Cancellation of Austudy or Youth Allowance (YA) students and Australian Apprentices 102-10020050

Austudy and YA student payments may be cancelled because of:

• a change in a customer's circumstances, such as the customer is no longer undertaking qualifying study (for example, the customer stops study or reduces their study load). When the customer's entitlement is reassessed with the added information, payments will auto-cancel. Note: if the customer starts an Australian Apprenticeship, they may be able to continue to receive Austudy or YA as an Australian Apprentice. Customers aged 21 years and under may also remain entitled to YA by undertaking other YA approved activities. If these changes are coded, payment will not auto-cancel
• a Service Officer is making the decision to cancel payments. For example, where the customer has not met the requirements for payment, such as a failure to reply to correspondence or the customer is applying for another payment
• the customer making a request over the phone or in person to have their payment cancelled, or
• the customer requests cancellation using the Cancel my current payment online service. Note: this service is not available to Nominees

Has the customer requested cancellation of their payment using the Cancel my current payment online service?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, go to Step 3

If a customer has used the Cancel my current payment online service, their payment will either:

• cancel automatically with reason CLR (withdrawn/voluntary surrender), or
• a work item will be created to manually action the request

If the payment has successfully cancelled automatically, procedure ends here.

If a manual work item has been created to manually action the request, go to Step 7.

Service Officers should determine if the customer has a correspondence nominee arrangement, and if that arrangement is involuntary or voluntary. If the arrangement is involuntary, for example, a court appointed nominee, contact with the nominee must be made to discuss the reason for cancellation before the cancellation is actioned on the customer's record.

In situations where the nominee arrangement is voluntary, it is only necessary to contact the nominee if the Service Officer has concerns about cancelling the payment.

To determine if the nominee arrangement is voluntary or involuntary, in the customer's record, navigate to the Nominee Relationship Summary (NORS) screen, the Reason for Arrangement field will display either 'Voluntary' or 'Involuntary'.

If:

• contact with the nominee is required, go to Step 4
• there is no nominee arrangement or contact with the nominee is not required, go to Step 5

Establish contact with the nominee and tell them the customer has contacted Services Australia to cancel their payment. The nominee should be advised the reason the payment may be cancelled, and Service Officers should ask the nominee if they have any concerns (this includes concerns for the welfare of the customer) if their payment is cancelled.

If the customer has requested their payment be cancelled, Service Officers can proceed where no concerns are raised by the nominee. If the nominee does raise concerns, the customer should be advised to speak with their nominee about their situation.

If no concerns are raised, or if payment needs to be cancelled as the customer has lost qualification (for example, they have stopped studying or their Australian Apprenticeship), go to Step 5.

If the payments are to be cancelled because:

• There is a change in the customer's circumstances, go to Step 6
• The customer requests over the phone or in person that their payment be cancelled, go to Step 7. Note: the payment can only be recorded as 'cancelled at the customer's request' ‘CLR’ (withdrawn/voluntary surrender) where no other reason for cancellation (for example, stopped studying) applies. For more information, see the Resources page
• The Service Officer has decided to cancel payments, go to Step 7

For more information, see the procedure relating to the reassessment. For example:

• Increase or decrease in parental income for Youth Allowance (YA), ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme
• Personal Income Test and Income Bank for ABSTUDY, Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA) students and Australian Apprentices
• Processing end of course and intention to study reviews for Austudy and Youth Allowance
• Payment of Youth Allowance (YA) and Austudy when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course

This is not an exhaustive list and other changes in circumstances may cause YA or Austudy to auto-cancel.

Note: if a YA customer aged under 22 years stops studying to start full-time employment, they may convert some of their Student Income Bank (SIB) balance to Working Credit, which will delay the cancellation of YA. For more information, see Commencing or returning to work for Austudy and Youth Allowance (Students).

Procedure ends here.

To code the cancellation for a current or suspended customer:

• Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen and complete the following fields:
• Svc Rsn: payment type
• Action: CAN
• Reason: Use field help (?) or see Cancellation, Suspension and Rejection reason codes (CLK). If the required reason for cancellation is Other (OTH) the system is unable to generate an online advice (OLA) to the customer to inform them of the cancellation. An advice must be created within the cancellation activity. See Creating a Q134 letter for details
  Note: if OTH is used for an approved workaround do not create a Q134
• Effect Date: enter the earlier of either the date the customer requests, or the date they are no longer eligible. See Resources page for an example
  Note: for an Australian Apprentice who has stopped their full-time Australian Apprenticeship, and no longer wishes to receive YA, the Effect Date would be the Australian Apprentice End Date plus 1
• If cancelling Reason: is:
• OTH as a workaround, inhibit the letter on the Actions (ASC) screen before finalising the activity
• CLR, create a Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Generic > SUS/CAN/RES > CANC CLR - requested by CUS for (PAYMENT TYPE)
• Record all relevant details of the cancellation in the template. Document the conversation with the customer, and the reason they want to cancel their payment. See Online Document Recording (ODR)

To code the cancellation for an assessed customer:

• Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen and complete the following fields:
• Svc Rsn: Payment type
• Action: REJ
• Reason: Use field help (?) or see Cancellation, Suspension and Rejection reason codes (CLK)
• Effect Date: The system will default to date of claim
• If the reject Reason: is CLR, create a Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Generic > SUS/CAN/RES > CANC CLR - requested by CUS for (PAYMENT TYPE)
• Record all relevant details of the cancellation in the template. Document the conversation with the customer, and the reason they want to cancel their payment. See Online Document Recording (ODR)

If a customer received a Crisis Payment in the period the change is applied, a manual reassessment of Crisis Payment may be required. For more information, see Reviewing and reassessing Crisis Payment (CrP).

Note: do not cancel or reject payments ‘CLR’ (withdrawn/voluntary surrender) when a customer is no longer entitled to a student payment for another reason. For example, if customer has stopped full-time study, follow the appropriate process to cancel the payment 'NST' (not a full-time student). See Payment of Youth Allowance (YA) and Austudy when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course.

When a decision is made to cancel or reject a payment (unless payment is cancelled or rejected at a customer's request) and the customer is not present, the Service Officer must make at least 2 genuine attempts to contact the customer and advise of the decision before finalising the activity.

If the customer needs to report employment income for any period of payment they are entitled to, Service Officers should attempt to code the employment income at the time of assessment/contact.

If the customer is not able to provide income details at the time of assessment/contact, tell them to report on their next reporting date to stimulate any final payment.