Healthy Start for School (HSFS) requirements for financial years 2011-12 to 2017-18 007-11010050

For financial years 2011-12 to 2017-18, HSFS requirements are linked to payment of the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A supplement.

A customer is required to meet HSFS requirements during a financial year if:

• they have received FTB Part A for a child who has turned 4 years of age, and
• they (or their partner, if they have one) have received an income support payment (including nil rate periods)

In limited circumstances, an exemption from HSFS requirements may be granted.

To meet HSFS requirements, the child must receive an acceptable health check and the customer must notify the agency that this has taken place. Evidence of the health check or results of the health check do not need to be provided. Customers only need to notify that the health check has been completed (or apply for an exemption) to meet the requirements.

If HSFS requirements are not met on or before 30 June of the financial year that the child turned 4 years of age, the FTB Part A supplement for that child will be excluded for each day that the customer (or their partner, if they have one) received an income support payment.

From 1 July 2018, HSFS requirements for the FTB Part A supplement ceased. For children who turn 4 on or after 1 July 2018, HSFS requirements are linked to the customer’s rate of FTB Part A for the child. See Healthy Start for School (HSFS) requirements from 1 July 2018.

If the FTB Part A supplement is excluded due to HSFS requirements not being met for the relevant child, the customer has until 30 June of the lodgement year for the financial year in which the child turns 4 to notify completion of the health check, or to request an exemption. If notification is received within the allowable period, re-reconciliation will occur and any FTB Part A supplement for the child will be included, if entitled.

For the 2011-12 financial year a customer had until the end of the extended lodgement year to notify the completion of a health check.

An acceptable health check is an assessment of the child's physical health and general well-being conducted by a recognised health professional.

The Resources page contains a guide of which health checks meet HSFS requirements in each state.

For more information about the health check, customers should consult a health professional or health clinic.

For the 2011-12 to 2017-18 financial years:

• customers assessed as a parent carer (the customer or their partner is the natural or adoptive parent of the child), Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A supplement affected each day they were current on income support and had an FTB child in care subject to HSFS for the relevant financial year.
• customers assessed as a non-parent carer (the customer or their partner (if applicable) is not the natural or adoptive parent of the child) are affected if:
• the child was in care and an FTB child on the last day of the relevant financial year
• the customer and partner (if applicable) were recorded as non-parent carers on 30 June of the relevant financial year, and
• the child was an FTB child of the customer for at least 26 weeks (does not need to be continuous) in the relevant financial year while they were also Income Support Payment (ISP) current

If relationship information is missing from the Child Relationships page for the customer or their partner, the customer will be treated as a 'parent' of the child for FTB reconciliation purposes.

If the relationship status changes from a non-parent carer to a parent carer during the year (foster carer becomes adoptive parent) and the child is in their care on the last day of the financial year, the non-parent and parent carer days will be combined when calculating days affected.

Note: non-parent carer rules do not apply for HSFS requirements for financial years from 2018-19 onwards.

For financial years from 2011-12 to 2017-18 HSFS affects the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A supplement for each customer who shares the care of the child. While each customer has an obligation to notify their child's health check status, if one customer advises that the health check has been completed, the second customer would not be required to notify.

A backdated increase in the shared care percentage to more than 35% will result in the customer's FTB Part A supplement for the child being subject to HSFS.

A Healthy Start for School (HSFS) automatic exemption may apply for circumstances including customer/child death, or where a customer commences receiving Carer Payment (CP) or Carer Allowance (CA) for the child from the financial year the child turns four. For customers impacted by HSFS in 2011-12, the automatic exemption circumstances must have applied within two years of the end of the financial year in which the child turned 4 years of age. For customers impacted from 2012-13 to 2017-18 financial year, had until 30 June of the lodgement year.

A manual exemption can be granted if:

• the child turning 4 years of age has a severe disability or medical condition and has already undergone a medical assessment appropriate to the child's needs by a recognised health professional
• no other customer or their partner is in receipt of Carer Payment (CP), Carer Allowance (CA) or a Health Care Card (HCC) specifically for this child, and
• the customer requests an exemption and lodges evidence (if required) on or before 30 June of the lodgement year following the financial year in which the child turned 4 years of age

A special circumstance exemption may be granted if there are unusual and unexpected circumstances. These generally relate to the customer's circumstances rather than the child's. Requests must be considered on a case by case basis. The Resources page contains an example of the assessment of a customer's circumstances for this exemption.

If the customer requests an exemption and lodges evidence (if required) on or before 30 June of the lodgement year following the financial year in which the child turned 4 years of age, a special circumstance exemption may be granted and coded after this timeframe.

Customers can:

• advise of the details online using the Update Healthy Start for School Review option online
• provide the information verbally, by phone or in person

For 2011-12 to 2017-18 financial years, customers subject to HSFS received initial and reminder letters in early August, January and May of the financial year that the relevant child turned 4 years of age. A Customer Issue was displayed in the customer’s record when the initial letter was sent.

Additionally, HSFS information is included in FTB reconciliation and account payable letters issued during the lodgement year for the relevant financial year and a reminder will display on the Customer Issues page if the FTB Part A supplement has been excluded due to HSFS. Customers will not be notified of health check requirements after the end of the lodgement year, when it is too late to comply with the requirement.

For financial years between 2011-12 and 2017-18 if a customer was retrospectively granted Income Support Payment (ISP) or Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a previous financial year and they have a child who turned 4 years of age in that year, they will be impacted by HSFS. If reconciliation has occurred for the relevant financial year, any days now affected by HSFS will be raised as a debt if the requirements have not been met.

Health check requirements may apply to Family Tax Benefit (FTB) lump sum claim customers for financial years 2011-12 to 2017-18.

If a customer lodges an FTB lump sum claim for a financial year between 2011-12 and 2017-18 and they have a child who turned 4 years of age in the relevant financial year they are claiming for, processing teams will need to manually check if this child is impacted by the HSFS initiative. The timeframe for notifying completion of a health check also applies to lump sum claim customers.

From the 2012-13 financial year onwards, an FTB lump sum claim customer may be granted an extension of time to meet family assistance requirements, including claim lodgement and health check requirements if there are special circumstances preventing them from meeting the requirements by the end of the lodgement year. A special circumstances extension cannot be assessed until an FTB lump sum claim for the relevant financial year has been lodged. An extension cannot be granted for FTB instalment periods.

HSFS requirements do not apply for FTB lump sum claims from 2018-19 onwards.

Applications for formal reviews of decisions related to HSFS and the FTB Part A supplement must be made on or before 30 June of the relevant lodgement year (extended lodgement year for the 2011-12 financial year).

Favourable decisions are recorded using an override, which can only be coded by Families override contacts with specific SAMS access.