Issuing a one-off payment or arrears to a Centrelink beneficiary outside Australia 103-04020010

A person located overseas is entitled to a payment from Centrelink.

If the person who requires the one-off payment is:

• a current or former Centrelink customer, go to Step 2
• a third party located inside Australia, go to Step 2
• an overseas third party (for example, executor, medical service provider, agreement authority), go to Step 3

Note: Customers receiving an ongoing family assistance (FAO) payment (for example, Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Parental Leave Pay (PPL)) cannot be paid to an overseas bank account. Family assistance payments will continue to be issued to the customer's Australian bank account every 2 weeks.

Does the current or former customer or third party have a current Australian bank account?

• Yes, issue the payment to the Australian bank account. See Payment of arrears after reassessment and stopping a payment, or Replacement payments for assistance, if required. Procedure ends here
• No, beneficiary has an overseas bank account, go to Step 3

The payment to the beneficiary (current or former customer or third party including Estate) can only be made to an overseas account. Payment cannot be made via cheque.

Payments to bank accounts outside Australia cannot be made in Australian dollars. See Step 1 in Table 2

Is the customer currently receiving regular payments from Centrelink?

• Yes, ongoing:
• pension payments, CIS staff only can issue the payment to the overseas payment destination. Procedure ends here
• No, one-off:
• FAO payment is due to the beneficiary, go to Step 5
• pension payment is due to the beneficiary, go to Step 4

Is the Service Officer in CIS?

• Yes, DOC the One-Off Payment Request details
• go to Step 1 in Table 2
• No, Transfer overseas one-off payment request to CIS. Procedure ends here

Prior to requesting a one-off reissue of returned family assistance payments, check the Payment Details (PD) screen to ensure that both Family Tax Benefit Part A (FTB Part A) and Family Tax Benefit Part B (FTB Part B) have been returned.

If the entire payment has been returned, the message at the bottom of the screen will say 'This payment was returned on…'

Is the Service Officer in CIS?

• Yes, DOC the One-Off Payment Request details
• go to Step 1 in Table 2
• No, Transfer overseas one-off payment request to CIS. Procedure ends here

If only part of the payment has been returned, the message will specify the amount which has been returned, for example, '$180.00 has been returned on 30 November 2007'. A family assistance payment cannot be reissued until all amounts are returned. Record details on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

The bank account details that need to be provided depend on the country where the beneficiary’s bank account is located. Every country has its own banking regulation and requirements regarding what information they require to ensure a successful payment is made.

The payment will be issued via the Services Australia SAP GUI system, not Centrelink’s income support system.

The beneficiary is not obliged to provide the bank details within a certain period. However, if they do not provide the requested overseas bank account details (or Australian bank account details) the one-off payment will not be able to be issued to them.

Due to international sanctions, it is not possible to pay beneficiaries by any payment method including direct deposit in the following countries:

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Sudan
• Syria

Beneficiaries in these sanctioned countries can elect to have payments issued to:

• a nominated Australian bank account, or
• a payment nominee in Australia or another (non-sanctioned) country

For individual country banking requirements, refer to the information in Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD). However, for the purposes of issuing a one-off payment, the following countries have different banking requirements (for example, SWIFT and account number are required):

• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Israel
• Norway
• Singapore
• Sweden
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States

The specific requirements are denoted in the relevant fields in the country’s OBAD task cards.

If beneficiary has an existing details on the PAPO screen, confirm if those account details could be used.

When informing the beneficiary what specific overseas account details are required, it is important to inform them:

• Levied fees: Fees may be levied by their bank or deducted from the payment by any intermediary banks. These fees are beyond our control.
• International payments cannot be recalled once issued: Care needs to be taken that the beneficiary provides all the required details and these are correctly recorded.

Locate the country in OBAD and advise the beneficiary:

• the currency they will be paid in (See field: Currency used for direct deposit payments)
  Payments to bank accounts outside Australia cannot be made in Australian dollars. The currency may differ to the local currency of the country (See field: Local currency) so care needs to be taken to ensure the beneficiary provides details for the correct currency bank account
• the beneficiary will need to do the following:
• Check their bank account can accept Worldlink wire (WWR) payments. If the account cannot accept WWR payments, contact the customer and request WWR-enabled account details.
• Provide an official bank statement confirming the below details
• Provide a bank code. Either a local code (FI ID) and/or SWIFT code will be required (See OBAD fields: FI Identifier and FI SWIFT/BIC)
• Provide an account number. Either a classic bank account number or IBAN will be required (See OBAD field: Account Number)
• Provide exact name(s) on the bank account (See OBAD field: Account title)
• Where payment is not being paid in local currency, the beneficiary may need to provide USD or EUR intermediary bank details (See OBAD field: Intermediary bank details)
• Any additional information required from the beneficiary, for example, telephone number, Tax ID number (see OBAD fields: PayDtl and Country Specific Factors)

Method of contact

There are a number of ways CIS staff can contact the beneficiary to provide the requested bank account details:

• In writing: Issue a request to complete form or questionnaire (Q004, XOB999, XOBS32), or a similar letter requesting that the beneficiary provides overseas bank account. Note: the beneficiary is not obliged to provide the bank details within a certain period. The beneficiary will need to provide the following:
• Bank statement: Copy of a bank statement may be provided, and/or
• AUS178 form: The International bank account form (AUS178) may be used for payments made to all countries except for the 10 countries stated above, in lieu of a bank statement. For the 10 countries a bank statement must be requested
• Via phone: the beneficiary can give their overseas payment destination details verbally. Care needs to be taken when overseas bank details are given over the phone to make sure all details are provided. This includes confirmation of the currency of the account provided. If a customer has an IBAN, make sure it is validated by entering it into the IBAN Validation Tool.
• Request the beneficiary to provide written confirmation of their payment details (for example, an official bank statement) as soon as possible for additional verification.

Has the beneficiary provided overseas bank account details?

• Yes,
• annotate the existing DOC ‘OVS One-Off Payment Request’ with the overseas bank account details the beneficiary provided
• go to Step 2
• No,
• annotate the DOC with overseas bank account gathering action taken
• finalise the DOC. Procedure ends here

Once the beneficiary has provided the requested overseas bank account details, search for DOC ‘OVS One-Off Payment Request’ on the customer’s record, if not already open.

If overseas bank account details have not been recorded in this DOC, annotate DOC with bank details provided by the beneficiary,

Completing the SF030 with overseas bank account details

• Complete the Notice to Prepare a Refund Account (SF030) form
• The SF030 form contains fillable fields. All required fields are to be actioned as required. Note the following:
  direct credit tick box is to be chosen
  where the beneficiary’s bank details do not fit in the Direct Credit drafts section, write: ‘See attached overseas bank details’ in the Bank/Financial Institution field and attach the overseas bank details to the form
  Document ID field and line remains blank
  The form is to be signed by the person completing the form. Spending delegate’s Approval section is to be completed by the relevant manager (see Item 5)
• print the SF030 form and make sure both the person completing the form and the manager (see Item 5) sign the form
• rescan the SF030 form. Save to secure drive
• upload to the record of the customer whose payment the beneficiary will be receiving. Categorise as UNS005 - Financial, as a closed work item

In an email:

• attach the completed SF030 form
• attach copy of bank statement provided by the beneficiary, where available
• use the Snipping Tool to capture the following screen shots and attach to the email:
• DOC ‘OVS One-Off Payment Request’, and
• Payment Summary (PS) screen showing the payment that is being reissued

In the subject line of the email, key: Overseas One-Off Payment Request: [Insert customer’s CRN]

Information is not required in the body of the email.

Email the completed SF030 form, copy of bank statement and/or AUS178 (if available) and DOC and PS screenshots to the Finance Tasmania Team.

Delete the SF030 form from the secure drive.

Annotate the DOC with the date this email is sent to the Finance Tasmania Team.

Finalise the DOC, if not already done.

The Zone Tas Finance team will issue the payment to the beneficiary within 5 business days of the request being received. The payment will be issued via the Services Australia SAP GUI system, not Centrelink’s income support system.

Payments issued by the Zone Tas Finance team will be stripped daily and issued the following day. It may take from 2 to 6 business days for the beneficiary to receive the payment in their bank account.

Any follow up request is to be sent via email to the Finance Tasmania Team. Follow up requests should only be sent after the following timeframes:

• Payment issue enquiry – 5 business days after the original request was sent to the Zone Tas team
• Payment trace enquiry/request – 10 business days after the refund has been issued. See Requesting a trace of a direct deposit payment