Searching for and indexing private trusts and companies 043-04140000

All customers who claim a Services Australia income support payment or Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) must be linked to each private trust and private company in which they are involved. Private trusts and private companies have their records added and assessed within Environment 'A'.

These are the main categories of organisations:

• Centrepay participants
• Child Care Operators/Services
• Paid Parental Leave (PPL) employers (linked to separate PPL payment organisation records)
• private trusts and private companies

Searching and indexing is required at the new claim stage or whenever a customer advises of involvement in a private trust or private company. The information required to index an organisation record is obtained from the Private Companies form (Mod PC) or Private Trusts form (Mod PT). Trusts and companies are recorded as individual organisations that can be linked to the records of customers and other organisations.

When a new organisation record is created, it is given a unique identifier, a Customer Reference Number (CRN). Tax file number privacy provisions do not apply to organisations, so as part of the identification process, the agency uses the following:

• non-personal tax file number (NTF)
• Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Australian Company Number (ACN)

These unique identifiers avoid confusion where organisations have similar names, for example, Brown Family Trust.

Some entities may already be registered as Centrepay participants, however, in these cases a second record should be created for the purpose of assessing the financial position of the organisation, and the 2 sets of records are to be kept separate. The main reason is that all organisation records for trust and company processing are recorded in Environment 'A' (unlike Centrepay participants). Customers may also nominate a different contact for each purpose, for example, an accountant for their company, but themselves for child care.

To facilitate contact and annual reviews, other information is recorded as part of indexing, including the name, address and telephone number of the nominated contact person, such as the company secretary or the trustee of a trust.

The 2 screens available for searching for an organisation record are:

• Organisation Name Search (ON)
• Reference Number Search (RNS)

The RNS screen is used to search for an organisation if the organisation's external identifier is known, for example, an ACN or NTF. The ON screen is used to search for organisations by name, keyword (every word of the name is a keyword), external identifier or CRN. The ON screen is also used to index new organisations to be added to the database.

If an organisation record already exists for trust and company assessment purposes, it will have a CRN allocated to it. Complex Assessment Officers (CAO) can use this number to access the record directly without using the search screens.