Income Management and enhanced Income Management for Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients (VWPR) 103-01180000

To be eligible for VWPR IM or enhanced IM, customers must be in receipt of an eligible welfare payment and:

• reside within a VWPR IM area or enhanced IM location
• not be welfare quarantined under a measure that is higher in the hierarchy of IM and enhanced IM measures
• not have an excluded payment nominee for IM and enhanced IM purposes, and
• have been assessed as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient by a social worker, or
• be under 25 years of age and automatically identified for welfare quarantining due to their circumstances

Services Australia social workers can assess customers as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient and place them on enhanced IM. They can no longer place new customers on the IM program due to the closure of the IM program on 4 September 2023.

When determining whether welfare quarantining is suitable for a customer who has one of the following vulnerability indicators:

• financial hardship
• financial exploitation
• failure to undertake reasonable self-care
• homelessness

Social workers will consider:

• whether the customer is meeting their and their family's essential priority needs, and
• whether welfare quarantining is an appropriate support tool for the customer to meet their responsibilities, build and maintain self-care and manage their finances

Before referring a customer for welfare quarantining, Service Officers must ensure the customer resides in an IM area or enhanced IM location, or is currently subject to IM or enhanced IM. For information on when social work referrals can be made for both welfare quarantined and non-welfare quarantined customers, see the Resources page in Social work service referral

Customers will automatically be identified for welfare quarantining under the VWPR Youth measure if they are:

• under 16 years of age and in receipt of a Special Benefit (SpB-USY),
• aged 16 years or over and in receipt of the Unreasonable to Live at Home (UTLAH) rate of Youth Allowance (YA), Disability Support Pension (DSP), or ABSTUDY Living Allowance, or
• under 25 years and received a Crisis Payment (CrP) within the last 13 weeks due to release from prison or psychiatric confinement

Customers will not be identified for VWPR Youth if they are full-time students or Australian apprentices (in receipt of YAL/CUR-STU or YAL/CUR-APT, Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) or ABSTUDY (ABS) with an amount identified as a living allowance), or are currently on Voluntary IM or enhanced IM.

Customers who become a full-time student or Australian apprentice after commencing on VWPR Youth enhanced IM are no longer eligible to remain on VWPR Youth enhanced IM.

The Resources page contains examples of manual and automatic identification for VWPR IM and enhanced IM.

• VWPR Notice (Social worker assessed): A Vulnerable notice is generally for a period of 12 months, however a social worker can end the notice prior to this date. After 12 months, a social worker will make a new determination and issue a new notice, provided the customer still meets the criteria
• VWPR Youth - UTLAH and SpB-USY customers: IM and enhanced IM is for a one-off period of 12 months. When a customer has completed 12 months, they will end VWPR Youth IM or enhanced IM (UTLAH and SpB-USY). Customers cannot be identified for welfare quarantining under these 2 categories for a second time, however they may become eligible for VWPR Youth – CRP if they receive an eligible Crisis Payment upon release from prison or psychiatric confinement
• VWPR Youth - CrP customers: IM and enhanced IM will be for a period of 12 months. VWPR Youth under this category can apply again after the initial 12-month period ends if they meet the criteria again

Note: customers’ participation in the VWPR Youth measure will end if they are granted an exclusion.

Customers can request to end VWPR Youth if they no longer have the applicable trigger reason VWPR Youth – UTLAH no longer receiving UTLAH rate of payment, VWPR Youth-Crisis (turns 25), lose eligibility for Special Benefit, or the customer becomes a full-time student or Australian Apprentice ( in receipt of YAL/CUR-STU or YAL/CUR-APT, Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) or ABSTUDY( ABS) with an amount identified as a living allowance).

Under the VWPR measure:

• 50% of a customer's regular fortnightly eligible welfare payments are welfare quarantined, and
• 100% of lump sum payments or arrears are welfare quarantined

There are specific payments not quarantined.

Customers may be granted an exclusion from VWPR Youth if they have received less than 25% of their maximum basic rate of payment for at least 4 out of the last 6 fortnights. Non-payment periods or reduced rates of payment due to non-compliance are not included when determining eligibility.

Customers may also request to be assessed for this exclusion.

The Income Management and Assessment Team (IMEAT) is responsible for determining exclusions for IM customers.

Assessments for an exclusion for enhanced IM customers will be assessed by enhanced IM Service Officers who have additional ISP access and undertaken training in manual processes.

A Services Australia social worker is responsible for assessing all other requests for an exclusion from VWPR Youth if:

• welfare quarantining would put the customer's mental, physical, or emotional wellbeing at risk, or
• is ‘Not Practicable due to Support & Demonstrated Capacity’

For more details about exclusions, see Exclusions for automatically triggered Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients (VWPR) Youth Income Management and enhanced IM for Service Officers.

Note: customers who have been assessed as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient by a social worker cannot apply for an exclusion. However, these customers can request a reconsideration of their circumstances. For more details, see Reviewing, reconsidering and ending Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) Notices assessed by social workers.

If a customer moves out of a VWPR IM area or enhanced IM location after being identified for or commencing welfare quarantining under VWPR, their payments will still be welfare quarantined.

Welfare quarantining will continue for a customer outside an IM area or enhanced IM location under the same rules as if they had remained in the declared IM area or enhanced IM location for the duration of the 12-month period.

For more details, see Customer moves out of an Income Management or enhanced IM area.

VWPR Notice (Social worker assessed)

A Notice will generally be for a 12 month period, however a social worker may end the Notice before this date. At the end of the Notice period, the social worker may choose to continue the Notice, if they determine:

• a customer continues to experience an indicator of vulnerability, and
• welfare quarantining continues to be an appropriate support for the customer

A customer may also request a reconsideration of the Notice.

For more details, see Reviewing, reconsidering and ending Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) Notices assessed by social workers.

VWPR Youth

Customers who participate in the Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) Youth measure may end participation in VWPR Youth enhanced IM if they:

• have reached their natural end date (12-month period)
• lose their automatic trigger for VWPR Youth
• become a full-time student or Australian apprentice (in receipt of YAL/CUR-STU or YAL/CUR-APT, Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) or ABSTUDY( ABS) with an amount identified as a living allowance) after they commenced enhanced IM VWPR

For more details, see Ending enhanced Income Management.

Customers who disagree with a decision relating to their IM or enhanced IM measure may appeal that decision. Normal review and appeal processes apply.

Customers who have been assessed for VWPR by a social worker can request a reconsideration of their VWPR Notice. This is different from a request for a review of a decision as the customer is seeking to have their circumstances reviewed by a welfare quarantine trained social worker to determine if they still meet the criteria as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient. Customers can request this review every 90 days.