Raising Assurance of Support (AoS) debts 005-03060000

An AoS is a legally binding agreement between an individual/s or organisation and Services Australia. In the AoS, the individual or organisation (the assurer) accepts responsibility to financially support a person (the assuree):

• who is applying to migrate to Australia permanently, and
• on an AoS affected visa subclass

An individual can provide a:

• sole AoS (one individual as the assurer)
• joint AoS (2 or a maximum of 3 individuals as the assurers)

An organisation:

• can provide an AoS as a single entity
• cannot form part of a joint AoS with an individual/s or another organisation

If an assuree receives a recoverable social security payment during the AoS period, a debt is raised against the assurer/s. The assurer/s is liable to repay the entire amount paid to the assuree. This is known as an AoS debt and is raised as a 'Determined' debt:

• every 12 months during the AoS period, and/or
• when the AoS period expires

The AoS debt starts to accumulate from the date the assuree is granted a recoverable social security payment.

In a joint AoS, all assurers are equally liable to repay the entire AoS debt.

If the AoS affected visa subclass has a mandatory AoS requirement, the AoS applicant/s must lodge:

• the specified bond amount by establishing an AoS bank guarantee secured by a term deposit, and
• at a CommBank branch before the AoS application is accepted

The AoS applicant/s who establishes the AoS bank guarantee is known as the 'account holder'.

At the end of the AoS period, the:

• AoS bank guarantee is cancelled, and
• bond is released back to the account holder/s. Unless the assuree/s has received a recoverable social security payment during the AoS period

See AoS bank guarantee and term deposit.

If the assuree/s has received a recoverable social security payment and an AoS debt has been raised:

• Services Australia will initially draw from the bond held in the term deposit account to repay the debt
• AoS debt raising occurs every 12 months, while the assuree/s is in receipt of a recoverable social security payment
• Drawing from the bond will stop when the bond is depleted, or the AoS debt stops accruing

If the AoS debt amount is:

• less than the bond amount, the remaining bond balance is released back to the account holder at the end of the AoS period
• more than the bond amount, normal debt recovery processes will take place after drawing from the bond

See Recovery of Assurance of Support (AoS) debts.

AoS debts are raised in Process Direct using 'AOS - Yearly Review' and 'AOS - Expiry Review' work items. These reviews are actionable when the status is set to 'For Manual Action'. If an assuree/s receives a recoverable social security payment during the AoS period. The following reviews will be generated in Process Direct:

• AOS - Quarterly Review
• AOS - Yearly Review, and
• AOS - Expiry Review

An AoS debt is raised when:

• the assuree is in receipt of an AoS recoverable social security payment
• there is a current AoS arrangement
• the assuree is not receiving sufficient support from their assurer

AoS debts are raised automatically every 12 months from the date the assuree is first granted a payment, and continues either until the:

• end of the AoS period (either for 1, 2, 4 or 10 years), or
• assuree no longer receives a recoverable social security payment

AoS debts are recovered:

• initially from the bond held in the term deposit account associated with the bank guarantee:
• Exclusively for AoS affected visa subclasses with a mandatory AoS requirement
• Debt reason ASB (AoS debt automatically raised)
• via the normal debt recovery processes:
• For all AoS affected visa subclasses
• Debt reason ASN (AoS debt automatically raised) or ASO (AoS debt manually raised)

When the bond has been depleted, the assurer/s must repay any outstanding debts.

Multiple AoS debts are raised on the assurer/s record:

• Where there are 2 or more assurees, and
• Each assuree is granted a recoverable social security payment

ASB and ASN debts are raised with separate debt IDs. If the assuree received multiple payment types, each payment type is raised with a separate debt ID.

AoS debt reasons

• ASB - Assurance of Support Bond Recovery (Auto) - Debt to be recovered from the bond
• ASN - Assurance of Support debt - automatic (Assurer) Auto - Debt to be recovered from the assurer
• ASO - Assurance of Support Recovery - old (Assurer) Manual - Debt to be recovered from the assurer

AoS processing staff:

• action the following reviews:
• AOS - Quarterly Review
• AOS - Yearly Review
• AOS - Expiry Review
• need PROCESS DIRECT CSP AOS PROCESSING STAFF (AOS3) access role and NV_CLK_RVW AoS skill tag

Request access via ESSentials.

All assurers in a joint AoS are equally liable to repay the entire AoS debt amount. The debts:

• are known as a multiple liability debts, and
• raised with the same debt IDs where there are more than one assurer

For example, if there are 2 assurers in the joint AoS and the AoS debt amount is $10,000:

• both assurers are liable for the entire amount
• the joint assurers can decide the amount they will each repay to finalise the debt

The quarterly, yearly, expiry and bond return reviews are not generated when the assuree has been granted a recoverable social security payment on a multiple record instead of the assuree's primary record linked to the AoS case.

Service Officers will need to raise a manual AoS debt directly on the assurer's record in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) and issue manual debt letters. DMIS can be accessed using Customer First or Customer Record.

If the yearly or expiry reviews generated in Process Direct contain incorrect debt information, AoS processing staff need to:

• zero out the debt to finalise the review
• raise manual debts, and
• issue manual letters

See Table 2 for manual debts.

Once an assuree has received a recoverable payment for 12 months, an 'AOS - Yearly Review' manual work item is created. This allows the AoS processing staff to raise an AoS debt in Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) for the assurer/s to repay.

This review ensures a determined AoS debt is raised for all assurer/s in the AoS case.

AoS debts are raised on the assurer's record every 12 months via an 'AOS - Yearly Review' in Process Direct. AoS processing staff will process the AOS - Yearly Review (with a For Manual Action status). Once the yearly review is processed a:

• debt is raised on the assurer's record
• Statement of Account letter (Debt Statement) is issued
• full or partial Bank Guarantee Release letter with a bond amount is issued to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to recover full or partial AoS debts to repay Services Australia, if applicable

An 'AOS - Expiry Review' manual work item is created, an AoS skilled Service Officer will action when:

• the AoS case has expired, and
• an assuree/s has received a recoverable payment prior to expiry

This review ensures an AoS determined debt is raised for all assurer/s in the AoS case. The expiry review will generate an AoS debt for the assurer/s to repay.

If there are no recoverable payment amounts, the expiry review will automatically complete, and no user interact is needed.

If an AOS debt is to be raised or an undetermined debt on the assuree's record has been identified during a bereavement period, Service Officers must not contact the executor or third party (verbal or written) until 4 weeks have passed since the assurer or assuree's death.

Exercise sensitivity always when discussing a debt with an executor or third party. For more information, see:

• Death of an assurer or assuree
• Recovering debts from a deceased customer's estate

If a customer requests an explanation or a formal review of their AOS debt, service officers must follow Request for an explanation or application for a formal review.

When making an unfavourable decision, see Advising verbally of an unfavourable decision.