, nursing home or similar institution requires care and treatment for an 'indefinite period'
  • 'indefinite period' is not clearly defined in the Social Security Act, it is without a fixed or specified time limit

The open ended nature of the term 'indefinite period' is to allow for the uncertain and undefined timeframe for a person to be a patient of a psychiatric hospital, nursing home or similar institution. Unlike prison, a person is not 'sentenced' to a period of time in either institution. While medical personnel may have opinions regarding how long the person will be in care, there is no specified period of care predetermined to create a definition.

This makes the determination of 'long term' and 'indefinite' a policy decision. The decision, mostly, is dependent on the judgement of the decision maker on a case by case basis.

For guidance on complex cases, complete the Families and Child Care Level 2 Policy Helpdesk Online Query form. See the Resources page for a link to the Helpdesk.

Scenarios - Whereabouts unknown versus parentage unknown

Table 1: this table provides examples of whereabouts unknown and parentage unknown situations.

Item

Scenarios

1

Whereabouts unknown

A new carer lodges a DOP claim and informs the Service Officer they do not know who the other parent is. The Service Officer requests the birth certificate, which clearly lists both parent’s names. The new carer states that even though the other parent is listed, they do not know who they are or where they are located; inquiries by the customer to find them have been unsuccessful.

2

Parentage unknown

A new carer lodges a DOP claim and informs the Service Officer they do not know who the other parent is. The Service Officer requests the birth certificate, which clearly lists the deceased parent’s name while the other parent is listed as ‘parentage unknown’. If the new carer states they do not know who the ‘surviving’ parent is and sufficient evidence cannot be obtained from existing system records, then parentage unknown should be accepted.