Request the return of a payment made to an incorrect recipient 103-04040110

Customer or third party advises payment has been sent to an incorrect recipient. This situation may occur due to a Service Officer accidentally coding incorrect/invalid account details, or due to the incorrect account number being provided by the customer.

Who has contacted to advise that payment has been sent to an incorrect recipient?

• If the incorrect recipient has contacted, go to Step 2
• If the customer has contacted, go to Step 5

• Get as many identification details for the incorrect recipient as possible, such as name, address, date of birth, contact phone number, Customer Reference Number (CRN) if also a customer, date payment was received, BSB, account number and account name
• Extreme care must be taken to protect the identity and privacy of the customer and the incorrect recipient (who may also be a customer)
• To identify the intended recipient, the Payment Trace ID Number recorded as the reference of the deposit must be provided by the incorrect recipient
• Tell the incorrect recipient to leave the funds in the bank account, as the funds will be automatically returned to the agency within the next 28 days. If no funds or only part of the payment is returned, a debt will be raised against the incorrect recipient to recover the remainder of the funds
• Record a DOC on the incorrect recipient’s record, if known to the agency, detailing the conversation
• Tell the customer they may be contacted if the agency requires further information to assist in recovery of funds, or identification of intended recipient
• No further action required from incorrect recipient for this process

Has the Payment Trace ID Number been provided?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No:
• Tell the incorrect recipient to contact back with this information. It will appear on the online or physical bank statement and must be provided to identify the intended recipient
• Procedure ends here

The Payment Trace ID Number is a combination of the customer's CRN and the Payment ID Number recorded on the Payment Detail (PD) screen.

For Child Care Subsidy (CCS) payments, the Payment Trace ID is the document number attached to that payment viewable on the customer's statement. Customers will not be identifiable by this Payment Trace ID alone.

Can the customer be identified?

• Yes, see Table 3, Step 1
• No, go to Step 4

If the customer is unknown, contact the Centrelink Payment Support Team (CPST) via mySupport and request a payment trace. Note: there is no specific webform for requesting a payment trace. Select the webform for any payment and specify in the title that a payment trace is required.

The Resources page has a link to mySupport and webforms.

Collect the following details as part of the report:

• BSB
• Account Number
• Amount received
• Date payment was received, and
• Payment ID Trace number as displayed on bank statement/online banking

The payment trace will identify the customer that the payment should have been delivered to. See Table 3, Step 1.

To verify if the customer had legal access to bank account, see Reissuing a payment at a customer's request.

Where attempts to verify the customer has legal access to the bank account fail or are inconclusive:

• benefit of the doubt should be given to the customer so they are not placed in hardship. DOC attempts made to get details from customer
• the payment must be requested for refund before it can be reissued
• the customer must be warned that as the original payment has not been returned to the agency, by issuing a replacement payment, the customer may be paid twice for the same period and a debt will be raised

Has the payment been issued to an account the customer has legal access to?

• Yes, tell the customer a request for refund cannot be made as the payment was issued to an account to which the customer had legal access
• To change the payment destination for future payments, see Changing payment destination
• Record the details on a DOC
• Procedure ends here
• No, see Table 2, Step 1

If payment was made to a:

• payment nominee, go to Step 2
• parent the customer is currently in the care of, go to Step 3
• third party, such as rehabilitation centre, correctional centre trust account or respite nursing home, go to Step 4
• parent the customer was previously in the care of, friend or relative without a nominee arrangement, go to Step 5
• unknown incorrect recipient, including invalid accounts and fraudulently rejected payments, see Table 3, Step 1

• If the payment nominee arrangement was current at the time the payment was delivered, a request for refund cannot be made as the payment was issued to the correct recipient. To receive future payments, the customer must cancel the nominee arrangement. Record details in a DOC. Procedure ends here
• If the payment nominee arrangement had ceased at the time the payment was delivered and the payment has been incorrectly issued to the payment nominee's account, go to Step 6

If the customer:

• is under the age of 18 years, a dependent recipient of Youth Allowance (YA) or ABSTUDY secondary school student and the payment was delivered to the parent, a request for refund cannot be made as the payment was issued to the correct recipient, if they have benefited from the payment. To receive payment into their own account, see Payments for students under 18 years paid to student, parent or a third party. Record details in a DOC. Procedure ends here
• is under the age of 18 years, a recipient of ABSTUDY as a secondary non-school, tertiary or Masters or Doctorate level student and the payment was delivered to the parent, a request for refund must be made as the payment was issued to the incorrect recipient. The correct recipient or ‘payee’ is the student, as outlined in Payment destination. Go to Step 6
• is over the age of 18 years and the payment was delivered to the parent the customer is currently in the care of, a request for refund cannot be made as the payment was issued to the correct recipient if they have benefited from the payment. The payment destination may be changed for future payments immediately
• does not reside in the parental home and did not benefit from the payment, go to Step 6

• Confirm with the third party if the customer has benefited from or been given the payment
• If the customer was approved for an Immediate Payment and it was issued to a third party, and it was issued with the consent of the customer or for their benefit, a request for refund cannot be made. Record details in a DOC. Procedure ends here
• If the customer has left the facility and did not benefit from the payment, go to Step 6

• If the customer was approved for an Immediate Payment and it was issued to a third party, and it was issued with the consent of the customer or for their benefit, a request for refund cannot be made. Record details in a DOC. Procedure ends here
• If the regular payment was made to an account of a parent that the customer was previously in the care of, or the customer claimed was their own, but was a friend's or relative's account, and the customer does not have legal access to the account, go to Step 6

• If the incorrect recipient is known and this is not a case of suspected fraud, contact must be made with the person to make them aware that they have received a payment they were not entitled to receive
• Extreme care must be taken to protect the identity and privacy of the customer and the incorrect recipient, who may also be a customer
• Tell the incorrect recipient to leave the funds in the bank account, as funds will be automatically returned to the agency within the next 28 days. If no funds or only part of the payment is returned, a debt will be raised against the incorrect recipient to recover the remainder of the funds
• Two attempts must be made to contact the recipient by phone. If this is unsuccessful, record details in a DOC being mindful of privacy requirements, then send the recipient either a Q164 or Q999 letter asking them to contact a service centre

Suggested text for Q999 letter where incorrect recipient is a customer

Please contact Services Australia urgently in relation to funds that were incorrectly deposited into your account on ......................... for the amount of $............ . You can contact us by calling 13............. and quoting your reference number at the top of this letter.

Suggested text for the DOC where incorrect recipient was a nominee

............... was payment nominee for DSP customer. (See NOLS screen for details) Nominee arrangement was ended on ............ . As customer did not have their own bank account, payments were incorrectly sent to ex-nominee. Payment details are ............................ . Payments will be requested to be refunded from bank. If ex-nominee does not have funds in the account, a debt will need to be raised for funds that have been received in error. 2 unsuccessful attempts were made to contact ex-nominee by phone so Q999 sent asking them to contact.

The customer must provide an account they have legal access to (either solely or jointly).

If the customer is not present, 2 genuine attempts should be made to contact the customer by phone to obtain their correct bank account details.

Have new payment destination details been provided by the customer?

The customer may have already updated their payment destination using self-service options.

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No:
• Send a Request for payment destination details (Q092) to the customer. This letter must include the paragraph regarding suspension of payment if no contact is made
• Record the details on a DOC in the customer's record noting details of the returned payment/s, the action taken to contact the customer and the action that is to be taken when the customer makes contact
• In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 28 days from today's date
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'Check on response to Q092 issued DD/MM/YYYY. Return to OB 103-04040110 for action.'
  Keywords: REJPYMT
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
• The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• The original MFU can now be completed

If the customer does not wish to supply new account details and does not want the payment reissued, record conversation in a DOC and complete the MFU.

Has Q092 been returned by the customer, or has the customer opted to update their payment destination via self-service?

• Yes. Go to step 3
• No:
• For an Income Support payment - suspend payment via BA screen using reason Failed to reply to correspondence (FRC)
• For FTB/CDA/SHC or other supplementary payments, payment will need to be cancelled (if payment type cannot be suspended) - FRC. By using this reason, the customer should automatically be issued with an advice of suspension
• Annotate DOC with details of suspension action
• In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 3 months from today's date
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'No response to Q092 issued DD/MM/YYYY. Check contact from customer since suspension of payment. Return to OB 103-04040020 to cancel payment if appropriate.'
  Keywords: REJPYMT
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
• The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• Ensure Cancellation advice is issued to customer
• Procedure ends here until customer makes contact

If the customer does not wish to supply new account details and does not want the payment reissued, record conversation in a DOC and complete the MFU.

For Child Care Subsidy (CCS) payments, see Step 3 in the System coding when reissuing a payment table

The Request for Refund (RFR) screen should only be used for deceased customers or where the payment has been issued to an account the customer does not have legal access to.

Before attempting to reissue the payment, make sure the correct payment system is selected (for example, Age Pension payments can only be reissued in the PEN system).

For payments in the ISS system, the correct subsystem must also be selected. For details on how to access the ISS subsystem, see Customer First navigation, common screens and functions.

Note: FHA/SRSS payments cannot be requested to be refunded. To action, report details via mySupport for ICT.

• Access the Payment Summary (PS) screen
• Select the payment to be returned by typing 'F' next to the payment line and press [Enter]
• This will display the RFR screen; the reason for refund field will be defaulted to 3^rd. If refund is for a deceased customer, the code will default to 'DCD'

On the RFR screen:

• Enter the source of the information in the Source: field
• Enter the date of request in the DOR: field
• Code 'Y' to finish the activity
• A warning will be shown: 'Is this an RFR for a deceased customer?'
• If so, code the DEA screen first
• Press [Enter] to complete this activity
• Ensure the Request for Refund (RFR) activity has been automatically generated on the Future Activity List (FAL) screen to check in 14 days' time and again in 28 days that the original payment has been returned. These activities will normally not show until daily driver (DDR) has run on the record
• If the activity has been selected by Quality On Line (QOL) checking the future activity may not generate immediately. In these cases:
• note the CRN, and
• check the FAL screen the next day

If the customer advises the payment has been fraudulently redirected to a payment destination they do not have legal access to, perform the following before proceeding any further:

• lock access to self-service, and
• escalate the suspected identity fraud

See Centrelink self service - access status, locking and unlocking and Table 2 of Identity Fraud for more details.

Is the customer entitled to the payment?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, the payment must be stopped to prevent it from being reissued. Contact the Centrelink Payment Support Team (CPST) via the mySupport Stop Customer Payment webform, requesting a stop be placed on the payment to prevent it from being reissued. Record the details on a DOC, stating the reason why the payment was stopped. If payment is less than $50, ICT may not be able to put a stop on the payment. In this case, record DOA DOC on record to advise why payment should not be reissued. Procedure ends here.

The Resources page contains a link to mySupport.

Is the payment which is being replaced an Income Management payment, that is, System/Service Reason GPY?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 9

When a customer requests a replacement Income Management payment be issued and funds have not yet been returned from a financial institution:

• Service Officers are to ensure the payment destination details have been updated for Service Reason GPY. See Changing payment destination for more details
• Service Officers are to send an email to Income Management Policy Helpdesk requesting an Account Adjustment be processed and the payment re-issued to the customer's correct bank account. If the request is urgent, Service Officers should ring the helpdesk after sending the email
• Service Officers are to record details of discussion with the customer in a DOC, including:
• confirmation of customer being advised that as the original payment has not been returned to the agency, by issuing a replacement payment the customer may be paid twice and a duplicate payment debt may be raised
• why a replacement payment was requested and deemed appropriate
• The Income Management Policy helpdesk will action the Account Adjustment and re-issue the funds within 24 hours of receiving the request, if appropriate

Go to Step 10.

If the customer requires the funds immediately and in no way contributed to the delay in the payment, consideration should be given to issuing the payment to the customer immediately, without waiting for the payment to be returned. See Reissue a payment at a customer’s request.

The RFR activity will automatically:

• Create a letter to be issued to the financial institution requesting the return of the payment/s. If the payment cannot be returned, the letter requests the financial institution to advise:
• the name(s) of the account holder(s) of the recipient(s) that the payment was sent to
• the address of the account holder(s)
• the date(s) of birth of the account holders and to return the request to the service centre requesting the refund (reply paid envelope of service centre enclosed)
• Set up a review on the Future Activity List (FAL) screen for 14 days in the future (review type 'Request for Refund 1'). Keywords = 'Refund' and '3RD'
• If the payment is returned in full before the maturity date of this review, the review will be auto cancelled and no further action will be taken on the record
• If the payment is not returned, or partially returned when the maturity date of the review is reached, a second review, 'Request for Refund 2' will be created for another 14 days in the future. If the payment is returned in full before the maturity date of the second review being reached, the review will be auto cancelled and no further action will be taken on the record
• As each review matures, the record should be reviewed for any response/action by financial institution (that is, if the payment has been coded as partially/fully returned, or if the questionnaire has been scanned to Document Tools)
• If the payment is not fully returned, or partially returned when the maturity date of the review is reached, details of the outstanding unreturned amount will be tagged to Debt Management Information System (DMIS) for an undetermined debt to be registered. See Actioning third party debts

If a response is not received from the financial institution, a Q999 should be sent to the Financial Institution with copy of the original letter to advise no response has been received.

The Q999 should be addressed to the financial institution, including the following text in the free text paragraph:

Our records show that we have not received a reply to the attached request. If you have replied in the last 14 days, please ignore this letter.

Note: a reply paid envelope is to be included in locally printed letters.

Has the RFR activity been generated for an Income Management payment, that is, System/Service Reason GPY?

• Yes, go to Step 11
• No, procedure ends here

Once a replacement Income Management (GPY) payment has been issued the following action will be taken to monitor the return of the requested payment:

• The Income Management helpdesk will monitor the return of funds from the financial institution by checking the customer's payment Summary (PS) and Income Management Account on a daily basis for 14 days
• If funds are returned from the financial institution:
• via the automated process and the payment has been re-credited to the customer's Income Management account, the Income Management helpdesk will code an Account Adjustment debit to avoid funds being re-disbursed. Treasury will be automatically notified via email of this action and no further reconciliation follow up is required
• by Treasury manually processing the return, or the returned payment not being automatically re-credited to the customer’s Income Management account, no further adjustment is required as this will offset the original Account Adjustment
• Note: if the full amount is not returned, further investigation will be required as to whether a debt will need to be raised for the balance as per Actioning third party debts. The Income Management Policy helpdesk will refer any debt to be raised to the Recoveries Team in the Income Management Payment and Contact Team (IMPACT) for appropriate action
• If funds are not returned, a debt is to be raised against the third party (or the customer where they have accessed the original payment) as per Actioning third party debts. The Income Management Policy helpdesk will refer any debt to be raised to the Recoveries Team in the Income Management Payment and Contact Team (IMPACT) for appropriate action