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

Record on a DOC information reviewed as part of the investigation and assessment of an overpayment. This includes scans, DOCs and other supporting evidence.

Debt worksheet

The debt worksheet must be used for any debt that is raised or waived.

If an escalation is required, scan to the customer's record and upload ICT. See How to add attachments to reported issues table in Reporting ICT issues in Process Direct.

Where the debt outcome will be finalised no debt (FND), the debt worksheet is not essential and must not be scanned to a customer's record. However, the investigation and reason for escalation must be fully documented on the customer's record.

The debt raiser must:

• establish what the customer was actually paid, and
• calculate what the customer was entitled to be paid using verified information

The debt will be the difference between what the customer was actually paid and what the customer was entitled to.

Debt calculations and supporting documentation must be stored on the customer's record. See Calculating Centrelink entitlements and gathering information when investigating debts.

The Resources page contains a copy of the debt worksheet.

Open the customer record and from the Workspace go to the Debts assignment block.

• Select Debt Information
• From the list displayed select the Debt ID being investigated and note:
• Debt ID - needed to select the Social Services Plan (SSP) number
• Date of event
• Start date and end date of the debt period
• Total estimated debt amount

Alternatively, a debt activity can be selected from the Activity List (AL) or Debt List (OPDL) screens.

Once the debt activity has been selected from the AL or OPDL navigate to the following screens:

Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen.

• Take note of the Total estimated Debt Amount, Start Date and End Date

Component Amount (OPCA) screen.

• Take note of the Component Type(s) and Amount(s)

A debt shell may have one or several components. A component may be:

• Basic Payment
• Energy Supplement
• Rent Assistance (RA)
• Pharmaceutical Allowance (PhA)
• Income Support Bonus (ISB)
• Remote Area Allowance (RAA)
• Telephone Allowance (TAL)
• Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Check the customer record to determine if there are any payments that have an active payment lock.

Navigate to Open Item List from Customer First Workspace.

Note: Account History and Planned Payments do not always correctly reflect locked payments. Open Item List is to be used to determine if a locked payment exists.

If the payment component is shown with a padlock icon, this payment has an active lock and is considered to be a locked payment.

An active payment lock on document type Revenue Distribution will only prevent assessment of an undetermined debt shell where:

• components
• amounts
• dates

of the locked payment exactly match the components in the debt shell on document type Receivable.

Where an active payment lock has been identified, it needs to be unlocked to allow any offsetting to occur and the debt shell to be correctly be assessed and finalised. Refer the record to ICT via Digital Assistant Roxy.

Access Customer First and navigate to Workspace > Financial Customer Care > Customer Documents.

• Locate the undermined Debt ID in the Debt ID column
• Note the SSP number, this is the SSP that created the debt
• Select the SSP hyperlink to navigate to the SSP. Take note of the date the SSP was approved as this is the date the debt was created and the Decision Basis number
• In Customer Documents select the Billdoc No. associated with the relevant debt ID to navigate to the Billdoc details screen
• Note the Create Date on the Billing Doc. This is the date of the change that triggered the debt shell

Check for information that shows why the payment rate has changed for the period of the debt. Review the:

• Document List (DL)
• Event Summary (ES)
• Benefit Status (XBS), look for cancellations and restorations in the debt period
• SSP that created the debt:
• Look at the date SSP was created and approved
• The Decision Basis of the SSP provides the information on the customer record that contributed to the SSP assessment
  
  Note: if there is a time lag between these dates, this indicates a change of circumstances may not have been applied to recent payments
• The Compare Circumstances tab indicates the reason for changes applied in the SSP

Is the reason for the debt identifiable?

• Yes, and the debt is due to cancellation reason FRP (Failed to Report), go to Step 8. For other reasons, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 6

If the reason for the change in payment rate is not clear, review information on the customer's record to identify what changed for the period of the debt. Review the information on the record, including but not limited to the screens listed below.

Income details

• Earnings (EANS)
• Other Income (OINS)
• Foreign Pension/Annuities Summary (FIPS)
• Pensions/Annuities (SUPS)
• Real Estate & Business Income (REBS)
• Financial Investment Summary (IVIS)

Asset details

• Other Assets (OASS)
• Managed Investments (MIS)
• Unregistered Managed Investments (MIUS)
• Real Estate & Business (REBS)
• Savings (SVS)
• Unlisted Public Securities (SIUS)

Trust/Company (TRLS)

• Income/Assets (TRCIA)

Overseas details

• Overseas Departure & Return Summary (TOAS)
• Immigration Movements with Department of Home Affairs (RSIM)

Other details

• Reporting Regime (RPRS)
• Reporting History (RPRH)
• Accommodation circumstances - determine Rent Assistance eligibility on Accommodation Summary (ACS)
• Compensation Income in the Compensation Management Summary within Customer First Workspace. (Customer First only)

Farm specific information

In Customer First, select the CRN hyperlink to go to customer details. Select the Circumstance Data tab and scroll down to display the tab titled FHA Specific Overview. This will reveal information about:

• Farmer Data
• Farm Business Assets (must be read in conjunction with ISIS screen)
• Business Income

Note: if taking screenshots, make sure customer information is stored securely in the worksheet in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.

Is the information on the record correct?

• Yes, go to Step 10
• No, if information is found to be incorrect or the customer's circumstances have changed:
• Update the record with the correct information on the relevant screens or running the relevant guided procedures
• Reassess the record via a reassessment change process. See Change of circumstances for Farm Household Allowance (FHA)

If the debt is due to the customer failing to report (FRP), make 3 genuine attempts to contact the customer to complete the outstanding report. Refer to the customer's preferred time of contact in the FHA Customer Summary (FCS) screen.

Customer contact

If the customer was unable to be contacted, see Table 2, Step 1

If the customer was contacted and completed their final report, and

• the debt is for a period before 1 July 2020, go to Step 9
• the debt period was after 1 July 2020, and the cancellation is within 13 weeks, See Step 6 in Table 2 in Suspending, cancelling and restoring Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
• the debt period was after 1 July 2020, and the cancellation was not within 13 weeks. Finalise the debt FND (no referral to ICT is required). A negative adjustment to the clock days on FCA is required to reflect the actual period FHA was paid.

Note: where FHA has cancelled FRP outside 13 weeks of the cancellation date and is unable to be restored, staff must manually finalise the debt Finalised No Debt (FND). If unable to obtain the final reporting details, the debt must be raised.

To check if the Business Income Reconciliation (BIR) has been completed for the customer or partner.

• Enter 'FBI' in Super Key
• In the Farm Business Income Actuals section, check the Business Income Reconciliation (BIR)

To complete the outstanding report, make 3 genuine attempts to contact the customer. Refer to the customer's preferred time of contact in the FHA Customer Summary (FCS) screen.

Was the customer contacted and able to complete their final report, and has BIR been completed for customer and/or partner?

• Yes, and the customer received a top up, refer the record to ICT
• No, and
• the customer will be entitled to a top up once BIR is completed, refer the record to ICT - make sure the ICT escalation notes include BIR is outstanding and may result in a top up
• the customer is not entitled to a top up, finalise the debt FND (do not refer to ICT). A negative adjustment to the clock days on FCA is required to reflect the actual period FHA was paid

Note: if the Service Officer is not BIR trained and unable to determine if the customer is entitled to a top up, unassign the work item Reason Recategorised and add Work Type ZCOC_ZFHA_BIU_STREAM. This will make sure the work item is picked up by a BIR trained Service Officer.

Where a reassessment of the customer's record is completed, any arrears generated as a result may automatically finalise or change the debt amount.

Where the reassessment was completed in the previous step, allow time for the system to apply the update, and offset. Offsetting may take until the end of the current payment period.

Has the debt shell been finalised no debt?

• Yes, procedure ends here
• No, and:
• a partial offset has occurred and the debt amount has been reduced, see Step 1 in Table 2
• the arrears have failed to offset and have paid to the customer. Do not refer the record to ICT. The customer is now deemed to have received a duplicate payment and the debt must be assessed, see Step 1 in Table 2
• the arrears are sitting as an item in the Open Items list and have not offset. Refer the record for further investigation

Select Debt list (Financial Customer Care) from workspace.

This screen shows migrated debts and ISIS debt view.

If there is a sync issue with the debt screens it can be found here.

Follow the usual escalation protocols for escalation of the issue to ICT requesting a debt data sync.

Where the customer has multiple debt shells, all debt shells are to be investigated and raised individually, this includes assessing Coronavirus Supplement (CVS) debts.

Where periods of the debts are consecutive or inclusive, they are not to be consolidated and raised as one debt. This action impacts on any future debt offsetting that may be required.

Note: for multiple debt shells, check the reason for the debts are the same and the time periods of the debts are consecutive or inclusive.

Where debt shells overlap assess the individual debts in the order in which they were created the oldest one first, in each case comparing the Social Services Plan (SSP) that created the debt with the previous SSP.

Access Customer First and navigate to Workspace > Financial Customer Care > Customer Documents.

In the Debt Documents block:

• Locate the undetermined Debt ID, in the Debt ID column
• Note the Billdoc No. associated with the relevant Debt ID
• Select the SSP hyperlink next to the relevant Debt ID to navigate into the SSP

In the Payments Table block:

• Check for lines with the same Billdoc No. This shows the posting date, amount the customer has been paid, and the start and end dates for the period paid
• Selecting the Billdoc No. displays the daily rate for each day

In the Debt Offset block:

• Check for lines with the relevant Debt ID and clearing docs
• The red dot indicates it has been offset

Is the debt shell a 'zero rate debt' as a result of the transition from manual to automatic rates?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

The debt resulted from the transition from manual to automatic rates, as a result of the manual daily entitlement items being incorrectly set to zero.

The manual rate entitlement items will need to be re-coded to generate a debt offset:

• Run the Change Process to create a REAssessment SSP
• Select UndoDecision Assessment
• Insert the correct daily rate entitlement for the manual rate period
• Select Calculate Result
• Review SSP outcome
• Select Approve
• Save

If the arrears have not offset against the debt shell after 7 days, refer the record to ICT via Digital Assistant Roxy.

Procedure ends here.

The screen now displays the SSP that created the debt shell.

• Note the Approval Date of the SSP
• Expand the Compare Circumstance assignment block to view the Reassessment Reason Codes
• Expand the Gross Entitlement Amounts assignment block to display the daily rate of payment and the components for each period
  Note the Gross Entitlement Amounts and check the daily rate for each item. This will allow comparison with the daily rate from the previous SSP
• Select the date to expand the field to show further details

To identify the amount of the daily rate change, compare the SSP with previous SSPs. To navigate to the previous SSP, select the hyperlink on the General Details information titled Previous Decision.

Compare the 2 SSPs

• When comparing the SSPs, pay attention to changes of the:
• Gross Entitlement Amounts
• Start and end dates for the item
• Retrospective adjustment in planned payments - arrears or overpayment
• Entitlement Items
• Calculate the difference between the 2 rates
• Multiply the difference by the number of days in the debt period

The outcome should equal the amount in the debt shell.

Other checks which should be considered

• Check Payment List to determine if the debt may be as a result of a duplicate payment
• Check if a debt shell has been manually created and the debt raised or waived for the same period of the automatic debt shell

If the potential debt involves non-farming business income, further information on business income debt recovery assessment can be found at Raising social security debts due to self-employment or business income.

Is the outcome amount equal to the debt shell?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, update the record to reflect the correct circumstances and run Change Process to reassess the SSP. If the resulting amount is:
• Correct, go to Step 6
• Incorrect, get help from Local Peer Support (LPS) as per standard processes. Record details on a DOC

If the debt is a qualification debt then manual calculations are not required, go to Step 7.

Manually calculate customer entitlement for debt period and document all calculations on the Debt Worksheet. For assistance with manual calculations, see Rate and payment of Farm Household Allowance (FHA).

Does the outcome of the manual rate calculation confirm the amount of the debt shell is correct?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, further investigation is required. After further investigation and updates, if the resulting manual rate calculations confirm the system generated debt is:
• Correct, go to Step 7
• Incorrect, see FHA- Further investigation. Record details on a DOC

Review the available information to determine if the debt is:

• to be raised and recovered, contact with the customer is required before raising the debt, see Debt raising support for customers. Once the debt has been raised, go to Step 9
• to be Waived, if a decision has been made the debt is to be waived, the debt must first be raised and then the determined debt shell waived. See Waiving Centrelink debts on when and how to waive a debt. Once the debt has been waived, go to Step 9
• to be finalised as no debt (FND), go to Step 8
• Unable to be determined, get help from LPS as per standard processes. Record details on a DOC

Where a debt has been determined as not legally recoverable or should not exist, the debt is not to be manually finalised as no debt (FND).

Correct the information on the record and run a reassessment via the Change Process. This will correct the entitlement items and generate offsetting to automatically remove the debt.

If the corrective action is unable to be taken to automatically remove the debt, the record must be referred to ICT via Digital Assistant Roxy.

Do not finalise the debt as FND.

Note: this process does not apply where a debt is due to cancelling FRP outside of 13 weeks. See Table 1, Step 7.

After the debt shell has been investigated and finalised, record the outcome of the debt investigation. Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Rural > Update >

• FHA Debt Raised
• FHA Debt Waived, or
• FHA Debt Finalised No Debt

Where a debt has been raised or waived, scan the FHA debt worksheet to the customers record using classification code DBTCAL (Debt Calculations). For reclassification and separator pages, see Scanning Centrelink documents using an MFD.

Check if the customer's clock has automatically adjusted. This may be required when a debt has been raised or waived.

Note: there may be a delay in the automatic adjustment occurring. See Farm Household Allowance (FHA) clock.

If the customer's tax details need to be adjusted as a consequence of raising or waiving the debt, make the tax adjustments.

Has the customer contacted requesting a further explanation or to lodge an appeal against the decision to raise a debt, including debts relating to business income reconciliation?

• Yes:
• further explanation, go to Step 2
• lodge an appeal, go to Step 3
• No, procedure ends here

Investigate the customer's record and refer to any DOCs to tell the customer the reasons debt was raised.

Where the customer wishes to appeal against the decision to raise the debt after the explanation has been provided, go to Step 3.

Where an adequate explanation is unable to be provided due to the information documented:

• Run the internal review and appeal script and select Request for Explanation Only. See Request for an explanation or application for a formal review (CLK)
• Add the additional keyword of DEBTTEAM to the open DOC
• Transfer the open DOC on record to region code FHH

FHA Debt Processing Staff

Where a debt is reviewed following an explanation of decision request and additional calculations are completed, the debt worksheet must be completed and scanned to the customer's record.

A detailed DOC must be recorded including the information reviewed and decision explained to the customer.

Procedure ends here.

Where the customer requests to lodge an appeal of the decision to raise a debt:

• Run the internal review and appeal script. See Request for an explanation or application for a formal review (CLK)
• Add the additional keyword of DEBTTEAM to the open DOC
• Transfer the open DOC on to region code FHH

FHA Debt Processing Staff

Where a FHA debt including those relating to business income reconciliation is reviewed as part of an appeal, the debt worksheet must be completed to determine the accuracy of the initial calculations and scanned to the customer's record.

A detailed DOC must be recorded including the information reviewed and decision explained to the customer.