BasicsCard merchant information, eligibility and approval 103-01230130

Income management is designed to ensure that money provided for the welfare of individuals and their families is spent on priority goods and services.

Income management is a practical measure to assist customers to meet essential household needs and expenses. It does not reduce a customer's entitlements, rather it sets aside a percentage of certain income support and family payments to be spent on priority goods and services such as food, housing, clothing, education and health care.

Customers cannot purchase alcohol, home brew concentrate, home brew kits, tobacco, pornography or gambling products and services with income managed funds. Customers receive the remaining part of their payments as usual, and have total discretion to spend that money as they wish.

Once a business is approved to receive income managed funds it may benefit in the following ways:

• receiving frequent and regular payments
• improved cash flow
• improved financial planning
• a reduction in overdue bills
• a reduction in the amount of time and/or money spent on administering bad debts and service disconnections

There are various ways in which a business can receive income managed funds. These include:

• the BasicsCard (EFTPOS network)
• a direct deduction facility
• manual 'one off' payments

The BasicsCard provides customers on income management with greater choice and flexibility to purchase priority goods and services from a broad range of merchants. Customers can use their BasicsCard at approved stores and businesses.

The BasicsCard is a PIN protected card which allows customers to access their income managed money through a business or store's EFTPOS facilities.

The BasicsCard cannot be used to purchase prohibited items. For a list of prohibited items see excluded goods and services.

The Find a business or organisation search facility available on the Services Australia website can be used to search for BasicsCard businesses and organisations.

See the Resources page for a link to the Organisation Finder Service.

Guidelines have been developed for Third Party Organisations (TPOs) to help meet their obligations to securely store confidential documents. See the Resources page for a copy of the guidelines.

The Resources page also contains links to the Income Management organisations page and the BasicsCard for businesses page on the Services Australia website.

Businesses can apply to be a BasicsCard merchant by downloading and completing a BasicsCard Merchant Application form from the Services Australia website. Businesses should also download and read the BasicsCard Merchant Terms and, if applicable, the BasicsCard Special Conditions for Taxi cab and Minibus.

Businesses can also download and read the BasicsCard Merchant Approval Framework. This contains the Department of Social Services' (DSS) policy guidelines which outline merchant eligibility for BasicsCard approval.

See the Resources page for a link to the Applying to use BasicsCard payment method web page which links to all four documents.

Businesses can contact the Income Management and BasicsCard Helpdesk for assistance and further information. The helpdesk is also able to email any of the above documents to businesses at their request. See the Resources page for a link to contact details for the Income Management and BasicsCard Helpdesk.

Once a BasicsCard Merchant Application is received, a record is created for the new merchant and the business application is attached to the merchant's record. New records are only created as necessary. Applications are scanned to an existing record where a record exists.

The business application is then processed by the National Business Gateway's (NBG) Business Applications & Registration Team.

• To be eligible to become a BasicsCard merchant, the requirements are as follows:
• the main business activity of the merchant is the sale of priority goods and services or other eligible goods and services
• the ability to prevent the sale of excluded goods and services, and
• sales in terms of dollar value of excluded goods and services is less than 50 per cent of the total annual dollar value turnover

DSS may determine that a merchant, who is not otherwise eligible for BasicsCard, should be considered eligible if exceptional circumstances exist. This may occur if the merchant:

• is the only reliable source of food security in a community, and/or
• provides an essential service that is necessary for meeting essential needs

Merchants are not eligible for BasicsCard approval if their main business activity is not the sale of priority goods and services or other eligible goods and services.

The following categories of merchants are not eligible for BasicsCard:

• door-to-door sales businesses
• cafes that sell alcohol
• restaurants

If a Business has asked to be withdrawn from the BasicsCard programme (Voluntary Withdrawal), send an email to the BasicsCard Merchant Helpdesk in National Business Gateway. See Resources.

The helpdesk will issue a Q723 BasicsCard Merchant - Voluntary Termination OLA letter. Change the merchant status in the BasicsCard Merchant Registration Workflow to withdrawn, deactivate the terminals and DOC the record.

If the business is being terminated because of a compliance action, the TPO programme assurance team in Deduction and Confirmation Branch will supply a termination letter. See Resources for a link to the branch intranet page. The request to deactivate the merchant’s EFTPOS terminals from accepting the BasicsCard and updates to the BasicsCard contract workflow can then be sent to the BasicsCard Merchant Helpdesk.