Payments from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) and referrals to the DVA Clearance Team 108-03050010

The customer has notified that they received a DVA payment or benefit. This may be notified as part of a new claim.

• Customer notifies of a DVA grant, a change to existing DVA payment, or they have lodged an application for an Aged Care means assessment and declare a DVA payment, go to Step 2
• Customer lodges a Services Australia new claim which includes a DVA payment, and/or a DVA error presents during new claim processing, go to Step 4
• Customer provides a new Family Assistance estimate that includes a change to DVA income, go to Step 5
• A parent/guardian advises they get a DVA payment when providing income details for the Parental Income Test (PIT) for Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC), Youth Allowance (YA), or ABSTUDY Living Allowance, go to Step 6
• For all other DVA payment enquires, go to Step 3

Check the Department of Veterans' Affairs Summary (DVAS) screen for DVA coding.

Is there a DVA payment/benefit coded on the DVAS screen?

• Yes, and:
• the information needs to be updated, go to Step 7
• the customer has questions about the impact to their rate of payment, go to Step 3
• No, and the customer needs to declare a new grant or the payment information needs to be coded on the DVAS screen, go to Step 7

Check the DVAS screen for DVA payment type.

See the Resources page for more information on DVA payments, to assist the with answering the customer’s enquiry.

If the customer has questions the Service Officer cannot answer, send the enquiry to the DVA Clearance Team.

Go to Step 7.

The DVA Clearance Team check and code all DVA income.

Edits and warnings that may present during new claim processing:

• E001OG: DVA Reverse Clearance required
• E002OG: Web Service error
• SR247: DVA Clearance Required - new customer income
• SR307: DVA Clearance Required - new partner income
• SR253: DVA Clearance - review customer payments
• SR308: DVA Clearance - review partner payments

Before referring work to the DVA Clearance Team, make sure:

• all coding has been completed within the new claim
• the customer has provided all requested information
• all applicable specialist referrals have been completed
• all other errors have been cleared and the claim is ready to be finalised
• the claim is ready to be granted or rejected

Refer to the DVA clearance team, go to Step 7.

When a customer is updating their income estimate for Family Assistance purposes, check the estimate is correctly recorded.

See Helping families provide a reasonable annual income estimate for family assistance payments to help the customer provide an accurate estimate.

Check the Department of Veterans' Affairs Summary (DVAS) screen for DVA payment details.

Note: incorrect coding of DVA payments may result in the customer receiving the incorrect rate of family assistance payments.

Is the correct DVA payment information recorded on the DVAS screen?

• Yes, continue with estimate update. Procedure ends here
• No, or the Service Officer is unsure the correct payment information is recorded on the DVAS screen, go to Step 7

When a parent or guardian receives certain DVA payments, the child's YA, ABSTUDY or AIC payment may be exempt from the PIT.

DVA payments attracting a PIT exemption are recorded on the parent's Department of Veterans' Affairs Summary (DVAS) screen.

The system will automatically transfer the PIT exemption to the young person's Household Income and Assets (NHI) screen. The PIT Exempt Rsn field will have reason as Dept of Vet Affairs Pen.

The transfer of the PIT exemption happens only if the young person is correctly PIT linked to the parent. See Creating, updating and ending Parental Income Test (PIT) links with dependent student, Australian Apprentice and job seeker recipients or claimants.

If the parent has declared income (for example online or paper MOD JY, SY012 or verbally), and:

• the income is not recorded on the DVAS screen or the service officer is unsure, go to Step 7
• the income is recorded on the DVAS screen, but the PIT exemption is not applying, go to Step 7
• the income is recorded on the DVAS screen, and the PIT exemption is applying correctly, procedure ends here

The DVA Clearance Team must complete coding of DVA payments.

Note: customers receiving Veteran Payment from DVA must not have claims rejected due to multiple entitlement exclusion without consulting DVA. Veteran Payment is a temporary payment and customers may still claim agency payments whilst receiving this payment.

The following must also be referred:

• A DVA manual follow-up (MFU) on Activity List (AL) screen is preventing other work being completed
• A debt explanation is needed, for example, if there is a residual agency debt amount after the debt has been partially recovered from DVA arrears

Before referring work to the DVA Clearance Team, make sure:

• all coding is completed within the new claim
• the customer has provided all requested information
• all applicable specialist referrals are completed
• all other errors have been cleared and the claim is ready to be finalised

To refer the case to the DVA Clearance Team:

• On the record of the customer receiving the DVA payment, create an open work item using the Fast Note workflow:
• Select Auto Text, use Generic > Enquiry > DVA Clearance/Advice Request
• Text: include referral details including the payment type, frequency, amounts and dates payments have been received from DVA as relevant. Advise if the claim will be granted or rejected, if known
• Select Confirm

If applicable, tell the customer a referral has been made to the DVA Clearance Team for action.

Is this is a hand off?

• Yes, procedure ends here
• No, place claim or activity on hold to user for 5 business days, as further work is needed after the DVA Clearance Team check or action the record. DVA Clearance Team will:
• close the Fast Note
• code DVA income as appropriate, and
• DOC actions taken and the outcome

Return to the work item on day 5.

When clearance is completed, finalise the activity.