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 income managed 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 income management due to their circumstances

Services Australia social workers can assess customers as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient and place them on enhanced IM.

When determining whether income management 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 income management 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 income management, service officers must ensure the customer resides in an enhanced IM location or is currently subject to IM or enhanced IM. For information on when social work referrals can be made for both income managed and non-income managed customers, see the Resources page in Referral to a social worker

Customers will automatically be identified to be income managed under the VWPR Youth measure if they are:

• under 16 years of age and in receipt of a Special Benefit (SpB-USY),
• aged 16 but under 22 years 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, full rate of 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 starting 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 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: customers can only be placed on VWPR Youth under the UTLAH and SpB-USY categories once, for a total of 12 months. Time spent on either category counts towards the same 12 month limit. After the customer has completed 12 months in total, they cannot be identified under UTLAH or SpB-USY again. They may still qualify for VWPR Youth - CrP if they receive an eligible Crisis Payment following release from prison or psychiatric confinement
• VWPR Youth - CrP customers: will be for a period of 12 months. VWPR Youth under this category can apply again if the customer receives a subsequent CrP:
  • during their current VWPR Youth CrP, participation may continue for another 12 months from the date of the last eligible CrP, or
  • 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 automatic 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, full rate of 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 income managed, and
• 100% of lump sum payments or arrears are income managed

There are specific payments not income managed.

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.

Assessments for an exclusion for enhanced IM customers will be assessed by enhanced IM service officers with additional ISP and Process Direct access and trained in enhanced IM manual processing.

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

• Income management 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 Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) Youth enhanced Income Management Exclusions.

Note: customers who have been assessed as a Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient by a social worker (VWPR Notice) 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, their payments may still be income managed.

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

VWPR Notice (Social worker assessed)

A notice will 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
• income management 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 and requests to end enhanced IM
• become a full-time student or Australian apprentice (in receipt of YAL/CUR-STU or YAL/CUR-APT, full rate of Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) or ABSTUDY(ABS) with an amount identified as a living allowance) after they started 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 First contact about a decision and the internal review process 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 income managed 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.