Assessing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) claims 007-17103135

For most CCS online and staff assisted claims, the system will determine if the claim meets the criteria for straight through processing (grants or rejections). This is generally an overnight process. In these cases, the customer will receive more timely advice regarding the outcome of their claim. If the claim does not meet the criteria for straight through processing, it will be allocated to an appropriately skilled Service Officer for processing.

Note: Straight Through Processing for CCS claims has been switched off since March 2023. Staff will be notified when this is turned back on again.

Claims requiring exception management or validation of selected data items, and new claims after a customer has been cancelled due to the second deadline:

• will not auto assess, and
• are allocated via Workload Management to a staff member to manage

All ACCS applications (grandparent, transition to work, temporary financial hardship and child wellbeing) are allocated to appropriately skilled staff to validate information and/or evidence supporting the application.

Appropriately skilled staff are allocated claims which do not meet criteria for straight through processing. Their role is to:

• review and update claim relationships. If Family and domestic violence, see Separating safely - protecting personal details
• review warnings against customer circumstances
• make sure the claim data is applied to the customer record accurately for all relevant screens
• action any errors
• validate evidence as prompted, and
• make sure the claim outcome aligns with payment eligibility and entitlement

Exception management may include:

• checking all required evidence has been provided, and requesting further information if necessary
• assessing ‘Other’ recognised activities
• assessing age/school status exemptions
• referring or assessing exceptional circumstances (e.g. request for more than 100 hours of child care)
• assessing CCS Activity Test exemptions
• assessing or handing off any specialised processing (e.g. residence or immunisation exemptions)
• all CCS claims combined with an ACCS application
• when a customer has been cancelled due to the second deadline (2DL):
• checking income requirements are met, and
• any outstanding CCS debts are repaid or an adequate debt repayment arrangement is in place

For ACCS applications, all evidence is to be reviewed to ensure it sufficiently supports the customer’s application.

Customers may contact requesting their CCS claim be processed urgently. Referral for urgent processing is only considered where the customer meets the definition of a family in crisis or a family experiencing financial hardship. For more information about how to manage progress of claim enquiries, see Claiming Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS).