Rejecting a family assistance claim 007-07030150

Has the claimant provided all the information/ documents needed to assess the claim as requested in writing?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, see Not effective, rejection, or withdrawal of claim for Family Tax Benefit or Stillborn Baby Payment. Procedure ends here

Make sure the customer is not eligible for the family assistance and the reason to reject is correct.

For help assessing eligibility, see:

• Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for individuals
• Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for Approved Care Organisations (ACO)
• Eligibility for Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP)

Index and process claim to record claim details. For help, see Assessing family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme claims.

Residence information

The customer's residence qualification will be automatically assessed as long as the residence information is correctly recorded.

If the residence information is already recorded from a previous claim, no further information will be necessary. If residence information is incomplete, the datalink with the Department of Home Affairs will need to be activated to get the necessary information. For help, see Activating the Department of Home Affairs datalink and contingency procedures if datalink is unavailable

Note: residence information must still be recorded if the rejection is for any other reason. If residence details are not recorded, the system will override any other rejection and the claim will reject for a residence related reason.

In many cases, the claim will reject automatically when finalised, based on claim details coded.

• For FTB
• Some reasons need to be manually coded on the FTB Status Override (FYSO) screen. See Cancellation, rejection and Current Zero Rate codes for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• If an FTB claim for a child aged 16-20 years is rejected due to not meeting the education/study eligibility criteria, code the Child Override/Claim (CHOC) screen
• For help finalising SBP claims, see Processing Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP) claims

All early claims are to be rejected manually by recording the relevant rejection code for the payment type on the correct screen as above.

Finalise the activity.

Record details on a DOC.

In most cases, an automatic letter will be sent to the customer to advise the decision, including the reason their claim has been rejected.

Instances where a letter may not be sent include where:

• a customer has been granted a LSC for the previous year and their FTB has rejected for the current financial year
• the FTB status is cancelled and the new claim is rejected for the same reason. The result remains the same as the cancellation, and no automatic rejection letter will issue. For example:
• FTB is previously cancelled due to income (CAN-INC) and a subsequent claim is then lodged and rejected (REJ) due to income
• The result will remain as CAN-INC with no automatic letter issued

To check if a letter has been created, in Customer First:

• Run the daily driver by keying 'DDR' in the Nxt: field and selecting [Enter]
• Check the Select Cobs Record (BLST) screen for an FAOREJ automatic rejection letter

Is a FAOREJ letter queued for issue?

• Yes, procedure ends here.
• No, a rejection letter is not queued for issue:
• Issue Free Text (Q999) to customer in Customer First, including the reason for the rejection and the review and appeal rights. The Resources page contains letter text
  Note: for SBP, create and issue a Stillbirth GRA/REJ (Q353) letter to the customer.
• Check the Activity List (AL) screen to see if a Manual Follow up (MFU) has been created for the reject letter and if so complete the MFU