Online and Assisted Customer Claims (ACC) for Single Income Family Supplement (SIFS) 133-03010120

Customers need to create a myGov account and link to Centrelink to start an online stand-alone claim for SIFS.

In the Families category on the Make a Claim page, select:

• Get started
• Apply for Family Assistance (including Paid Parental Leave)

Complete the Eligibility check questions

Note: The Eligibility questions include a Privacy Notice. Customers must select Yes to the Privacy notice agreement before they can continue with the claim.

The Claim Options page will show the customers eligibility based on their answers.

If eligible, customers can select:

• SIFS for the last financial year
• Begin

A message will show about the SIFS eligibility requirements

For information about the SIFS grandfathering provisions that apply from 1 July 2017, see Item 1 of Table 2.

To start the claim the customer selects:

• Next
• Continue

Customers must check their personal details are correct in Your personal details.

If they need to update their address details they can:

• select Edit
• make changes through My Profile

My profile allows the customer to review and update their details. They can select Return to claim to go back to the Personal Details section in their claim.

Question sets may include:

• Relationship details
• Contact requirements
• Australian residence

Question sets may include:

• Child Details
• Additional child details
• Family circumstances

For SIFS to be payable, the customer needs at least one qualifying child.

Questions sets may include:

• Income
• Payment destination
• Tax details

This page shows regardless of the customer (or partner) needing to lodge a tax return for the assessment year.

Taxable income

Customers need to include all earned or received income, even if their income is under the tax-free threshold.

The following income components are included: (If they answer Yes, they need to include the amount for the year.)

• total taxable income
• reportable fringe benefits
• exempt reportable superannuation contributions
• total net investment losses
• tax free pensions and benefits
• foreign income
• tax exempt foreign income
• child support paid

SIFS is assessed using taxable income. Information about other components of adjusted taxable income (ATI) is required to ensure the customer's estimate is reasonable.

SIFS has additional information a customer needs to provide before they can submit their claim. See Item 1 of Table 2.

For online claims

Customers can review and confirm details in the online claim. If all of the information is correct, the customer must complete all of the following:

• read the Declaration
• select I understand and agree to the above terms
• read the Acknowledgement
• select, I understand and agree to the above terms
• select Submit

For ACC

Before completing ACC, make sure the customer's personal details are available and correct. To make updates, exit ACC and use the Change in Contact Details workflow.

Update the customer's Other Contact Details (OCD) screen in Customer First.

Once updates are complete:

• read the Acknowledge and Declaration text in full to the customer
• ask the customer to acknowledge the declaration and agree that they understand and accept their obligations
• when customer advises details are correct, select I understand and agree to the above terms
• select Submit

A message box will appear advising the claim has been submitted.

Customers cannot update the online claim details after they submit it. They will need to contact Services Australia to provide information in relation to their claim. They can withdraw or cancel their claim online.

When the customer submits their claim, the system will:

• Index a new claim (NCL) activity or create a Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity on the customer's record. An error may prevent the new claim from being created
• Add identifying text as part of the activity description on the Activity List (AL) screen as follows:
  'SIFS Online Claim submitted, DD MM YYY, Claim id NNNNNNNN'
• Create a DOC

The customer can view information entered from the Review Claim section of their online claim.

Customers may get messages and notifications.

Next steps

Customers can access their submitted online claim and return to the Next steps page at any time.

This page contains:

• confirmation the customer's claim is submitted
• confirmation of the submission date and claim ID number
• the next steps the customer must take to finalise their claim, including providing supporting documents

The following sections may show:

• Task to be completed - this section contains:
• a list of supplementary information and supporting documentation the customer must provide
• the date these documents are due
• a link to download or print forms they need
• an Upload documents button to use the Upload documents service
• Additional information - this section includes:
• links to further information on the Services Australia website
• information about withdrawing the claim

For ACC

• Advise the customer what documents and forms they need. This will appear on the Documents and forms page
• Print the list of documents and forms the customer needs by selecting the printer icon

An interpreter appointment should be booked if the customer needs an interpreter to help complete their claim.

SIFS is not payable to new customers from 1 July 2017.

SIFS will be payable to existing eligible customers from the 2017-18 financial year if they meet the grandfathering provisions.

Grandfathered status for a customer will continue while they remain eligible for and are paid SIFS continuously from 1 July 2017. The grandfathering status will be automatically determined when their claim is assessed.

Customers will continue to complete the entry path question set to determine their eligibility to claim SIFS online.

The customer needs to advise if they had a partner during the assessment year.

If they answer Yes, they will need to provide details for each partner:

• partner's details (name, date of birth, gender, country of birth, current address, other names)
• relationship period(s) in the assessment year
• relationship status (for the period they were partnered)
• the partner's Tax File Number (TFN)
• whether or not the partner needs to lodge a tax return for the assessment year
• the partner's income details for the assessment year

Not knowing the partner's TFN or income details may affect the assessment of the customer's SIFS payment for the partnered period.

SIFS will not be payable until adequate income details are available for the customer. Income details for their partner/ex-partner for that period may also be applicable. For SIFS, adequate income means:

• accepted 'not required to lodge advice' and provision of an income estimate, or
• taxable income details electronically transferred from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) if the person needs to lodge a tax return

A customer has 12 months from the end of an entitlement year to confirm income for themselves and/or their partner/ex-partner. They can do this by either:

• lodging tax returns with the ATO or
• advising Services Australia:
• they do not need to lodge a tax return and
• providing an estimate of their income

Customers unable to confirm income by the end of the lodgement year can ask for a special circumstances extension to meet the requirements.

Is the customer required to lodge a tax return for the assessment year?

• Yes, and they have lodged their tax return, they still need to provide an estimate of their partner's taxable income if applicable
• No, they need to provide their income details