Lodgement of unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) statements for Youth Allowance (YA) and Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) 010-06020050

Services Australia has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse. A staff member must act when they see or hear behaviour that raises concern about a child or young person's safety. Follow the agency's Risk Identification and Reporting model when identifying and responding to child safety concerns. See Risk identification and management of threats to the safety or welfare of a child.

Young people under 18 years of age are not required to provide written statements. Verbal statements are taken during the UTLAH assessment by the assessing social worker. See Unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) initial contact for Youth Allowance (YA), Disability Support Pension (DSP), Special Benefit (SpB) or Tertiary Access Payment (TAP).

When a young person aged 18 years wants to demonstrate their independence under UTLAH provisions, the agency seeks information from the young person, their parent(s)/guardians(s) and third parties (if required) to make its assessment. In most cases, they must provide the following 2 statements:

• Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY 'Unreasonable to live at home' Statement by Young Person (SY015), and
• Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY 'Unreasonable to live at home' Statement for Parent(s)/Guardian(s) (SY016)

These statements may also be used for customers claiming the Tertiary Access Payment.

If parents are separated, an SY016 form is required from each parent.

Where contacting a parent presents a serious risk to the young person or other parties (for example, family and domestic violence), the parental statement may not be required.

Young people can provide additional supporting information as part of their 'Statement by Young Person'.

If required, the Unreasonable to live at home Statement by Independent Third Party (SY017) form may be issued by the Over 18 UTLAH Assessment Team (O18).

Note: Social worker appointments are not required for customers aged 18 years and over. Assessments are conducted using forms and verbal statements.

UTLAH statement forms must be scanned as soon as they are lodged. Once the document is classified it will map to the Over 18 UTLAH Assessment Team (O18) for assessment.

There are arrangements available to assist a young person who tells us they cannot lodge an SY016. Young people must not be denied a UTLAH assessment when they tell us a parent will not complete a statement. Never ask a young person to get a statement from the parent(s) where they have indicated this could put them at risk. See the Process page for more details.

If a parent or third party contacts to give verbal statements in response to an O18 request for information, they are warm transferred directly to the O18 Team. See contact details in Resources.

Service Officers must:

• make sure the customer is receiving or has lodged a claim for payment. Where they have not, tell them to do this as soon as possible, following standard initial contact procedures
• correctly record the customer's telephone number on their record, as O18 may need to contact them. Tell the customer that they:
• may receive calls from a private number at some stage after lodgement of the statements, and
• should accept these calls so their assessment can go ahead