Rejecting a Carer Allowance (CA) claim 009-03040120

Carers who lodge a claim for CA may not be eligible because they:

• do not meet the basic qualifications or payability for CA, or
• have lodged an inappropriate or incorrect claim

Sometimes, a carer may withdraw their claim voluntarily. Withdrawn claims are not rejected as they are deemed to never have been made. If the carer requests to withdraw their claim, see Withdrawal of claims.

Staff must not advise customers to withdraw their claim.

When making a decision to reject a claim, the system uses information provided by the carer. While many rejections are automatic based on claim details recorded, other rejections need to be coded manually. For example, the care and dependency requirements may not be met (CRM), or for failing to reply to correspondence (FRC).

Code all information provided by the carer for their claim. This allows the system to use the most appropriate rejection reason. This removes the need to manually reject the claim.

When manually rejecting a CA claim, an advice may not automatically issue. In this circumstance, a manual advice is sent to the carer to:

• explain the rejection, and
• advise the steps in the review of decision process

When rejecting a claim, the relevant date will be the date the claim was lodged.

Note: different processes apply for carers in vulnerable circumstances.

A carer whose claim is rejected for a residence related reason might have the claim rejected based on information they have provided on their claim.

Visa, citizenship and movement information provided directly from the Department of Home Affairs datalink may cause the claim to be rejected. The information provided by the Department of Home Affairs datalink always takes precedence over any conflicting information provided by the carer.

Claims can be rejected FRC without requesting information if documents lodged are not relevant to what was requested for the claim. For example, the customer lodges a letter instead of the requested form.

However, before rejecting a claim FRC, consideration should be given to requesting documents again and placing the claim on hold or obtaining relevant information (where appropriate). See Processing claims for Carer Payment (CP) and/or Carer Allowance (CA).