Rejecting an ABSTUDY claim 106-07130010

• Ensure the applicant and/or student or Australian Apprentice do not meet ABSTUDY qualifications , or recipient obligations, or the applicant wishes to voluntarily withdraw the claim and the decision to reject the claim is correct
• ABSTUDY claims that have been withdrawn can only be rejected if they have already been determined. If they have not been determined, the new claim will need to be cancelled. See Withdrawal of claims for more details
• If rejecting a customer’s claim for one of the following reasons, refer the claim to the DVA Clearance Team for review. See Step 6 in the Checking DVA income coding and referring work to the DVA Clearance Team table:
• Service Pension/ Income Support Supplement (DVA)
• DSS Age Pension paid by DVA (AGC)

Note: if the claimant is receiving an Adjusted Disability Pension from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the start date is before 1 January 2022, do not reject their claim based on income before checking whether they may be entitled to receive Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA). The system will be able to identify these claimants if the claim is correctly coded including DVA Adjusted Disability Pension details.

• There will be instances where a claimant will be required to supply additional information before an ABSTUDY claim can be determined. Claimants have 14 days to provide additional information. Under the ABSTUDY Policy Manual, there is no closing date for the provision of additional information relating to a claim, and accordingly, no restriction on back payment of entitlements, provided that the original claim was lodged prior to the specified closing dates. Where a claimant does not provide the required information within a specified time, the claim may be rejected. However, the rejection of the claim is simply an administrative measure to manage workload. There is no impact on later assessment and grant of the original claim once the required information is provided. If the claimant subsequently supplies the requested information, the original claim should be reinstated. The source documentation is the original claim form, however the date of receipt will be when additional information was provided, unless the original claim was lodged in the previous calendar year. See Claiming ABSTUDY
• See Policy for links to the ABSTUDY Policy Manual regarding qualifications, payability and obligations

Note: do not manually reject claims where ABSTUDY Living Allowance is not payable due to exceeding the income or asset test limits. These claims should be finalised. The recipient's record will show ABY/CUR with a rate of $0.00. The reason for not manually rejecting the claim is because although they will not receive any ABSTUDY Living Allowance, they may still be entitled to supplementary ABSTUDY benefits, such as Incidentals Allowance.

Can the claim be streamline rejected?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No:
• Process Direct, go to Step 4
• Customer First, go to Step 5

Select the most appropriate rejection code for the Reason field. See Codes for ABSTUDY cancellation, suspension and rejection.

Note: Rejection code OTH (other) must only be used where no other rejection code is appropriate. For example, rejection codes OGA (other government assistance) or COP (another payment is more appropriate) are unable to be used to reject ABSTUDY Schooling A claims where a student is not entitled to ABSTUDY due to receiving other government assistance for the same period.

To reject a claim using:

• Streamline Reject, go to Step 3
• Process Direct, go to Step 4
• Customer First, go to Step 5

When a claim is finalised as a streamline rejection, no updates or circumstance changes are applied to the customer's record apart from the assessment outcome itself. This happens even where provisional updates have been recorded prior to the streamline rejection being actioned.

To streamline reject a new claim using Process from the Claim Application screen:

• Key 'BA' into the Super Key to go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Select Add New
• On the Create Benefit Action screen, Benefit Type Code, Benefit Action and Date of Effect will automatically default
• Select the streamline indicator box. A tick will appear
• In the Reason field select reason code from the drop down box
• Select Save
• Select Assess, this will go to the Errors (SWE) screen

Once all errors (if any) have been addressed:

• Select Assess to go to the Entitlement (ELD) screen, make sure the correct rejection reason displays
• Select Finish, the finalisation DOC will appear, if extra information is needed, add this to the DOC
• Select Finalise

Procedure ends here.

In Process Direct, reject a new claim using Process from the Claim Application screen:

• Make sure all coding is complete for the claim assessment
• Key 'BA' into the Super Key to go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Select Add New
• On the Create Benefit Action screen, Benefit Type Code, Benefit Action and Date of Effect will automatically default
• In the Reason field select reason code from the drop down box
• Select Save
• Select Assess this will navigate to the Errors (SWE) screen

Once all errors, if any, have been addressed:

• Select Assess to go to the Entitlement (ELD) screen, make sure the correct rejection reason displays
• Select Finish, the finalisation DOC will appear, if extra information is needed, add this in the DOC
• Select Finalise

Note: if the rejection reason is OTH, no comments can be recorded in Notes. Record the reason for the rejection in claim finalisation notes.

Was the claim rejected with code OTH?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, procedure ends here

For claims processed in Customer Record/Customer First:

• Go to the customer's record in the ISS system
• Key 'SVABY' in the Nxt field, 'ISS' in the Sys field and press [Enter]
• The customer's ABSTUDY status must be either NCL (New Claim) or ASS (Assessed) for the rejection activity to be accepted. If this is not the case, index the claim before rejecting
• Go to the Benefits Action (BA) screen by keying 'BA' in the Nxt field and press [Enter]
• Code the following details:
• In the Service reason field, use field help (?) to choose the appropriate service reason
• 'REJ' in the Action field
• Appropriate rejection code for the Reason field, select a code by using field help (?) or check Cancellation, Suspension and Rejection reason codes
• Date of decision in the Effect Date field
• Any additional comments in the Notes field
• The source document and date of receipt in the Source and DOR fields
• Where the system requires the Accommodation Details (AC) screen to be coded before finalising the Rejection activity, update the customer's current circumstances as recorded in the claim. Where rent/board is paid and verification is required that has not yet been supplied, ensure the Rent Verification field is coded as NVE

Is the claim being rejected with code OTH?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, claim can be finalised:
• Go to the Assessment Results (AR) screen by keying AR in the Nxt: field
• Finalise the activity by keying Y in the Finished: field and press [Enter]
• Record details of the decision and the relevant Policy references on a DOC
• Procedure ends here

Where a manual rejection with a reason of Other (OTH) is required for an ABSTUDY claim, the correct letter (Q134) must be issued.

To issue a Q134 letter for claims in:

• Customer First, issue the letter within the rejection activity
• Process Direct, the claim will be rejected and finalised in Process Direct. Go to Customer First to issue the letter

When creating the Q134 letter:

• insert the following text into the free text paragraph:
• 'This rejection has been made under <insert relevant Policy for rejection here> of the ABSTUDY Policy Manual
• select the reference to the relevant act under which the decision was made. Select option 4 - 'This decision has been made under the Student Assistance Act 1973'

If the Q134 letter was issued after the claim was rejected within Process Direct, procedure ends here.

All other activities, go to step 7.

Where the letter has been issued within the rejection activity in Customer First, the rejection activity can now be finalised:

• Go to the Assessment Results (AR) screen by keying AR in the Nxt: field
• Finalise the activity by keying Y in the Finished: field and press [Enter]
• Record details of the decision and the relevant Policy references on a DOC

For claimants wishing to test eligibility for FTB, see Claiming Family Tax Benefit (FTB) instalments for children in care other than a newborn or adopted child.