Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), ABSTUDY PES and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) PES cancellation, suspension and rejection codes 102-10010230

Payments may be rejected, cancelled or suspended due to specific eligibility requirements not being met, and/or a variety of other reasons.

When cancelling, suspending or rejecting PES payments, the correct code must be entered on the BA screen, to describe the reason for the cancellation, suspension or rejection.

A rejection code is to be used when processing a new claim and the student is ineligible for one of the PES payments. A cancellation or suspension code is to be used when the student's payment is current and the student subsequently fails to satisfy the ongoing requirements for a PES payment.

The Process page contains a table of the list of cancellation, suspension and rejection codes for PES, ABSTUDY PES and AIC PES.

Prior to suspending a customer's PES payment, care should be taken to establish that the customer is temporarily not eligible for payment, that there is a legislative basis to suspend the payment and that all appropriate action has been taken.

Generally, payments should only be suspended if:

• a determination has been made that the customer is not qualified, or the payment is not payable, temporarily or for a specific period, as a result of changes to circumstances, or
• the customer has not complied with a request that was reasonable. For example, a request to provide information

Before suspending a customer's PES, take care to establish that:

• an appropriate request for information/action has been issued to the customer, which includes:
• the information or action required
• a timeframe for the customer to respond
• consequence of non-compliance, and
• reference to the relevant Act the request has been made under
• the customer is temporarily not eligible for payment
• there is a legislative basis to suspend the payment, and
• all appropriate action has been taken

If a decision is made to suspend PES, a manual advice is to be issued. This advice needs to clearly outline the reason the customer's payment was suspended, and must include the date of effect of the suspension, the payment type, the relevant section of the Act and the customers review and appeal rights.

For more information, see Suspension of payments (CLK).

Customers who wish to participate in Skills for Education and Employment (SEE), and do not qualify for PES, may be eligible for the Language, Literacy and Numeracy Supplement (LLNS) of $20.80 per fortnight.

The supplement provides financial assistance for job seekers to improve their English language, literacy or numeracy skills as part of their plan to return to work. This assistance is to enable a job seeker undertaking SEE to meet the additional costs associated with attendance and provides incentives for them to participate in the program.

When making an unfavourable decision, speak to the customer:

• explain the decision
• give them a chance to provide more information or evidence
• advise their review and appeal rights

Make 1 genuine attempt to contact the customer by phone before finalising the decision.