Carer Supplement (CS) 009-07010000

Customers must receive one of the eligible payments to receive CS:

• Carer Payment (CP)
• Carer Allowance (CA)
• Carer Payment (CP) (XWP)
• Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA):
• Partner Service Pension with CA, or
• Carer Service Pension
• DVA payments of Carer Service Pension and Partner Service Pension can be confirmed through a data exchange. Where eligibility is unclear, escalate to the Centrelink DVA Clearance Team for manual clearance. For the DVA payment and CA, the carer is paid $600 after their first regular DVA payment from July 1

Carer Allowance Health Care Card

To check if a carer is receiving CA or CA HCC only, in the carer's record, go to:

• Care Receiver Summary (CRS) screen and check HCC only indicator next to all child care receivers

Otherwise, from the CRS screen in the carer's record:

• Select the child care receiver
• Go to the Carer Allowance Assessment History (CJAA) screen
• Check the field HCC only

Carers in receipt of a CA Health Care Card (HCC) only (for child care receivers) on 1 July are not entitled to CS

Did the customer receive one of the eligible payments for a period which includes 1 July?

• Yes, go to Item 2
• No:
• the customer is not eligible for CS, or
• the customer only has a CA Health Care Card, but does not receive CA payment. The customer is not eligible to receive CS. Procedure ends here

Note: if payment of CP or CA is granted after January and backdated to a date that includes 1 July. The CS will not be automatically generated and must be paid manually. See Item 3 in Table 2

• CS is paid as soon as possible after 1 July each year and is a non-indexed, ongoing, non-taxable annual payment. Services Australia will make all the arrangements for eligible carers. No application form or action from the carer is required
• CS will be 100% income managed in the relevant areas
• Overseas customers will receive CS if they received a qualifying instalment for the period that included 1 July. Their first available payment from 1 July (generally end of July)
• Customers with a qualifying Income Support Payment (ISP) whose payment has reduced to nil rate due to income that includes employment income for a period including 1 July, are eligible to receive the annual CS

Letters are not issued to customers advising of CS for 1 July.

However, customers granted or restored retrospectively with an eligibility date including 1 July will have a paragraph included in their advice letter.

Note: for Department of Veterans' Affairs customers, this will only include those who retrospectively become eligible for payment and who receive a CA advice letter at the same time.

CA carers who are in a shared care arrangement and receive the:

• full rate of CA (even though their share of care may be less than 100%), will receive the full $600 CS payment
• part rate of CA, will be paid a similar proportion of CS. For example, Carer 1 receives 50% of CA as they share the payment with Carer 2. Carer 1 will receive $300 CS. Carer 2 will also receive $300 CS

As CA is paid under the combined care rule where 2 care receivers are counted as one for the purposes of determining the rate of CA, only one CS payment is made.

CA carers who receive a part rate of CA under the ETT provisions do not receive a part rate of CS.

If these carers receive a payment of CA in the period that includes 1 July, they are deemed to have received a payment for 1 July and, therefore receive the full CS entitlement of $600.

CS debts can be raised. Carers (including DVA customers) who subsequently lose qualification for their primary payment will be subject to standard debt raising processes for the CS payment.

For example, if the person's CP or CA was retrospectively cancelled for a date that included 1 July, CS will also be a debt.

Centrepay deductions will not be made from CS.

Requests for explanation and applications for formal reviews of decisions are not handled centrally. If a carer requests an explanation or applies for a formal review of a decision relating to CS, Service Officers should follow normal procedures and run the Internal Review/Explanation script.

See the Resources page for review codes to be used for CS.

Care receiver permanently entered a care facility

CS will be payable following permanent admission to an institution as long as a carer is eligible to receive a payment of CP or Wife Pension with CA on 1 July.

When a care receiver is permanently admitted to an institution, CP can be paid for 14 weeks starting from the day the carer did not provide care. There are no similar provisions for CA.

Death of care receiver CP:

• CP is payable during a bereavement period as long as the bereavement period includes 1 July
• CP (XWP) 14 week bereavement period only applies where the last or only care receiver dies. See Transfer from Wife Pension (WP) to Carer Payment (CP)

Death of care receiver CA:

• CA (adult) rules for CS in the bereavement period align to carers in receipt of CA (child) upon the death of the care receiver
• Carers may be entitled to receive the annual CS if the bereavement period includes 1 July and the carer was entitled to a CA Bereavement Payment. CS of up to $600 is issued as an immediate payment on the same day as the CA Bereavement Payment

Where CS is payable

• CA (child): CS is payable where CA (child) is paid as a lump sum under the 14 week bereavement provisions if the lump sum payment is paid for a period that includes 1 July
• CA (adult): CS is payable if a carer receives a CA Bereavement Payment for a period that includes 1 July

Overpayment

If notification of the death is not received within 28 days, there is an overpayment of CA and CS.

CS displays as ACSP in:

Customer First

• Go to Payment Summary (PS) screen. Select the relevant payment to display the Payment Details (PD) screen:
• ACSP field, see CS amount paid

Customer Record

Go to Payment Summary (PS) screen. Select the relevant payment to display the PD screen > Payments: CDA/PEN:

• ACSP field, see CS amount paid

Process Direct

• Go to Payment Summary (PS) screen > Payment Components table: Benefit Type Code: CDA/PEN:
• Component Type Code: ACSP > see Component Amount

Note: if the customer is in receipt of CP and CA, check both PEN and CDA. Otherwise, select ALL to display all payments.

If the CS payments display on PS/PD screens, advise the customer of the amounts and payment delivery date.

If Carer has not received CS, go to Item 2

The carer was advised they would be paid the CS or following restoration of CP and/or CA CS has not been paid.

The Payment Summary (PS) screen will show the CS as a future payment once the trigger has been run. The carer may have been advised that the payment of CS was showing as a future payment.

If CP and/or CA for this care receiver is suspended or cancelled after the trigger is run, with a result that the carer does not receive an instalment for 1 July, the payment of CS will come off the PS screen and the payment of CS will not be issued. CS must not be manually issued if the customer did not receive a payment which included 1 July or is not current on payment.

The customer is to be manually paid through the One Off Payment (OOP) screen:

• if the CP and/or CA is restored, and
• the carer is entitled to the payment of CS, and
• the payment of CS is not automatically paid

If the payment of CS requires manual payment, check the following before reissuing the payment:

• CRS screen to confirm the care receivers the carer is currently receiving payment
• Carer One Off Payments Summary (COOPS) screen
• Displays triggered payments. Scroll down as they group together in service reason (CAR or CDA) not by date
• Effect date for the payment (this is the Entitlement Period End Date (EPED), not delivery date)
• Amount due to be paid
• Percentage of care
• Child Disability Assistance Payments will also display. See Annual Child Disability Assistance Payment (CDAP) for more information

Note: when CA is offset (received on the opposite week to CP) receive any CS is received with the later delivery date. For example, if CP is earlier, CS will have a strip date of the CA EPED. If CP is later both CS will have a strip date of the CP EPED.

• Check the PS screen to confirm delivery date and amount of payment
• If no CS appears on COOPS and PS screens and the carer received an eligible payment which included 1 July, go to Item 3 for manual issue

If carer is entitled to the payment of CS and the payment of CS is not automatically paid, the customer should be manually paid through the One Off Payment (OOP) screen.

If manual payment needed, check the correct host system (PEN/ISS) is displaying before completing the following:

• Go to the OOP screen
• Select Add
• Select the appropriate Service Reason
• In Payment type field, select ACSP – Ann Carer Supplement
• In Date of effect field, key the relevant CS payment date, select Save
• Complete the Receipt Date and Channel fields, select Save
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess again and proceed to the Entitlements (ELD) screen, the OOP line will display
• Go back to the OOP screen.
• Key the OOP amount in the One Time Payment Amount field. Select Update
• Select Finish. Record details of the update on the Finalise screen
• Select Finalise to complete the transaction

• In the Date of Effect field, key the relevant CS payment date
• In the Payment Type field, key ACSP (Annual Carer Supplement Payment)
• 'I'nsert the Source and Receipt date
• Select Continue to go to the Assessment Results (AR) screen
• From the Optional Actions menu, 'S'elect One Off Payments (OOP)
• Change the amount on the OOP screen from $0.00 to the entitlement amount of CS
• In the Change Reason field, key 'ACSP'
• Select Continue to go to the AR screen and finalise activity
• Create a DOC on the carer's record with the details and reason for manual payment