Excess cash on a Child Support customer's account 277-04350000

Payers receive a monthly statement when:

• an amount of $20 or more is payable
• they are not on tracing
• the statements are not suppressed

The statement contains a message when there is excess cash on their child support account greater than the monthly liability.

In all other cases an XCSH-1 Your Account Is in Credit letter issues to customers (other than employers) after 7 days where the:

• excess cash amount is $5.00 or more, and
• the case has ended

Note: excess cash of less than $5.00 cannot be refunded unless the case has ended or been made private collect.

The following intrays generate when there is excess cash on an account:

• Excess Cash intray (14 day due date) generates when:
• customer contact is not recorded 14 days after the XCSH-1 Your Account Is in Credit letter has issued
• the account is in credit by $20 or more
• Excess Cash Review intray (14 day due date) generates 6 months after the XCSH-1 Your Account Is in Credit letter issued if:
• the account is in credit by $20 or more
• an Excess Cash or Excess Cash Review intray was finalised or deleted
• Non Collect Case - Remove s72A intray (7 day due date) generates when:
• the case becomes private collect, ended, ineligible, withdrawn, cancelled or closed
• there is a current s72A, EW, EWA or TRIP collection activity still in place
• the account balance is either $0 or in credit and a payment is received
• Refund Reversal intray (7 day due date) generates when:
• auto-refund overpayment funds that are disbursed to the customer’s account are returned
• Auto Refund Follow Up intray (14 day due date) generates when:
• funds have been received to repay an overpayment and a refund cannot be processed automatically. See Child support overpayments and other payee debt.

Before making a decision about the excess cash on the account:

• check the case status, go to Step 3
• check if funds are available, go to Step 4
• check if source of payment is a credit card, go to Step 6
• confirm the source of the payment other than credit card, go to Step 9
• finalise any outstanding issues, go to Step 10
• check if there is a consolidated revenue debt, go to Step 11

Check the case:

• collection status in the Case Collection Details window
• is active or ended in the Customer window

Confirm the excess cash amount in:

• the Customer window by accessing the ‘Account Summaries for’
• the payer’s Collection Summary window
• the payer’s Client Payments List window for excess cash from payees

If excess cash relates to a deceased customer, refer to the Deceased Customer Management team. See Deceased Child Support customer management.

If excess cash relates to an ended case, check if the part month’s liability has been applied to the account. See Table 4 > Step 2 in the Ending a Child Support assessment

If the excess cash relates to the return of funds from an auto-refund overpayment refund, key a new refund. See Table 2.

No further action is required if:

• the case is collect with an ongoing liability, the excess cash amount is less than a month’s liability, and
• the customer has not requested a refund or gift to the payee

Note: excess cash amounts less than $5.00 cannot be refunded or gifted unless the case has ended.

Excess cash on a payee’s account generally occurs because they had a previous role as payer or the return of a disbursement. See Disbursements of Child Support.

Some customers may have excess cash because:

• they are seasonal workers or live overseas and choose to pay in advance to ensure there are funds to cover future liabilities, or
• they may have chosen to pay on a flexible due date arrangement

Consider the circumstances and case history before taking any action. If the excess cash is the result of a deliberate action by the payer, a refund may not be appropriate.

If the customer is paying via EW:

• the periodic liability may raise on the account before receiving the payment from the employer. If this occurs, any excess cash is applied to the liability. The account will not show the customer is in credit until receipt of the EW payment; or
• a payment can be received in advance of a pay date, either due to the employer reporting and paying before the pay date, or paying in advance for holidays or periods of shut down

Calculate the expected account balance. See Establish Child Support account balance. If the customer has:

• excess cash on their account, check the Payer EW Enquiry window, via the Payer Account summary window, to ascertain if payments are for a future pay date, or have been made in advance, as these amounts should generally not be refunded, unless the liability has been raised for the corresponding period
• requested a refund, record a hold credit on the payer's account prior to receiving the expected EW payment, a refund should not be issued until the EW payments have been received and the account reflects the excess cash

See Accounting Cuba Process Help, and Refunds Cuba Process Help.

Payments made through the credit card facility will show in the Payer Account Summary window as PAY-CC PAYMENT.

Requests for refunds of these payments must be treated as a credit card payment, even if the customer advises the payment was made via a debit card.

Is the source of the payment from credit card?

• Yes, do not process a refund to a customer's bank account. Go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 9

Check the customer’s Collection Summary window to determine the circumstances of the payment. Discuss the payment with the customer and check Cuba to confirm the following:

• The collection status of the case: Was the payment expected
• Previous credit card payments made by the customer. Has the customer been paying their ongoing liability with a credit card or is this a one off
• Previous refunds of payments made by credit card
• The reason the parent paid using a credit card. For example, did the parent make the payment in error? If so, how did this occur
• The reason the amount was paid for example did the customer make a mistake with a decimal point or extra zero
• The name on the credit card: Ask the parent the name on the credit card used to make the payment

Tell the customer their request will be referred to the Payments Team to review.

Create a Payment Enquiry intray and include details of your completed checks – the intray will auto route to the Payments Team for action.

The Payments Team will review the refund request and provide a response via a Payment Response intray within 48 hrs with the following text:

• Payments have no interest in the credit card payment and the refund can be progressed, or
• Payments have an interest in the credit card payment. Do not refund payment to customer

When processing the refund copy the note from the Payments Team into the Refund Details window.

Payments Team only

When a Payment Enquiry intray is received to review a credit card refund request. Conduct the following checks to determine is the payment can be refunded:

• Payment amount: Did they make a whole number or a specific payment, for example $3000 or $76.32. Large payments with round figures can be suspicious
• Payment history: Does the payment make sense. Did they pay their monthly liability or for example has a payment been made to a receiving parent making it suspicious
• Refund history: Has the customer made repeated refund requests for excess cash. This may indicate possible suspicious activity. Does the refund reason make sense
• Dishonour history: Has there been any previous payments dishonoured. Has the RBA requested a payment confirmation to payments, and we are awaiting a dishonour

Does the credit card payment appear suspicious?

• Yes:
• Complete a report using the Report Suspected Fraud and Corruption system detailing allegations. To complete the report, see Table 3 > Step 2 in the Report suspected fraud and corruption
• Create a Payment Response intray on the customer, noting ‘Payments have an interest in the credit card payment. Do not refund payment to customer’
• No, create a Payment Response intray on the customer, noting ‘Payments have no interest in the credit card payment and the refund can be progressed’

Check the customer’s Collection Summary window to determine the source of the payment, for example the payer, EW, s72A notice.

Determine if the payment was expected and genuinely came from the customer. Consider the following:

• If EW or s72A deduction, confirm there is an active link or notice in place
• Are regular payments are being made, and how they have been paid
• Is the case is agency collect with an ongoing liability
• Asking the parent why, how and when the made the payment was made

Seek SO5 assistance before remitting and refunding paid late payment penalties (LPP). Remitting and refunding paid LPP’s draws funds from consolidated revenue. The criteria for remitting LPP’s must be met otherwise this is not an authorised use of consolidated revenue. See Child support late payment penalties and estimate penalties.

If unable to confirm the source of the payment, escalate to a SO5 to get advice before proceeding.

If the customer has indicated, the payment is not theirs check when they received the payment.

If the payment was received:

• before 1 November 2004 there is no historical data available to confirm the source of payment, continue to finalise any outstanding issues
• after 1 November 2004, refer to the Payments Team before refunding excess cash:
• create a Payment Enquiry intray - auto routes to the Payment Services ‘none’ position
• continue to finalise outstanding issues

Payment Services will create a Payment Response intray and provide a response within 2 working days.

If there is a bankruptcy indicator on the customer’s record and the bankruptcy trustee is the source of the excess cash, before making a refund decision seek SSO assistance to determine how it should be resolved. For actions to take to maintain the customer’s Cuba record, see Bankruptcy for Child Support customers.

If the customer is on the phone, tell them outstanding issues should be finalised before a refund can issue. This is to ensure the account is accurate and reduce the chance of them incurring a future debt or receiving a refund they are not entitled to.

If the customer insists on their refund, advise them that any future changes could create a debt.

In making the decision to refund excess cash, consider the facts of each case. Encourage customers to update all information prior to processing the refund. Child Support has no legal basis to refuse to refund the excess cash. If considering not refunding the excess cash, seek assistance from a SO5.

Before taking action about the excess cash, finalise outstanding issues and intrays that may affect the accuracy of either customers’ accounts.

Examples of outstanding issues are:

• non-agency payment (NAP) including previous prescribed NAP have been assigned correctly
• pending care decisions
• correct incomes. Ensure incomes used in the assessment are the best incomes available because Child Support will not wait for an ATO income to issue or an income tax return to be lodged
• estimate review or reconciliation. Reconciliation would only be outstanding if incomes are available. See Child support estimates review (post 1 July 2010), Child support estimates - Reconcile (from 1 July 2011), Child Support estimates - Reconcile (Pre 1 July 2011) and Customer referral guidelines for Child Support staff
• agreements

Estimates lodged before 2010 were for 15 months. These estimates do not need to be reconciled before a refund is authorised. Tell the customer the estimate may be reconciled in the future.

Run eligibility to give effect to these changes

Note: Do not run eligibility. If there are no events being processed, Cuba will do a data check back to the Start Date of Liability. A liability recalculation will occur which could lead to unexpected results.

See View, pend and save Eligibility results in Eligibility Cuba Process Help.

Check the results of the changes in the Pre-confirmation results dialogue box in the Eligibility window.

A reasonable amount of time would be, for example 7 days because this would be enough time to follow-up any issues in progress such as:

• obtain a final piece of information to make a NAP decision
• perform an estimate reconciliation or review
• find ATO information to replace income

However, this must be assessed on an individual case by case basis. Use discretion when deciding on the reasonable amount of time before proceeding.

If unsure if the refund should proceed or further assistance is required before finalising the outstanding issues, seek assistance from an SSO. See Technical support in Child Support.

Check to see if there is a consolidated revenue debt. If the payer is requesting the refund of excess cash created by converting a payee overpayment to consolidated revenue debt, advise the payer that Child Support will seek to recover the amount from the payee before refunding to the payer.

Note: from December 2023, Child Support stopped using consolidated revenue to convert a payee overpayment to a consolidated revenue debt. Staff can no longer use consolidated revenue to facilitate a payee disbursement recovery arrangement.

Check the Communication window to determine if the customer has previously contacted Child Support about the excess cash.

If the customer:

• has not contacted Child Support to discuss the option of refund or gift, go to Step 2
• has requested a refund, go to Step 7
• has elected to gift the excess cash to the payee, go to Step 10

Contact the payer and ask if they want the excess cash refunded or if they prefer to gift the excess cash to the payee.

To maximise phone contact, issue a pre-call SMS notification.

See Contact with Child Support customers.

Is the contact with the payer successful?

• Yes: if the payer elects the excess cash be:
• refunded go to Step 7
• gifted to the payee, go to Step 10
• No, send a please contact SMS. Go to Step 3

Payer's contact details are no longer current. Locate current address and contact details. See Customer location (tracing).

Is the customer receiving a Centrelink Benefit or has been within the last 3 months?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 5

Go to the PAS screen in Customer First to get bank account details.

Note: when considering using bank account details from Customer First, make sure the account is in the customer's name alone. If the customer does not have legal access to the account, the payment destination must not be changed. Staff must check that the customer has received a benefit into this account within the last 3 months. If it has not had a benefit paid within the last 3 months, the account must not be used.

Changing payment destination has further information about how to identify the bank account a customer’s benefit is paid into. Seek SSO support if needed.

The Resources page has a link to the information exchange macro to request bank information, if needed.

After getting the bank account details from Customer First, send a 'please contact' letter (CAL) to the customer with a reply date of 10 days if online or 21 days if by post.

Do not include the full account number over the phone or in letters, only the last 3 digits of the customer’s account.

Add one of the following letter text to the CAL.

If the child support case is active

we will deposit your payments into your bank account ending in [enter last 3 digits of customer’s bank account]. These bank details are what we have on your Centrelink record.

We no longer use cheques to make child support payments. Instead, we deposit payments directly into your bank account. This makes getting your payments quicker and easier.

You need to check your bank account details.

If the bank account details are wrong, you will need to update them.

You can do this by:

- signing in to my.gov.au and selecting your Child Support online account. If you do not have a myGov account, you can create one at my.gov.au and then link Child Support to it.

- calling us on 131 272.

If your bank account details are correct, you do not need to do anything. We will deposit your child support payment, straight into your bank account.

If the child support case has closed/ended with arrears

we will deposit your payments into your bank account ending in 123 [enter last 3 digits of customer’s bank account]. These bank details are what we have on your Centrelink record.

We no longer use cheques to make child support payments. Instead, we deposit payments directly into your bank account. This makes getting your payments quicker and easier.

You need to check your bank account details.

If the bank account details are wrong, please call us on 131 272.

If your bank account details are correct, you do not need to do anything. We will deposit your child support payment, straight into your bank account.

Customer does not respond to CAL

If the customer does not respond to the CAL, check Centrelink record again before keying a refund to the Centrelink bank account.

• Auto unlock customer in case payment rejects
• Procedure ends here

Note: Do not attempt to locate bank details from other sources.

Continue to locate current customer address and contact details, see Customer location (tracing).

Manually issue a unique letter UQ27.09 Customer refund reminder letter where no new information is available, and:

• a statement advising the payer of the excess cash recently issued, or
• the XCSH-1 Your Account Is in Credit letter recently issued

For help creating unique letters, see Letters Cuba Process Help. This applies to excess cash on both domestic and international cases.

Procedure ends here.

An Excess Cash Review intray generates after 6 months if there is still excess cash on the account.

Employer Services Service Officer only

If an employer account has excess cash that needs refunding, (i.e. additional monies Child Support should not have received) contact them to arrange a refund.

Document the discussion and the employer’s decision. See Documenting Child support information.

If phone contact is unsuccessful, issue a unique letter, see Letters for Child Support customers.

If the employer requests a refund, go to Step 7.

Refunds are paid to customers by direct credit. This is the most efficient, reliable, secure and cost effective way of disbursing funds.

Make sure refunds are processed into an account in the customer’s name. Refunds cannot be made into an account held by a third party.

Pend the refund. See Refunds Cuba Process Help. Use the Gifts and Refunds - excess cash management macro to document request in the Refund Details window.

If the customer has a bank account recorded in the Bank Details window in Cuba and has asked to be refunded to a different account, change the Direct Credit ellipse button details.

On the same day as request, route the Refund for Approval intray to an SSO for authorisation.

Seek SSO assistance before remitting and refunding paid late payment penalties (LPP). Remitting and refunding paid LPP’s draws funds from consolidated revenue. The criteria for remitting LPP’s must be met otherwise this is not an authorised use of consolidated revenue. See Child support late payment penalties and estimate penalties

Error message

In some cases staff may be unable to refund excess cash amounts and will receive an error message ‘3225 – The refund total cannot exceed payments received less refunds paid’. There is no need to report this via mySupport. Service Officers should seek SSO assistance. Only SO5 can reallocate cash.

Note: debt offsets are included in the calculation of the total payments received. Check the debt offset amount before proceeding with the refund. Non-cash credits, such as NAPs are not refundable.

Work around directions for SO5 to action the refund:

• Access the customer who has the excess cash via the Customer Production window
• Access the customer’s case via the Involvement window as the Payee not as the Payer
• Re-allocate the available payee cash from excess cash to Maintenance Debt. A Cuba warning message 2701 will show. Despite the warning, Cuba will permit the requested action. This will re-allocate the excess cash and create the same amount again as a Maintenance entitlement. The money will now appear as excess cash on the other parent’s account and as a maintenance liability equal to the cash transferred back
• Exit the Case window back to the original customer and switch customers, that is go to the parent who now has both excess cash and a maintenance debt
• Access the Case window where the customer who now has the excess cash is the Payer
• Re-allocate the excess cash to maintenance debt. This should result in a nil balance for all parties. The customer that originally had the excess cash now showing a disbursement to be made to them as a Payee equal to the amount of excess cash that was re-allocated
• The undisbursed maintenance should automatically disburse by Cuba overnight.
• Check the case the next day. If the disbursement did not take place, make a manual disbursement

International

Process any money under excess cash as a refund. Generally funds that are under excess cash are funds that are processed back onto a customer’s account from National Financial Management after being returned as a rejected disbursement, a stopped cheque or the funds returned from Centrelink for various reasons.

Does the customer have an Australian bank account?

• Yes, process the refund following the usual process, see Refunds Cuba Process Help. Go to Step 9
• No, go to Step 8

Tell the customer they are required to meet any fees that their financial institution may apply to the payment.

Customer has a New Zealand bank account

The following details are required for a New Zealand EFT payment:

• Name of bank or financial institution
• Full address of bank or financial institution branch
• Bank SWIFT code
• Bank code and account numbers
• Name, address and phone number of account holder

Make an international EFT refund.

• Complete Gifts and Refunds - excess cash management macro
• Create INT AUTO REFUND FOLLOW UP intray, paste the macro document into the notepad
• Route the intray to:
• Region: INTERNATIONAL
• Office: INTERNATIONAL HOBART
• Stream/Team: MC S003 CENT AUTH TM1
• Position: A-INT DISBURSEMENT

For more details, see International Disbursements - Refunds and issue of excess cash

Customer does not have an Australian or New Zealand bank account

See Table 3 > Step 3.

Check the bank account details in Bank Details window.

Update if needed. Document the updated details in the Bank details notepad, record the following:

• Name of the bank
• BSB number
• Account number
• Name of the account holder

A refund must be authorised by a SO5 or above. An Employer Services SSO must authorise a refund of employer excess cash. Go to Step 11

Customers cannot gift a credit card payment.(CC)

Note: payments made through the credit card facility will show in the Payer Account Summary window as PAY-CC PAYMENT.

Requests to gift these payments must be treated as a credit card payment, even if the customer advises the payment was made via a debit card.

Escalate any CC payment gift request to an aligned Service Support Officer (SSO). The SSO must escalate the request to their PSM for Policy consideration.

For any other gift request, the payer must understand gifting means this money cannot be returned to them. It is treated as a voluntary payment to the payee, in addition to the payee’s child support entitlement. Gifting is irreversible. The money cannot be reclaimed or used to offset any future debt.

Use the Gifts and Refunds – excess cash management macro to document the information given to the payer and the payer's decision in the Manage Gift and Overpayment window.

Process the gift request. See Table 2 > Step 3 in Child support overpayments and other payee debt .

If there is an overpayment on the payer, account see Child support overpayments and other payee debt.

Gifting is irreversible. Once gifted, it will no longer be available to the payer to be reclaimed or off set against any future debt.

Document and advise the payee that a gifted payment may impact their FTB.

Procedure ends here for Service Officers.

SO5 and above only

A refund must be authorised by a SO5 or above. An Employer Services SSO must authorise a refund of employer excess cash.

The Authorisation Schedule notes a SO3 is authorised to issue a refund, however a business decision has been made to limit the authorisation of refunds to the SO5 level.

Note: SO5’s can approve refunds of up to $10,000. See ‘Roles and Responsibilities’ on the Background tab for delegations above this amount.

Remitting paid late payment penalties draws funds from consolidated revenue. The requirements for remitting must be met otherwise this will not be an authorised use of consolidated revenue.

The refund can be authorised if:

• funds were genuinely received from the customer and are available
• the funds were not received from a credit card (CC) payment. or if the source of payment was a credit card, has been reviewed by the Payments Team. See Table 1 > Step 7
• the account balance is correct that is, all outstanding issues have been resolved or if not, they are satisfied it is appropriate to proceed
• a payment arrangement is in place for any payee consolidated revenue debt
• the refund has been correctly keyed
• appropriate contact attempts have been made via phone as per Contact with Child Support customers
• bank details have been sourced from customer or, if customer contact unsuccessful sourced from Customer First, with appropriate CAL issued and expired
• the refund is documented

Do not authorise the refund if a Cuba warning notifies consolidated revenue debt is being created. Seek Program Support Manager (PSM) advice about how to get authorisation for consolidated revenue debt.

Note: an EL1 must authorise the creation of a consolidated revenue debt up to $4,999. Any greater amount must be authorised by the National Manager, Customer Service.

Can the refund be authorised?

• Yes:
• Authorise the refund. See Refunds Cuba Process Help
• Use the Gifts and Refunds - excess cash management macro to record the decision in the Refund Details window.
  Procedure ends here.
• No, go to Step 12

If the payment cannot be approved:

• Set the refund status to ‘not authorised’
• Use the Gifts and refunds - excess cash management macro to record the decision in the Refund Details window
• Route the Refund Not Authorised intray generated to the requesting officer

If the payment has not been approved a Refund Not Authorised intray will be routed back to the requesting officer:

• Contact the customer to advise why the payment cannot be authorised
• Discuss any available options

Check the Refund Details and Activity Summary (RAS) windows if the customer advises they did not receive the expected refund.

If the refund issued by:

• direct debit, go to Step 2
• cheque, go to Step 5

Ask the customer to provide the details of the bank account they expected the refund payment to be deposited.

Note: if there is reason to suspect the account the payment went into is not connected to the customer only provide general details. For example same financial institution but different account.

If the details provided by the customer:

• match those recorded in Cuba, go to Step 3
• do not match those recorded in Cuba, go to Step 4

If the account details provided by the customer are the same as those recorded in Cuba, advise them:

• the date the payment was forwarded to their financial institution, generally 1 to 2 days after the issue date in the Refund List window
• to check their account for their refund over the next few days, and
• to contact their financial institution if no payment is received

If the financial institution tells the customer the payment did not arrive ask the customer to provide a copy of the bank statement covering 5 days from the refund issue date. On receipt of the statement showing no payment received, email the Child Support Cash Management Team to manage the issue.

Include the following details in the email:

• customer name and CSID
• name of the financial institution
• payment issue date, and
• amount of the payment

The Child Support Cash Management Team will deposit the funds back into the customer’s Cuba account.

Issue a refund to the customer once the funds are posted back to their Cuba account. See Refunds Cuba Process Help.

If the account details provided by the customer do not match those recorded in Cuba:

• ask them to provide their bank account details and document this information
• advise their Cuba account will be monitored for the rejected refund notification from their financial institution, and
• the refund will issue to the bank account they have provided once the rejected funds have been deposited back to their Cuba account

Email the Child Support Cash Management Team to advise the customer’s bank account details are incorrect and request they monitor for the return of the funds.

Include the following details in the email:

• customer name and CSID
• details of the bank account that were incorrectly recorded
• the payment issue date
• amount of the payment

The Child Support Cash Management Team will deposit the funds back into the customer’s Cuba account. This may take up to 2 weeks.

Issue a refund to the customer once the funds are posted back to their Cuba account.

If the customer advises the money has been refunded to another person's account the funds must be recalled:

• ask them to provide their bank account details and document this information
• email Team Leader requesting they approve a request to recall the funds and include the following information in the email:
• customer name and CSID
• disbursement date
• disbursement amount
• BSB and account number
• brief outline of the reason for the request
• contact officer details

The Team Leader forwards their approval via email to the Child Support Cash Management Team with the subject heading REFUND RECALL.

The Child Support Cash Management Team deposits the funds back into the customer’s Cuba account.

Issue a refund to the customer once the funds are posted back to their Cuba account.

If the customer advises they have not received the refund cheque and it issued more than 2 weeks ago:

• check their address is correctly recorded in Cuba and obtain bank account details for the customer
• email the Child Support Cash Management Team requesting the cheque be stopped and include the following information:
• the cheque number
• the date the cheque was issued
• the amount the cheque was for

When the cheque is stopped, the Child Support Cash Management Team will deposit the funds back into the customer’s Cuba account.

Issue a refund to the customer once the funds are posted back to their Cuba account.

Refund cheques issued to the customer more than 15 months ago and not presented, automatically become stale and are dishonoured by the bank. Contact the Child Support Cash Management Team and have the cheque cancelled. Once actioned, refund the amount to the customer via direct deposit.