Investigating and assessing Farm Household Allowance (FHA) debts 002-17030000

FHA debts can occur for a number of reasons, such as:

• in circumstances when advice is received late and for a period already paid to the customer
• income from employment, investments or other sources has not been used when calculating the rate of payment
• changes in care of dependent children
• change in amount of rent paid or incorrect amount of Rent Assistance paid to the customer
• customer has not advised they have become partnered
• loss of entitlement to FHA. For example, in prison, left the country, assets over the limit
• fraud, including the FHA relief payment
• administrative or systems error
• farm enterprise business income reconciliation related processes

The Social Services Plan (SSP) determines the daily rate of payment for a given time period. If customer circumstances change and this changes their entitlement, a new SSP is created to reflect the change. Current and superseded SSPs are stored in the customer record which means there can be a different rate displayed for the same time period in several SSPs. Each new decision (SSP) overrides the previous one and creates a new SSP. Every time a new SSP is created, the customer's payment rate is reassessed from the start date of payment.

If the reassessment results in a changed rate for any period, the system may generate an arrears payment, stop payment and/or create an undetermined debt shell.

Note: any changes resulting from a reassessment do not take effect until the SSP is approved.

Where a potential overpayment has been identified, the approved Social Services Plan (SSP) will trigger the creation of an undetermined debt activity within the Debt Management Information System (DMIS). As these triggers are run at specific times during the day, there may be a delay between the approval of the SSP and the creation of the undetermined debt. The potential overpayment does not become a debt until it has been investigated and determined.

All undetermined debt activities created for FHA will have a corresponding Social Services Plan (SSP) that triggered the payment adjustment. To investigate a potential overpayment, the SSP that created the debt may have to be compared with the previous SSP. Customer contact is required before raising the debt for recovery.

When investigating a debt, review data held on both the Customer First native and legacy screens. Due to the complexity of FHA eligibility criteria, additional screens relating to, but not limited to; income, assets, overseas departures or other details may have to be investigated.

The investigation will uncover the action that created the debt and determines whether the debt is recoverable under the Social Security Act 1991. Before raising a debt, there must be evidence to substantiate a debt actually exists. Staff must examine the customer record and all available evidence, determine if an overpayment has occurred, and whether a recoverable debt exists under the relevant legislation.

There are 3 possible outcomes of the investigation:

• The debt is raised for recovery
• The debt is Waived if there is reason that meets the waiver provisions
• The debt is Finalised No Debt (FND) if not a legitimate debt or is not legally recoverable

When investigating a debt for FHA issues on the customer's record may be identified. When this occurs the information may need to be corrected and a reassessment of the customer's entitlement is then undertaken.

An offset may occur when a debt shell is created for a customer and a subsequent reassessment results in an arrears payment being generated.

In this situation the arrears would be offset against the overpayments, and any remaining amount (if any) is then issued to the customer as a correct arrears payment.

An offset can only occur when the components and dates of the debt shell match the components and dates of the proposed arrears payment.

Debt offsetting makes adjustments in the Debt Management Information System (DMIS) to:

• correct the amount of the debt shell
• amend the amount of arrears up or down
• finalise the debt shell if the arrears and debt shell are the same amount, for the matching components and timeframe

It is important to manually check the outcomes of this process.

Finalise No Debt (FND) should only be done once the change process has been run on a record (reassessment of Social Services Plan (SSP)). Each time this process is run, it will reassess the customer's record from the original start date of the current SSP chain. The reassessment will pick up any errors (underpayments/overpayments) for the customer from their entitlement start date.

Once the reassessment of the SSP is complete any changes will be applied overnight in the debt shell. In some cases it may take until the next payment is released before it is applied.

Once all changes have been applied the existing debt shell will also update.

Once the SSP has been reassessed, investigate the debt shell by following the current procedure to make sure the undetermined debt is correct and can be determined.

The FHA relief payment may be recovered if determined it was received fraudulently.

Eligibility for the CVS is based on payability for the eligible supplement income support payment (ISP) including any eligible add-on payments, during the customers ISP entitlement period.

CVS debts occur when the customer:

• has a change in circumstances other than a benefit transfer backdated, and
• the person was no longer in receipt of a qualifying ISP

Where a customer transfers from a CVS eligible ISP to a CVS non-eligible ISP, any excess CVS paid is not recoverable.

When investigating a CVS debt:

• raise the corresponding ISP debt before raising the CVS debt
• do not raise a CVS debt with the ISP debt. Do not amalgamate FHA CVS debt shells
• if the corresponding ISP debt is Finalised No Debt, finalise the corresponding CVS debt for the same period as Finalised No Debt

Vulnerability is not always linked to a specific customer group or characteristic. It is related to a customer’s individual circumstances. Customers experiencing vulnerability may need additional support or help to access payments and services.

Vulnerability can:

• impact anyone at any time
• be transient in nature
• be complex
• impact people in different ways

Vulnerability can occur because of:

• unexpected life events
• long-term or short-term circumstances
• one or many risk factors. See Customers experiencing vulnerability
• the combination and intensity of risk factors
• limited supports or support networks which help reduce the risk of experiencing vulnerability, such as:
• family and social support
• connection to country
• religion, or
• a caring doctor

Vulnerability may be identified in interactions with customers through:

• Customer disclosure: a customer says they are experiencing a vulnerable circumstance
• Customer cues: this may be in person, over the phone, in writing or as part of an online claim. Observe:
• what the person says
• what the person does not say
• how the person says it
• distress or anxious behaviour
• body language and tone of voice
• File review: a customer’s record can show signs they may be experiencing vulnerability. This could be information about a range of circumstances including, but not limited to, accommodation, health and payment type