Reissuing a rejected payment 103-04040090

Rejected payments refers to those payments, or part thereof, that have:

• not left Services Australia's payment system, and
• not reached the customer

Sometimes only part of a payment rejects. In these cases, Service Officers do not need to reissue the whole amount, just reassess and reissue the part that rejected and not paid to the customer.

Rejected payments can be displayed in 2 ways:

• 'Rejected Payment' - this is when the whole amount of the payment has been rejected
• 'Partial Rejected' - this is when part of the payment has been rejected. Generally, a component of the payment

While rejected and returned payments both show as 'RTN' in Customer First, they are separate processes.

Note: Service Officers must determine if the customer is entitled to the payment before re-issuing.

The Resources page contains examples of rejected payment Manual Follow-up (MFU) DOC text.

This file does not cover rejected real time payments using Priority Direct Credit (PDC). Real time payment can be identified by 'NPP' or 'Real Time’ under the 'Type' column. For more information, see Real time payment delivery to Centrelink customers.

A returned payment refers to when:

• a customer, financial institution or third party has received a payment in error, or
• a Request for Refund (RFR) has been sent and the financial institution has returned the payment

For the correct process to reissue a returned a payment, see, Reissue a payment returned from a financial institution – includes deceased customers.

Arrears

When granting/restoring a customer's payment with a backdated start date, there is a limit on the amount of money that can be reissued in a single payment. If the payment is over the system arrears limit, the payment will be rejected. The system arrears limit is the amount that can be issued in one payment per day minus $500 (to allow for any regular payment that may also issue). When the amount is over the limit, when payment is reissued, the system should establish the daily limit minus $500 and issue the payments over the required number of days.

Group Payment Schedule

If the customer is being paid via a group payment schedule, an immediate payment will automatically reject if it was issued on any code other than Entitlement Period End Date (EPED) code B. A payment will also reject when a customer is placed on weekly payments. Payment can be reissued but will not be received by the organisation until the next group schedule payday.

Overseas Bank Accounts (Family assistance payments)

Family assistance payments (for example, Family Tax Benefit) can only be deposited into an Australian bank account every 2 weeks regardless of the payment method chosen by the customer.

If a former family assistance customer is entitled to arrears (for example, from FAO reconciliation) but has moved overseas and closed their Australian bank account these payments will reject. Centrelink International Services (CIS) staff can issue a one-off payment to an overseas address. A one-off payment can also be used to issue payments to overseas estates and for certain other payments if no alternative option is available.

Nominees

If a customer has a payment nominee, the rejected payment should be reissued to the same payment nominee bank account it normally goes to.

Age Pension and Pension Bonus Scheme (PBS) payments

If Age Pension and PBS payments are granted on the same day and the combined payment exceeds the system limitation amount of $80,000, the payment will reject. A manual grant letter (Q999) should be sent once all the payments have been reissued. The incomplete advice letter about the rejected payment should also be cancelled.

Parental Leave Pay (PPL) delivered by an employer

The Paid Parental Leave Employer Processing Team (PPLEPT) is responsible for re-issuing PPL payments where PPL delivery is via the employer.