Supporting People at Risk enhanced Income Management (SPaReIM) 103-01200000

When a SPaR referral Notice is lodged by an approved referring authority, a Services Australia Income Management Contact Officer (IMCO) will determine if the customer meets the eligibility criteria to commence enhanced IM.

Where the customer is on enhanced IM under a measure lower on the hierarchy, or the customer’s payments are not currently welfare quarantined, the customer will be placed on enhanced IM under the SPaR measure.

SPaReIM is compulsory, however, an approved referring authority contact worker can revoke the notice at any time.

The partner of an enhanced IM customer will not automatically commence enhanced IM. However, the approved SPaR authority may refer both partners where they believe the customers will benefit from enhanced IM.

SPaR is available for the approved referring authority to refer customers located in the Northern Territory only.

A SPaR notice can be for a period of 3, 6, 9, 12 or 24 months. The notice can be extended if the approved referring authority believes this would benefit the customer.

The approved SPaR authority can request enhanced IM be ceased at any point in time by sending a Revocation of enhanced Income Management.

A customer or their partner must be in receipt of a Category A payment under enhanced IM. Customers may also receive a secondary category B payment. These will also be quarantined at the same percentage as their Category A payment.

The following payments are income managed under this measure:

• 70% of a customer's regular fortnightly eligible welfare payment is quarantined
• 100% of ABSTUDY (with Living Allowance or Pensioner Education Supplement) payments
• 100% of lump sum payments are quarantined

There are specific payments that are not quarantined.

A customer can be eligible for more than one enhanced IM measure at the same point in time. In these cases, a hierarchy is used to determine which measure the customer will be subject to. SPaR is ranked third on the hierarchy, only behind the Child Protection and Cape York measures.

The Income Management Contact Officer (IMCO) is responsible for liaising with an approved referring authority about customers referred to Services Australia for enhanced IM.

• Action any requests from an approved referring authority received through the Business Hub
• Be the single point of contact to receive any referrals for enhanced IM sent by approved referring authorities
• Once a customer has been identified, determine if the customer meets all eligibility criteria under the SPaR measure
• Explain how enhanced IM operates, including how to access quarantined funds
• Provide the customer with enhanced IM program, account and SmartCard support whilst they are on enhanced IM, including referring customer to internal and external support services
• Contact the approved referring authority 35 days before the end of the enhanced IM notice period to discuss whether enhanced IM should be extended or ceased
• Undertake further reviews/contact during the enhanced IM period as appropriate
• Facilitate the flow of information between Services Australia and the approved referring authorities in relation to the referred customer, for example, change in address or changes in payment

The approved referring authority will:

• make a request for Disclosure of Information (DOI) with Services Australia. This request for disclosure allows the referring authority to gather information to help them decide if a referral for enhanced IM is appropriate
• advise the customer/s they are going to be referred to Services Australia for payment quarantining under the SPaR measure and explain what this means, including expected duration
• provide Services Australia with a Notice to Commence enhanced Income Management for the customer. The notice will include contact details and duration of enhanced IM
• provide Services Australia with a Revocation of enhanced Income Management notice if it is to cease before the end of the original period stated in the Notice to Commence enhanced Income Management
• advise Services Australia of any changes in the family's circumstances that may impact upon enhanced IM

A customer can request a review of the approved referring authority's decision to refer them to Services Australia for enhanced IM. See Reviews of Income Management and enhanced Income Management decisions.

In this case, Services Australia will refer the customer back to the approved referring authority where regular internal review processes should apply. The approved referring authority will provide customers with information on their review and appeal rights.