Reporting employment income online 133-04180000

There is a range of reasons why the customer may not be able to report online. See Reporting Employment Income self service troubleshooting.

Customers cannot report before their reporting date unless their payment is cancelled before their reporting date.

The customer's payment may be delayed if they cannot report on their reporting date, or they report late.

The customer cannot report online or in the app if it is more than 13 days after their last reporting date. If the customer misses 2 reports in a row, their payment will automatically cancel.

They will need to contact Services Australia (the agency) to speak to a Service Officer about their reporting details.

If they get one of the following payments they will have to include their hours worked:

• Carer Payment (CP), excluding those that transferred from Wife Pension (XWP)
• Disability Support Pension (DSP) (except DSB not receiving RA)
• Mobility Allowance (MOB)
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP)
• Parenting Payment Partnered (PPP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Special Benefit (SpB)
• Youth Allowance (YA) (job seekers only)
• Youth Disability Supplement

Hours do not need to be reported for a partner who is not in receipt of an income support payment.

When reporting their employment income and hours online, they must round the hours:

• up to the nearest whole hour, for example, report 5 hours if they worked 4.5 hours
• down to the nearest hour if they get DSP, for example, report 4 hours if they worked 4.5 hours

Rounding hours does not affect their rate of payment.

They can report up to 336 hours online.

After they submit their report, they will get a receipt.

They should print, save or record the receipt details in case they have to contact the agency about their payment.

Customers will be presented with a 'Confirm employer' pre-fill. Here, they are advised of the information received from the ATO. Customers are then asked if they worked for the employer named and are shown possible alternate names, as sometimes employers may have a different trading name to their business name. Employer names can also be checked on the Australian Business Register website.

Customers cannot report self-employment, sales commission or contract income through the Report employment income service.

For self employment

Customers can add new self-employment details through the Update sole trader, partnerships, private trusts and private companies in the Manage income and assets service. They will need to upload supporting documents. This creates a work item for a Service Officer to assess the information. If assessed as self-employed, Service Officers are to record details of the self-employment income on the Real Estate/Business Summary (REBS) screen.

If a customer edits self-employment details, they need to provide supporting documents and a work item is created for a Service Officer to assess and update the information.

For sales commission or contract payments

Customers can add sales commission or contract payments through the Manage income and assets>Other income option. This creates a work item for a Service Officer to assess the information. The Service Officer may need to contact the customer to determine if they are self-employed or an employee. The income is then coded on the Other Income (OIN) or Employment Income Paid Details (EAPP) screen as either:

• Earnings from employment (EAR)
• Sales and Commission (SAC)
• Assignment of earnings (AOE)
• Royalty or Commission (ROC)

See Income for an independent contractor and commission income.

At this time, customers with existing employers that are any other type than EAR will not have STP income pre-filled. This is to ensure that we record reported income against the correct employer entry.

If a CP customer reports employment hours which make their total work hours more than 100 hours in a 4-week period, the customer has the option to use their respite days to maintain qualification for CP.

A single respite day is equivalent to 8 hours of work or part thereof. To work out how many respite days a customer will need to use, subtract 100 from the total hours, and divide this number by 8. If the number is not a whole number, round up.

Example:

Emily has accepted some extra shifts at her retail job to help out over the busy Christmas period. When Emily reports, Emily has worked 112 hours in a 4-week period.

112 - 100 = 12 excess hours.

12 ÷ 8 = 1.5.

As only full respite days can be used, 1.5 is rounded up to 2 days. Emily can use 2 respite days and maintain qualification for CP.