Voluntary Income Management eligibility 103-01190010

VIM is a separate program to Voluntary enhanced Income Management (VeIM). For more information, see Enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM).

The IM program closed to new entrants on 4 September 2023. Customers who request to have their income support payments welfare quarantined and are eligible to participate must start enhanced IM.

Since 4 September 2023, VIM customers can choose to move to enhanced IM. When these customers move to enhanced IM, they cannot return to the IM program because it is closed.

For more information, see Voluntary Income Management and enhanced Income Management.

A customer may request to have their payments welfare quarantined because they need help to meet financial responsibilities.

If the customer was eligible at the time of their request (that is, before 4 September 2023), they will start IM under the VIM measure.

As IM is closed to new customers, if the customer becomes eligible for another measure they must start the new measure under enhanced IM.

For example: A customer is on VIM and becomes eligible for one of the compulsory measures of Income Management eg Compulsory IM – Disengaged Youth (DEY), the customer would start this measure under enhanced IM, except customers automatically identified for the Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) measure.

Note: before 4 September 2023, a State or Territory Child Protection Authority, Supporting People at Risk (SPaR) approved referring authority or a State or Territory Housing Authority could refer a customer to Services Australia to discuss VIM. When Services Australia received a referral from the external organisation, it was not compulsory for the customer to attend appointments to discuss IM or enter into a VIM Agreement with the agency. This has continued under the enhanced IM program, although, the customer does not need to attend appointments to discuss VeIM with the agency.

For more information, see Example of new agreement request.

To enter into a VIM Agreement with the agency customers needed to:

• request to be welfare quarantined before 4 September 2023, and
• be eligible to participate in IM under the VIM measure

They also needed to:

• be receiving a category H welfare payment
• live in a declared IM area
• not have an excluded payment nominee for IM purposes
• not have terminated a previous agreement within 21 days before their request
• not have had more than 4 terminations of an agreement within 12 months before their request, and
• not have been welfare quarantined under a compulsory measure at the time of their request

Customers could not enter into a VIM Agreement with the agency if:

• Services Australia could not apply IM for the customer
• the customer was subject to a measure higher in the hierarchy of IM measures or Nominee Income Management (NIM), or became eligible for a compulsory measure of IM within 28 days after their request
• a VIM Agreement was terminated by the customer or the agency within 21 days before their request.; The agency couldn’t enter into another agreement with the customer until 21 days had elapsed from the termination of the customer’s previous agreement
• an agreement was terminated on 4 or more occasions within 12 months before their request

VIM started from the date the assessment was completed. A future start date could not be recorded.

To decide whether to enter into a VIM Agreement with a customer, the agency needed to consider:

• if VIM would have met the customer and their family’s priority needs
• other relevant matters if they were applicable to the customer

This discretion allowed the agency to refuse to enter into a VIM Agreement if, among other things, there was:

• not enough approved merchants within the customer's geographic location
• an insufficient rate of payment being received by the customer
• a likelihood of the customer:
• being ineligible for VIM within 28 days after their request, and/or
• becoming subject to a different measure of IM within 28 days after their request

A compulsory period of 13 weeks applies when a customer enters into a VIM Agreement.

Customers may terminate their VIM Agreement at any time after completing the mandatory 13-week period by contacting the agency. The termination request from the customer:

• must be made over the phone, or face-to-face
• does not need to be in writing

Services Australia can also terminate the VIM Agreement if certain events occur. For example, the customer’s income support payment is cancelled.

The following payments are welfare quarantined under this measure:

• 50% of a customer's regular fortnightly Category I welfare payments (which includes Category H welfare payments)
• 100% of ABSTUDY (with Living Allowance or Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)) payments
• 100% of lump sum payments

There are specific payments that are not income managed.

Customers who move out of a declared IM area must remain on VIM if they are within the mandatory 13-week period. They can choose to remain on VIM indefinitely after the mandatory period has elapsed.

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

If the customer’s payment is suspended or cancelled while their VIM agreement is active, they will be placed on VIM again if that payment is restored or re-granted. There is no gap in eligibility within 13 weeks of the suspension or cancellation date. That is, if the restoration or grant is backdated to date paid to +1, a customer is considered to have been eligible for IM continuously and must remain on the IM program).

However, if their payment is restored or re-granted 13 weeks after the suspension or cancellation date, the customer will be given the option to either cease their VIM Agreement or enter into a voluntary enhanced IM agreement. This means the customer would move from IM to enhanced IM as a new customer).

For more information, see enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM).

To access and action the VIM continuation assessment screen:

• the Service Officer must be in a restoration or new claim activity
• the customer must have aactive VIM Agreement (that has been active for more than 13 weeks), and
• the customer must be residing in a declared VIM area (unless the customer has been referred to VIM by a child protection authority)