Age Milestone Mandatory reviews for Carer Payment (CP) (child) and Carer Allowance (CA) (child) 009-08060020

The purpose of carer reviews is to establish and determine:

• that the care receiver's care needs continue to qualify the carer for payment
• that the carer continues to provide constant care for CP and care and attention for CA, and
• if there are any changes in the carer's and/or care receiver's circumstances

To be selected for an Age Milestone Review, carers must be paid CP for a mainstream care receiver under 14 years and 9 months of age.

Where the carer is paid CA for a child, CA will be reviewed at the same time as CP.

The review auto-starts when a child care receiver reaches the following age milestones:

• 4 years 8 months
• 13 years

Age Milestone reviews do not apply to CP (XWP) - CP that is paid under grandfathering provisions for ceased Wife Pension carers. However, CP (XWP) carers are subject to child medical reviews and adult medical reviews for their CA care receivers.

If a CP (XWP) carer’s only or last payment level CA is suspended or cancelled or changed to CA HCC only, CP (XWP) will auto-cancel. A CP (XWP) carer loses qualification for CP (XWP) permanently if they have a break in payment level CA entitlement. See Transfer from Wife Pension (WP) to Carer Payment (CP).

Carers receiving CA only and CA HCC only for a child or additional children will not be selected for an Age Milestone Mandatory review. These carers will be reviewed under the Child Medical Reviews for Carer Allowance (CA) (child). See Carer Allowance (CA) (child) Health Care Card (HCC) only reviews.

At the initial contact, the following forms are issued to the carer:

• Review of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance - Care Needs Assessment for a child under 16 years (SA417), and
• Review of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance Medical Report (for a child under 16 years) (SA430)

The carer has 28 days to complete the forms. In some circumstances, the carer may need more time to return a medical review and request an extension due to difficulties or delays in getting their forms completed by a doctor or Treating Health Professional (THP). The granting of an extension is at the Service Officer's discretion and they will need to discuss the reasons for the request with the carer.

If the carer:

• fails to respond within 28 days, a reminder letter is sent with no forms enclosed
• fails to respond to the reminder letter within 28 days (56 days in total), payments are suspended. If no further response is received within 13 weeks of suspension of payments, payments will be cancelled
• returns only 1 part of the review and 28 days has passed from the date of issue, process the review activity. This will result in a cancellation for failing to return either the Medical Report or Care Needs Assessment

Encourage carers to return the Care Needs Assessment section of the review as soon as possible, as recording the return of the Care Needs Assessment will prevent the carers payment being suspended by removing the activity from the FAL screen.

Note: Child Care Load reviews, service components 427, 428 and 430, are not able to be extended or deferred.

If the care receiver has more than 1 carer, both carers will be reviewed at the same time.

The following CP (child) qualification types will have the Age Milestone Mandatory review completed manually:

• combined care
• multiple care
• exchanged care

The following customer groups are exempt from this review:

• carers currently receiving CP (XWP)
• carers paid CP and CA for a child with a disability or medical condition on the List of Recognised Disability (LoRD) used to determine Carer Allowance eligibility
• carers paid CP for a child care receiver assessed under the pre 1 July 2009 'Profoundly Disabled Child - severe medical condition' criteria (non-behavioural condition)
• carers paid CP for a child care receiver assessed under the Short Term or Episodic conditions
• children with an assessed Care Load score of >+ 300 and THP score >= 4.00 and condition is 'relatively stable' or 'becoming worse over time'
• carers granted CP and CA within the previous 12 months for the child care receiver
• carers who have had an Age Milestone Mandatory or Care Load review within the previous 12 months for the child care receiver