The Living Arrangements question set 102-05030000

The LA question set identifies if there is a payment accuracy risk of a customer being paid the single rate.

A customer’s responses to the LA question set will determine if they need to give more details about their living arrangements via the relevant Relationship Details form (SS284) or Relationship Details - Separated under one roof (SS293) form. This is to have a formal member of a couple assessment done which will determine if a customer is in a member of a couple relationship (partnered).

The LA question set applies to customers who have a non-partnered relationship status and are sharing accommodation with another person who is not an immediate family member and who is 16 years or older, when:

• they claim an income support payment, or
• they advise of a change of accommodation details (in person, by phone or online), or
• their living arrangements need reviewing

There are specific procedures for a customer who is experiencing family and domestic violence. Under no circumstances should contact be made with the alleged user of violence (generally the other person who is the sharer/ex-partner). Offer the customer a referral to a social worker to assess appropriate supports and help that may be needed. See Family and domestic violence for more information.

A safety concern question is included in the LA question set which identifies if a customer is concerned about their safety, if forms are issued to the person with whom they are sharing accommodation (for example, may be experiencing family and domestic violence). If the customer identifies safety concerns, the system will only issue the Relationship Details (SS284 or SS293) form to the customer and not to the sharer.

Sharer Details page

The Sharer Details page is presented before the LA question set. It is presented to some non-partnered customers who advise a change of accommodation details.

The Sharer Details page will automatically present when a customer:

• claims an income support payment
• advises of a change of accommodation details in person or on the phone (including a change of sharers/sharer status)
• updates their accommodation online or via the Express Plus Centrelink Mobile App
• needs their living arrangements reviewed

Immediate family member

For the purposes of the question on the Sharer Details page: Do you share accommodation with anyone other than an immediate family member who is 16 years of age or older?, consider both immediate family members, and any other family members when answering the question.

A family member includes:

• an immediate family member: parent, step-parent, legal guardian, sister, brother, step-sister, step-brother, child, adopted child, step-child, foster-child, grandparent or grandchild, and
• other family member, such as aunt, uncle, cousin, in-law

The Sharer Details page allows staff to differentiate between newly added, provisionally added and confirmed sharer details:

• New (NEW) displays next to added sharer details when the Service Officer has not yet selected Continue
• Provisional (PVL) displays next to added sharer details when the Service Officer has selected Continue and then gone back to the Sharer Details page to make updates
• Confirmed (CNF) displays next to sharer details that are currently stored on the customer's record

Note: Sharer Details for dates in the future cannot be coded. Tell customers that share their accommodation to re-contact once they have physically moved address.

Boyfriends, girlfriends and non-binary relationships

A customer is not immediately deemed to be a member of a couple if they advise they have a boyfriend, girlfriend or non-binary relationship. It depends on:

• the individual circumstances of each case, and
• their responses to the LA question set

Customers may need to give more details about their living arrangements on the relevant Relationship Details form (SS284) to have a formal member of a couple assessment done.

Accessing the Sharer Details page - for FTB/CCS and CA only customers

The system does not allow updates to the Sharer Details page for customers only in receipt of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and/or Child Care Subsidy (CCS) or Carer Allowance (CA) payments. However, the LA question set may still need to be asked to determine if a member of a couple assessment is required.

That is, staff will not be able to access the Sharer Details page and then run the LA question set. A manual issue of either the SS293 or SS284 form via the Request for information (RFI) may be required based on the customer’s responses to the LA question set.

An error E077AT - Living Arrangement Details are not required will present when attempting to update the Sharer Details page for FTB, CCS and CA only customers.

Sharer details not provided

When completing the Sharer Details page within the LA question set, the customer may be unable to or refuse to provide details of the people they are sharing with.

When the customer is unable or refuses to provide sharer details during the LA sharer questions workflow, tell the customer they must provide these details within 14 days.

If the customer has not recorded the names of sharer(s) through online services, a hand-off activity will be created for Service Officer intervention. The Service Officer will need to make an outbound contact to request this information from the customer. If the outbound contact is not successful, a Request to contact (Q164) letter will need to be issued, requesting the customer to contact the agency.

Sharer details are needed to allow the agency to assess the customer's circumstances and deliver the correct rate of payment. The customer must respond within 14 days or their payment may be suspended.

The LA questions are related to 4 of the 5 factors that must be considered when making a decision as to whether a customer is a member of a couple:

• financial aspects of the relationship
• social aspects of the relationship
• nature of the household
• nature of the commitment

When undertaking a Member of a Couple (MoC) assessment, information relating to all 5 factors is considered, although not all factors need to be present for a decision to be made that a person is a member of a couple.

The fifth factor that the LA question set does not ask is the presence or absence of a sexual relationship. The related Relationship Details form covers this additional factor when responses to the LA question set triggers the need for the completion of the form.

The agency does not make a determination as to whether the customer is in a relationship based on the responses of the LA questions alone. The responses will only establish whether further information (that is, issue of Relationship Details forms (SS284 or SS293)) is needed from the customer and the sharer.

Once the Relationship Details forms (SS284 or SS293) are returned, Service Officers must conduct a series of checks to ensure there have been no change in circumstances and confirm whether a Member of a Couple (MoC) assessment is required.

Generally, both the customer and their sharer will need to each complete and return the required form.

A safety concern question is included to identify if the customer may be at risk (of family and domestic violence) if the Relationship Details (SS284 or SS293) forms are issued to the sharer(s). The customer is asked the following question for each relevant person they advise they share accommodation with:

• 'Are you concerned about your safety if forms are issued to any of these people?'

If a 'Yes' response is recorded against this question, any Relationship Details forms triggered will only be issued to the customer and will not be issued to the sharer(s) for whom safety concerns are identified against.

If a customer's relationship status is single, but it is suspected they may be partnered. Staff must:

• follow the processes in Reporting Suspected Fraud
• not issue Relationship Details forms (SS284/SS293)

The question set is included as part of the:

• Change in Contact Details workflow
• Online Claims
• Online Account updates
• Express Plus Centrelink Mobile app
• some paper claim forms, and
• the Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) process

When customers are updating their details online or completing an online claim, they will be presented with the LA question set if applicable.

Customers whose relationship status is single and they are in receipt of or claiming the following payments (except those customers under 16 years of age) are presented with the LA question set during the Change in Contact Details workflow which includes an update to accommodation details:

• ABSTUDY (Living Allowance) if independent (ABY)
• Age Pension (AGE)
• Austudy (AUS)
• Carer Payment (CP)
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Special Benefit (SpB)
• Youth Allowance (YA) (student, apprentice, job seeker)

If the customer is only in receipt of Family Tax Benefit (FTB), Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and/or Carer Allowance (CA), the system does not present the LA question set. If a MOC assessment is required the appropriate form needs to be sent manually.

Do not issue forms if there is suspicion of the customer of being in a relationship but are saying they are single.

Based on the customer's responses to the LA questions, the system may generate an automated recommendation to send to the customer and their sharer(s) either a:

• Relationship Details (SS284) form, or
• Relationship Details - Separated under One Roof (SS293) form

Note: if a customer advises they have a boyfriend, girlfriend or non-binary relationship, do not issue a Partner details (MOD P) form in place of a relationship details form. Do not assess a customer as a member of a couple simply because they have a boyfriend/girlfriend/non-binary relationship. If recommended, the relevant Relationship Details form (SS284) will trigger a formal member of a couple assessment to be done.

Do not issue forms if there is suspicion of the customer of being in a relationship but are saying they are single.

A recommendation to issue the SS284 will occur if the customer provides a 'Yes' response to the following questions:

• Do you share the parenting/guardianship of any children with any of these people?
• Has the customer ever had joint financial commitments (for example joint bank accounts, mortgage or other loans) with this person/any of these people?
• When the customer participates in activities jointly with this person/any of these people, are they considered to be a couple?

A recommendation to issue the SS293 will occur if the customer provides a 'Yes' response to the question:

• Have you previously lived together as a couple (for example married, partnered, de facto or in a registered relationship) with any of these people?

The issue of an SS293 form overrides the issue of any SS284 form in the event a customer responds with 'Yes' to more than one question, that is, only one type of form is issued, not both.

The system will not issue an SS284 or SS293 to the sharer(s) if the customer identified safety concerns. Under no circumstances should an SS284 or SS293 be issued manually to the other person(s) or any contact be made with the other person(s) in this situation.

If the LA question set recommends the SS284 or SS293 be sent, this can be accepted or overridden based on additional information provided by the customer to a Service Officer. If it is clear from further discussions with the customer that there is no risk of an undisclosed relationship existing, the Service Officer must stop the forms being issued by overriding the system recommendation.

If a Service Officer overrides the system recommendation to issue forms, they will need to enter notes to explain why.

The system will retain all responses to the LA questions.

When a customer lodges an online claim or updates their accommodation details online or via the Express Plus Centrelink Mobile app, they will be presented with the LA question set when appropriate and the safety concern question.

If a Relationship Details (SS284 or SS293) form has been triggered during the online claim process, the Next Steps screen will display 2 links to the relevant Relationship Details form, one for the customer to download and complete and one for the sharer to complete. If safety concerns have been identified, the customer will be presented with only one link to the Relationship Details form and a link to the form relating to the sharer will not be presented. At no stage during the claim process should the sharer be contacted when safety concerns have been identified.

To confirm if safety concerns have or have not been identified, Service Officers can review a customer's responses to the LA question set by selecting the Review Claim function before processing the claim.

As part of the claim assessment process, Service Officers can mark the forms as not required if appropriate.

If a MoC assessment is needed, to enable the correct rate of payment to be determined (single or partnered), the claim cannot be finalised:

• until a completed SS284 or SS293 form has been provided generally from both the customer and the sharer, and,
• the MoC assessment has been finalised

If a customer has a change of circumstances (accommodation) and is updating their details online or via the Express Plus Centrelink Mobile app and it is identified an SS284 or SS293 may be needed, a task requesting the forms will be presented to the customer.

If the customer has answered 'Yes' to the safety concern question, the task will present requesting the form from the customer only. The DOC will include a message, which indicates safety concerns have been identified and Relationship Details forms are not to be issued to the other person(s). The hand-off DOC may contain the name of the other person for whom safety concerns have been identified.