Restoration of ABSTUDY payments 102-10040020

Customer queries ABSTUDY cancellation or suspension. Determine the cancellation or suspension reason. See Codes for ABSTUDY cancellation, suspension and rejection.

Tell the customer of the details needed for restoration. Depending on the details needed, the customer can provide the details:

• verbally, by either face to face or telephony
• in a written statement, or
• by uploading the right documents, for example, proof of enrolment (POE)

Note: this can include Service Officers in the Incarcerated Customer Servicing team receiving information required for payments to be restored.

Has the customer given the details needed for restoration to occur?

• Yes, and the Service Officer:
• does not have the skills required to restore the customer. Go to Step 3
• has the skills required to restore the customer. See Step 1 in Table 2
• No, Advise the customer the details needed to restore the ABSTUDY. Record details on a DOC. Procedure ends here

All enquiries where the customer wants to discuss and/or provide further details on the suspension/cancellation of payment, must be referred to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team for action.

Send an ABSTUDY Action Request Fast Note to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team. Select: Auto Text > Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Restoration Action Required > Confirm.

Record all details of customer contact on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

ABSTUDY payments can be restored in the following scenarios:

• Schooling A Award student cancelled 'Applicant not qualified' (ANQ), see Step 1 in Table 4
• Payment cancelled 'Not entitled to STARTUP-HELP' (SUH) where:
• POE for their Startup Year Course has been provided, and
• entitlement to a STARTUP-HELP loan has been verified. See Startup Year Courses
• payment is SUS-IMP go to Step 3
• Secondary boarder with status of SUS-ITB or CAN-NAS, see Step 1 in Table 5
• none of the above apply, go to Step 2

Update the new details needed to re-establish eligibility for restoration.

For coding assistance when the customers ABSTUDY status is:

• SUS-FRP or CAN-FRP, see Recording and correcting employment income details
• SUS-POE or CAN-POE, see Proof of enrolment (POE) in a course of study

Is the date the customer was last current on ABSTUDY more than 15 weeks in the past?

• Yes, see Step 1 in Table 3
• No, see Step 8 in Table 5

Before restoring ABSTUDY payment for a customer released from prison, the Service Officer must first confirm the date the customer was released from prison (if not already recorded on the customers record) by either:

• a Prison Discharge Certificate supplied by the customer from the relevant institution, or
• phoning the institution and confirming the date of permanent release and length of time the customer was detained with the state or territory authority (see Confirming prison admission release dates)

Other things to consider:

• the customer may qualify for a Crisis Payment (CrP)
• if the customer being released is partnered, make sure the Marital Status (MS) screen reflects the correct partnered status at the date of release

Has the customer been incarcerated for less than 15 weeks?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 4

Smart Centre Call Service Officers should include relevant details in an ABSTUDY action request Fast Note to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team. Select: Auto Text > Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Restoration Action Required > Confirm.

Customers are not entitled to ABSTUDY payments while incarcerated. If they were incarcerated for 15 weeks or longer it is not possible to restore the payment. A new claim activity is required to re-grant the payment.

To determine if the customer needs to lodge a new claim, see Examples - when an ABSTUDY claim is or is not required, on the Resources page of Claiming ABSTUDY.

When coding a re-grant the:

• DOR must be the date the customer was released from incarceration
• Education Payments Start Date (EPDC) is coded with a manual start date matching the DOR (date of customer's release from incarceration)

Record details of contact and restoration on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

Manually restore on the Benefit Action (BA) screen.

Due to system limitations the DOE will auto default to the date the customer was SUS. This will result in arrears being issued incorrectly. Staff must manually adjust the payments via the Rate Details (RATS) screen to make sure that ABSTUDY is not paid during the period of incarceration.

Record details of contact and restoration on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

The customer may need to lodge a new claim for restoration to occur. See Claiming ABSTUDY.

Is a new claim required?

• No, for:
• Telephony staff, go to Step 2
• Processing staff, go to Step 3
• Yes, advise the customer a new claim is required and DOC the record. Procedure ends here

Smart Centre Call Service Officers cannot restore ABSTUDY payments where a new claim activity (re-grant) is required. This includes payments that have been cancelled for more than 15 weeks.

The Service Officer must send an ABSTUDY action request Fast Note that includes all the relevant details to ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing for action.

Select: Auto Text > Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Restoration Action Required > Confirm.

Procedure ends here.

Customers with a payment cancellation period of 15 weeks or more who have a confirmed continuous entitlement to payment must be restored through a new claim (re-grant) activity. See Indexing, re-indexing, and cancelling claim activities.

Service Officers must:

• Index a new claim activity
• Assess the claim activity
• Determine the correct date of cancellation. Care must be taken to use the correct date as this is not always date paid to plus one (DPT+1)
• Confirm arrears are correct and any determined or undetermined debts are actioned

See Processing an ABSTUDY claim for the steps to code the indexed claim.

Did the re-grant activity result in an arrears payment for the same period of an undetermined debt?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 5

Debts that have been determined as part of the new claim activity cannot be manually adjusted.

For an undetermined debt:

• manually adjust any arrears that have generated as part of the new claim activity
• where the arrears payment in the new claim activity has been reduced for the same period and payment type due to the undetermined debt, finalise this as 'no debt' (FND) using the Debt Action script

The Income Bank balance will reset to nil from the date of re-grant when restoring a customer with a continuous entitlement to ABSTUDY via a new claim activity. This must be manually adjusted.

When finalising the restoration via a new claim activity:

• Manually update the Income Bank Balance via the Rate Component Override (EPRC) screen if customer has a continuous entitlement to ABSTUDY
• Confirm the correct arrears are paying on the Assessment Results (AR) screen
• Record details of contact and restoration in a DOC

Procedure ends here.

Due to system restrictions, a student's payment may cancel ANQ incorrectly.

The Concession Entitlement Summary (MCCS) screen in the applicant's record displays the dates of entitlement for a HCC or a Low Income Health Care Card (LIC). For more details, see Extended entitlement to Concession Cards.

After checking MCCS on the applicant's file, is the schooling student still qualified for the Schooling A Award?

• Yes, and the applicant:
• is the holder of a current HCC or LIC where there has been a gap in the applicant's entitlement to the HCC or LIC, go to Step 3
• is the holder of a current HCC on the basis of maximum rate Family Tax Benefit (FTB) A or in receipt of an Income Support Payment, go to Step 2
• has transferred from one Income support payment to another with a gap in entitlement between payments, go to Step 3
• is an eligible applicant, where the Schooling A Award has been cancelled more than 15 weeks, go to Step 3
• No, tell the customer they no longer qualify for ABSTUDY payments. Record details of decision in a DOC. Procedure ends here

Determine if the entitlement to Schooling A payments is due to the applicant holding a current HCC under FTB A or long-term JSP. See, Extended entitlement to Concession Cards.

A PIT Refresh is required to code the exemption on the system. In the applicant's record confirm the entitlement to HCC is current and not listed under the History section.

To generate a PIT Refresh activity between the applicant and the student, in the students record:

• code PITRSH in Next field
• select the activity
• on the Household Income and Assets (NHI) screen, update any previous page entries, including pages with no exemption recorded, as this may prevent the restoration from occurring

See Step 8 in Table 5.

Telephony Staff

Smart Centre Call Service Officers cannot restore ABSTUDY payments where a new claim activity (re-grant) is required. This includes payments that have been cancelled for more than 15 weeks.

The Service Officer must send an ABSTUDY action request Fast Note that includes all the relevant details to ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing for action.

Select: Auto Text > Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Restoration Action Required > Confirm.

ABSTUDY Processing Staff

System limitations prevent the restoration of ABSTUDY Schooling A students where:

• there is a gap in dates for PIT exemptions recorded on the Household Income and Assets (NHI) screen, or
• the payment has been cancelled more than 15 weeks

Restoration of the customer's payment is completed by re-granting a new claim activity. Index a new claim as follows:

• Service Reason, ABT
• Activity, NCL
• Source, the appropriate source
• Date of Receipt (DOR),for a grant date in the:
• current year use the date of customer contact
• prior year use the date the payment is granted from
• Enter through the new claim screen flow checking all details remain correct. For further coding details, see Processing an ABSTUDY claim
• Finalise the activity on the Assessment Results (AR) screen. Check there are no incorrect arrears payments or debts raised
• Record reason for decision and action on a DOC
• Check the applicant's record for any undetermined debts on the Activity List (AL) screen. Where required:
• finalise the debt as 'no debt' (FND) via the Debt Action script, and
• manually adjust any arrears generated because of the debt in the new claim activity, to zero

Procedure ends here.

Is the Service Officer skilled in ABSTUDY secondary boarding processing?

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

Service Officers that are not skilled in ABSTUDY secondary boarder updates must send an ABSTUDY Boarder ACTION request Fast Note to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team, including all relevant details.

Select: Auto Text >Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices>Update>ABSTUDY Boarder ACTION request>Confirm.

Procedure ends here.

Entitlement to the Away from Home rate is determined by the date the student actually starts in the term. Students' who:

• commence on or prior to the third Friday in the term, are paid from the first day of the applicable term entitlement period.
  Note: This includes students who do not return to study by the third Friday as they are undertaking work placement as part of a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship. The student is considered to have commenced from the first day of the work placement
• commence after the third Friday in the term are paid from the date the student commenced living away from home

Students unable to commence on time due to circumstances beyond their control are eligible to be paid once:

• Impacts are confirmed, and
• The student begins study on campus in a face to face environment

Evidence to confirm other impacts can include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Medical Certificate
• Statement from independent 3rd party
• Letter/verbal confirmation from school or board provider
• Relevant State/Territory websites confirming emergency or natural disaster

For more details see, Calculating the commencement date of away from home rate for ABSTUDY

Did the student commence studies after the third Friday of the term?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 8

If a student's late start was due to circumstances beyond their control, they are entitled to Living Allowance from the first day of the term entitlement period.

Was the student unable to commence on time due to circumstances beyond their control?

• Yes, and evidence is:
• provided, make an outbound call to the education institution to confirm that the student has commenced studies on campus, go to Step 8
• not provided and/or the student has not yet commenced studies on campus, payment cannot be issued until confirmation of the circumstances is provided and the student has commenced face-to-face studies. Advise the customer of the evidence required for payments to be restored. Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 5

Was the student entitled to ABSTUDY boarding instalments in the previous term?

• Yes, and the student is commencing for:
• Term 1 go to Step 6
• Term 2, 3 or 4, go to Step 7
• No, due to system limitations the Service Officer will need to:
• reject the ABSTUDY boarding claim, and
• re-grant the ABSTUDY boarding claim using the student start date as the Date of Event. See Processing an ABSTUDY claim

Prior to restoration of ABSTUDY payments, for customers:

• on Income Management (INM) where the restoration will create an arrears or lump sum payment:
• do not make any changes to the customer's record
• contact the Income Management Team to have the Income Management turned off before completing the restoration and issuing payment
• where the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) cancelled due to the cancellation of their income support payment, restore the FTB before restoring the income support payment

Students who have commenced studies after the third Friday in the new term, are not entitled to payment between the start of the term entitlement period and their commencement date.

Course details must be updated to make sure the correct gap in entitlement occurs as follows:

Coding required for study starting in Term 1 on the:

• Education Details History (EDCH) screen, code the current year course:
• Student Start Date, student's date of commencement
• all remaining fields see Coding new study details
• boarding screens, confirm the current year details are correct on
• School Fees and Boarding Details (EYSB)
• Payment instruction (PIPI)
• Accommodation (ACS)
• Household Income and Assets (NHI)

Go to Step 8.

Prior to restoration of ABSTUDY payments, for customers:

• on Income Management (INM) where the restoration will create an arrears or lump sum payment:
• do not make any changes to the customer's record
• contact the Income Management Team to have the Income Management turned off before completing the restoration and issuing payment
• where the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) cancelled due to the cancellation of their income support payment, restore the FTB before restoring the income support payment. See Restoration of Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

To code the ABSTUDY restoration:

• In the Nxt field, type 'SVABY' and in the System field, type 'ISS' and press [Enter]
• Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen and code the following:
• Svc Rsn field - 'ABY'
• Action field - 'RES'
• Source and DOR fields
• press [Enter]
• Effect Date should default to date of suspension or cancellation
• press [Enter]

The Voluntary Income Management Continuation Assessment page will display if a customer is income managed under the Voluntary Income Management (VIM) measure and the agreement was in place for more than 13 weeks. The customer can choose to continue on VIM or terminate their agreement, see Effect on Income Management when payment is suspended, on zero rate or cancelled, or Unemployment Non-Payment Period applied.

Coding required for study starting in Term 2, 3 or 4:

• Education Details History (EDCH): select the current course and update:
• Student End Date: last day of the previous term entitlement period
• Source, appropriate source
• DOR, appropriate date of receipt
• Action: Change
• Press [Enter]
• from the EDCH screen, reselect the current course and change:
• Participation Status Event Date: first day of the new term entitlement period
• Action: Insert
• Press [Enter]
• from the EDCH screen reselect the newly inserted course and update:
• Student Start Date: student's date of commencement
• Student End Date: same date as the Inst Course End Date
• Action: Change
• Press [Enter]
• confirm all boarding screens have correct current year details:
• School Fees and Boarding Details (EYSB)
• Payment instruction (PIPI)
• Accommodation (ACS)
• Household Income and Assets (NHI)
• Assessment Results (AR) confirm the payment of arrears is correct before proceeding with payment

Is an excess payment (negative adjustment , where the system determines an overpayment of an allowance und er ABSTUDY) identified?

• Yes, go to Step 9
• No, record details of contact and restoration on a DOC. Procedure ends here

Prior to restoration of ABSTUDY payments, for customers:

• on Income Management (INM) where the restoration will create an arrears or lump sum payment:
• do not make any changes to the customer's record
• contact the Income Management Team to have the Income Management turned off before completing the restoration and issuing payment
• where the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) cancelled due to the cancellation of their income support payment, restore the FTB before restoring the income support payment. See, Restoration of Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

If a customer is cancelled for a period exceeding 15 weeks, it is not possible to restore using the BA screen. Restoration must be done using a new claim activity.

To code the ABSTUDY restoration:

• In the Nxt field, type 'SVABY' and in the System field, type 'ISS' and press [Enter]
• Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen and code the following:
• Svc Rsn field - 'ABY'
• Action field - 'RES'
• Source and DOR fields
• press [Enter]
• Effect Date should default to date of suspension or cancellation
• press [Enter]
• go to the Assessment Results (AR) screen. Confirm the payment of arrears is correct before proceeding with payment

The Voluntary Income Management Continuation Assessment page will display if a customer is income managed under the Voluntary Income Management (VIM) measure and the agreement was in place for more than 13 weeks. The customer can choose to continue on VIM or terminate their agreement. See Effect on Income Management when payment is suspended, on zero rate or cancelled, or Unemployment Non-Payment Period applied.

Is an excess payment (negative adjustment, where the system determined an overpayment of an allowance under ABSTUDY) identified?

• Yes, go to Step 9
• No, record details of contact and restoration on a DOC. Procedure ends here

An excess payment may generate as part of the ABSTUDY restoration process.

When arrears are also payable, the excess payment will be fully or partially recovered from those arrears.

Where the excess payment (negative adjustment) is:

• equal to the arrears amount, no arrears will be paid to the customer and no debt shell will be created
• more than the arrears amount, no arrears will be paid to the customer, and a debt shell will be created (as there is residual excess payment)
• less than the arrears amount, the remaining arrears (after the excess payment has been recovered) will be paid to the customer, no debt shell will be created

The Resources page contains an example of an excess payment that is offset by arrears with no debt shell created.

When the excess payment does not display as a debt shell it is hard to track where the excess payment was recovered from. Service Officers must DOC the assessment outcome and include details of the excess payment. This is extremely important if the customer requests a review of decision. See, External review of ABSTUDY decisions for more details.