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Child Support's information gathering powers 277-04210000

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Staff who have completed the DMC Technical Support update, must read this Operational Message before issuing letters: Digital Messaging Capability (DMC) - Child Support - letters and access.

Macro

Issuing a s120 or s161 notice

mySupport

To report issues with opening a response or attachment from a financial institution:

  • go to mySupport
  • search for the webform: Cuba Application and Child Support System Issues
  • complete and Submit the webform, and
  • note any receipt or reference number
Privacy

Protect customers' personal information during information gathering when third parties are contacted to provide information.
Do not reveal or volunteer any information about the customer to any sources. Accidentally revealing personal information may constitute a privacy breach and Service Officer must report it to a Team Leader.

When making contact by telephone, Service Officers must:

  • verify who they are speaking to
  • not reveal any personal information to the other person
  • not confirm, deny, or comment on any third party questions about the customer that would breach that customer's privacy, and
  • confirm any information obtained

See the Australian Privacy Principles.

Contact

Child Support - national and site mailboxes

Manual schedules

Separated parents letter and email templates > Schedules - s161 and s120

Template

Referral non-compliance s72A, s72B, s120 or s161 (Service Officer)


Table 1.

Item

Document/notepad text

1

Employer Name:

Employer CSRN:

PP Name:

PP CSRN:

Contact attempts have been made as per the Operational Blueprint - Contact with Child Support Customers 277-01010000.

Attempt 1

Date:

Location of document:

Attempt 2

Date:

Location of document:

Attempt 3

Date:

Location of document:

Service Officer:

Business function:


Referral non-compliance and failure to remit s72A, s72B, s120, s161or EF1 (ES Service Officer)


Table 2

Item

Document/notepad text

1

Employer Name:

Employer CSRN:

PP Name:

PP CSRN:

Contact attempts have been made as per the Operational Blueprint - Contact with Child Support Customers 277-01010000.

Attempt 1

Date:

Location of document:

Attempt 2

Date:

Location of document:

Attempt 3

Date:

Location of document:

Warning letters issued: Yes/No

If so, which ones?

Outcome of discussion held with employer (if contact was able to be made):

ICP search completed: Yes/No

Outcome:

Google Search completed: Yes/No

Outcome:

Internet search completed: Yes/No

Outcome:

Service Officer:

Business function:


When and how a Legal Notice must be issued to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

Table 3

Item

Description

1

What does the legal notice look like?

Example Notice:

The Commissioner is required - under section 16C of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 and/or section 150D of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 - to provide information, in the possession of the Commissioner, about the person/s directly or indirectly identified below in this request. I confirm that I am authorised by the Registrar or his delegate to give this notice, on their behalf and in their name, and that information is required by Child Support for 1 or more of the following purposes:

  • To ascertain whether a person may apply for administrative assessment of child support
  • To make or amend an administrative assessment of child support
  • To ascertain the happening of a child support terminating event
  • To facilitate the recovery of debts due to the Commonwealth under the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988
  • To identify a person for purposes related to the purpose mentioned in (a), (b), (c) or (d) above

2

How often must the electronic ATO Legal Notice be sent?

The ATO and Child Support have agreed that the issue of a legal notice to access ATO systems will be valid for 1 day in respect to queries made about a particular customer. This includes third party information relevant to that customer, that is related entities or individuals, can be accessed without sending another legal notice so long as the access supports the outcomes of the same business process.

3

When an electronic ATO Legal Notice has been issued, does this action need to be documented and if so, where?

Service Officers need to understand the standard requirement to document actions and appropriate windows in which to document these actions, see Documenting Child Support information in Cuba.

4

Will there be a record on Cuba to indicate that the ATO Legal Notice Icon has been pushed and the notice issued?

A copy of the legal notice data record sent to ATO will be kept, but this will not be viewable within Cuba. A copy of the legal notice is stored so that a response can be made to any queries the ATO might have about notices not received. If there are any doubts regarding whether the notice has been issued prior to accessing ATO systems directly for information relevant to a particular customer, hit the legal notice button again.

5

Are there any instances where the legal notice doesn't need to be sent prior to accessing ATO systems directly?

In all instances, the Service Officer must issue an electronic legal notice to the ATO prior to accessing ATO systems directly for information relevant to a particular customer. This includes, Service Support Officers conducting observations who are required to access ATO systems directly.

6

How does an electronic legal notice get issued when conducting third party ATO searches?

The obligation with the issuing of a notice applies to Child Support customers. ATO understand the level of work and searches that are undertaken with certain areas of the business, that is litigation and will be satisfied that a notice is issued against the customer. If the searches, then lead to third parties in ATO searches the Service Officer must clearly document including the links to the customer and results and/or reasons for searching the ATO systems.