Real time payment delivery to Centrelink customers 003-18092746

When issuing payments, consider the most appropriate payment method for the customer.

Generally, the expectation is to pay the customer into their nominated payment destination via direct credit.

Direct credit payments paid in the:

• EMG, ERP, FHA, some GPY, and NSS system are delivered the next business day
• COS and SVB systems are delivered in 3 business days
• All other payments (for example, FAO, PEN, PGA, etc.) are delivered to the customer's account in 2 business days

If a customer requires their payment immediately, PDC can be used to deliver the following eligible payments:

• immediate payments
• Crisis Payments
• emergency payments:
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance for New Zealand Special Category (subclass 444) visa holders (NZ DRA)
• Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP)
• Note: Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) and Disaster Recovery Payment for New Zealand Special Category (subclass 444) visa holders (NZ DRP) are both paid as Priority Direct Credit by default. Manual intervention is not required
• one-off Income Management payments:
• Restricted Direct Payments (RDP)
• Unrestricted Cash Payments (UCPs)

Consider real time payment delivery where:

• a customer’s regular payment has been delayed, rejected or returned, and
• standard direct credit delivery times are considered unreasonable.

Payment via Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card can only be considered if these options are not suitable. EBT cards cannot be used to deliver ongoing payments to customers that do not have a payment destination.

Customers can request an urgent payment using the following channels:

• Smart centre telephony services
• At a service centre
• Using their Centrelink online account
• Using the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service. The IVR and Centrelink online account can only be used to request payments due to exceptional and unforeseen circumstances

Most social security pensions and benefits can be paid early when the customer is in severe financial hardship due to exceptional and unforeseen circumstances. Service Officers are to offer other assistance before offering an urgent payment or when the customer is not eligible for an immediate payment.

For a list of eligible payments for:

• an urgent payment, see Urgent payments due to exceptional and unforeseen or extraordinary circumstances
• a hardship advance, see Making a decision about a hardship advance or anticipated payment

Except for AGDRP, NZ DRP and Crisis Payments, PDC should only be used if the customer has previously received a regular payment to the requested payment destination.

Due to the increased risk of fraudulent payment redirection, any decision to issue a PDC payment to a new payment destination should be treated with extra care and additional customer authentication checks must be completed.

Customers will not be able to select PDC via self-service channels if they have changed their payment destination before requesting the urgent payment and have not yet received a regular payment into this account.

When a payment is reissued as a real time payment, the original payment and reissued amount will display as separate lines on the Payment Summary (PS) screen for staff and on the View Payments History for customers via Centrelink online accounts. These payments will display with the most recent delivery date first.

The original payment will show the full Gross amount, with the Net amount reduced by the real time payment amount delivered via PDC.

The real time payment can be identified by 'NPP' or ‘Real Time’ under the 'Type' column.

Urgent payment amounts can also be viewed on the Urgent Payment Summary screen (UPSUM) in Process Direct.

When a payment is granted, it will generally be delivered in 1 or 2 business days depending on the payment type.

Timing of Priority Direct Credit (PDC) payments will depend on whether the payment is delivered via the New Payments Platform (NPP) or Same Day Direct Entry (SDDE) service.

• NPP operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year including weekends and public holidays
• NPP payments are delivered to the customer in real time
• The customer's account must be enabled for NPP by their bank or financial institution ('NPP reachable') to receive payment via NPP
• SDDE operates Monday to Friday between 08:30am-4pm AEST, excluding national public holidays
• SDDE payments are generally delivered to the customer within a few hours
• Payments made outside of operating hours will be held until the following business day

PDC automatically determines whether to deliver the payment by NPP or SDDE.

• PDC will attempt to deliver payments via NPP wherever possible
• PDC will deliver the payment via SDDE if:
• the NPP service is not available (for example, during an outage),
• the account is not NPP reachable, or
• the account is NPP reachable, and the payment fails to deliver
• The successful payment method will be displayed on the Payment Summary (PS) screen

Ensure the customer record accessed is the correct one by asking authentication questions to verify Proof of Record Ownership (PORO) before assessing or issuing, a real time payment. See Authenticating a Centrelink customer for a detailed process.

If the customer contacts in person, it is preferable they provide at least one photo identity document for a comparison. If this is not available and the Service Officer doubts they are speaking with the customer, they must ask more authentication questions. These must not be limited to details the customer's friends and relatives know such as their date of birth or how many children are in the family. The questions must be searching, but must not be so personal as to be intrusive. If appropriate, explain to the customer why they are being asking these questions.

If the Service Officer doubts they are speaking to the customer, do not release information.

When an Urgent Payment, Hardship Advance or Advance Payment is paid via NPP, the following expanded payment description will accompany the payment:

• You have received an Immediate Payment from Centrelink. You can see how this will affect your future payment/s by signing in to myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink app to access your online account

This can be viewed on the customer's mobile banking app or online banking and is in addition to the standard remittance advice they see on their bank statement. It is up to the customer's Financial Institution if and where the description is viewable, and how it is displayed.