Actioning an undetermined debt on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) 107-04010040
Expand allList of DMIS debt reason types – index
Table 1
|
Type |
Description |
|
Advance/Loan, Assurance of Support, Compensation, Dependants/Childcare, Income, Income Management. |
|
|
Miscellaneous, Obligation, Prosecution and Court, Qualification, Studies/Apprentice, Victims of Terrorism. |
|
|
Automatic debt reason codes Note: staff cannot manually input reason codes displaying as ‘Auto Only’. |
|
|
AMT, ASP, AST, BBI, BFI, BIS, BON, BTR, CAC, CAF, CAJ, CDE, CDP, CPR, CPS, CSC, CSE, CSR, CTD, DRA, FAA, FAC, FPI, FPN, FRD, FSD, FTR, GAF, IIU, IMR, IOL, LBE, LOG, MIR, MRR, MSS, NEG, NES, NGC, NGJ, NSD, OAR, OPA, OSS, OTH, OWD, PAR, PLS, PSF, RJC, RTF, RTI, SCA, SFH, SIN, SNI, TAD, TFR, TOT, TRS, UAS, UNS, USC, WFD, WKL |
A to K manual debt reason types and the codes used to explain why the debt occurred
Table 2
|
Item |
Description |
|
1 |
Advance/Loan ADV – Advance payment ARU – Advance repayment period unreasonable CRP – Crisis Payment PLS – Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) formerly known as Pensions Loans Scheme SEA – Special Employment SFH – Severe Financial Hardship |
|
2 |
Assurance of Support AOS – Assurance of Support Recovery (old) |
|
3 |
Compensation CMA – Charge income CMB – Failed to comply with compensation preliminary notice CMC – Charge customer CMM – Charge insurer CMP – Compensation partner income |
|
4 |
Dependants/Childcare BBR – Second or subsequent child rate assessment (BBY) DCS – Dependant children/students LOC – Loss of care NFC – No longer FTB child SPR – Shared care percentage reduction SSC – Second or subsequent child rate assessment (NBS) |
|
5 |
Income AIR – ATO Income Reconciliation – Farm Household Allowance CFP – Comparable foreign payment recovery ECM – Earnings Digital Intervention (combined) EPM – Earnings Digital Intervention (partner) ESM – Earnings Digital Intervention (self) FAA – Taxable income amended by ATO FPE – Income: Incorrect estimate IDP – Income: Dad and Partner Pay IEP – Partner’s employment income reported/coded incorrectly, including $0 reported to stimulate payment IES – Employment income was not reported/coded for the entitlement period (self) IMC – Income Stream Auto Update Combined Manual IMO – Income Stream – partner. To manually key this code when using Debt Scripts in Customer Record, go to the Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen > Reason field > select debt reason No Suitable Choice IMS – Income Stream – self. To manually key this code when using Debt Scripts in Customer Record, go to the Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen > Reason field > select debt reason No Suitable Choice INP – Income from Investments (partner) INV – Income from Investments (self) IPL – Income: Parental Leave Pay IPM – Partner incorrect earnings – manual IPN – Partner employment income was not reported/coded for the entitlement period ISI – Employment income reported/coded incorrectly, including $0 reported to stimulate payment (self) ISM – Own incorrect earnings – manual OIS – Non earnings or investment – self OIP – Non earnings or investment – partner OMR – Third party maintenance re-reconciliation OMT – Third party maintenance reconciliation OSP – Income from overseas pension PAI – Income: Parental income RIC – Review of income and circumstances (FHA) RCN – Reconciliation debt (FHA) UCE – Undeclared cash earnings – self UCP – Undeclared cash earnings – partner YMR – Maintenance re-reconciliation YMT – Maintenance reconciliation |
|
6 |
Income Management IAP – Incorrect Amount Paid IFO – Income Management funds fraudulently obtained IIO – Incorrect Organisation Paid IIU – Incorrect use of Income Management funds IME – Income Management error in payment IUR – Income Management Refund |
L to Z manual debt reason types and the codes used to explain why the debt occurred
Table 3
Automatic debt reason codes
Table 4
Obsolete/end dated debt reason codes
Table 5
Note: the alternative debt code is a guide only, staff must investigate prior to using. To use an end dated debt reason, the debt period end date must be prior to the end date listed below.
Amalgamation of debts
As all payments are amalgamated down to benefit/qualifier level, there may be cases where 2 or more payment types are combined into one debt in DMIS. For example, Parenting Payment Single (PPS) or JobSeeker Payment (JSP), predominately when inter benefit transfer debts.
The DMIS benefit type will be the payment or allowance comprising the largest portion of the overpayment.
This does not apply for debts that:
- include Jobseeker Payment (JSP) and another payment type, and
- have a debt start date before 20 March 2020
In these cases, do not use JSP as the DMIS benefit type. The Component Amount (OPCA) screen stores each benefit type in the debt at the component level. This ensures that DMIS passes the correct details for each debt to ESSentials.
Do not separate these debts and raise them individually, except where:
- the system generates them separately, or
- there is a Schoolkids Bonus component. Raise this as a Schoolkids Bonus debt, not as a component of Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
When a combined debt is determined, tell the customer of all the payment types that have been overpaid for via the:
- free text within the account payable section of the script, or
- Account Payable (OPAOD) screen
Examples of debt amalgamation
Table 6
|
Example |
Description |
|
1 |
Debt benefit type JSP Customer has a debt comprised of $15 AUS basic and $120 JSP basic. |
|
2 |
Debt benefit type AGE Customer has a debt comprised of $100 DSP basic and AGE Rent Assistance $110. |
|
3 |
Debt benefit type DSP Customer has a debt comprised of JSP basic $10, DSP Rent Ass. $50 and DSP PhA $15. |
|
4 |
Single component overpaid Customer has been overpaid a component by itself, for example, SCA $40. The benefit debt type is Seniors Concession Allowance. |
|
5 |
Benefit type does not reflect the debt Change the debt on the Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen. If unable to change the debt on the OPMA screen:
Record all relevant details on the DOC of the new debt, for example, the AMR number and reason for zeroing the system generated debt. |
Legally payable arrears
In the example below, the arrears have been determined as legally payable. These arrears will be used to offset the overpayment amount.
Table 7: example ADEX debt offset calculations.
|
Date From |
Period/Days |
Old Fn Rate |
New Fn Rate |
Adjustment |
|
27 FEB 2021 |
1/14 |
$253.69 |
$0.00 |
$253.69 DB |
|
13 MAR 2021 |
1/7 |
$103.44 |
$103.44 |
|
|
20 MAR 2021 |
1/7 |
$106.19 |
$137.80 |
$31.60 CR |
|
27 MAR 2021 |
1/5 |
$68.85 |
$97.43 |
$28.57 CR |
|
1 APR 2021 |
1/9 |
$167.39 |
$175.37 |
$7.97 CR |
|
Total |
$699.58 |
$514.03 |
$185.55 DB |
In this example, the information required for the manual Account Payable (Q417) letter, is the:
- overpayment period = 27 February 2021 to 12 March 2021
- overpayment amount = $253.69
- amount paid for the overpayment period = $253.69
- amount entitled for the overpayment period = $0
- legally payable arrears period = 20 March 2021 to 9 April 2021
- the legally payable arrears amount = $68.14
- recovery fee = $0.00
- outstanding (debt) amount = $185.55
Clean screen policy action
Table 8: this table describes the actions to take for different customer and debt scenarios under the clean screen policy.
|
Example |
Description |
|
Compensation debts |
Compensation Recovery staff must action all compensation related debts on the customer’s and/or partner’s record at the same time where:
Compensation Recovery staff do not need to complete a full clean screen action of all debts on a customer and/or partner record where not related to the compensation assessment (for example, unrelated debts or other activities). |
|
Multiple debts |
Action all debts on the customer's (and partner's) record at the same time. Some quarantined debts or debts requiring specialist action may be out of scope. Seek APS5 Technical support. |
|
Customer and partner debts |
Workload Manager (WLM) attempts to bundle the customer and partner's debt/s and allocate the work items to the same person. Where this does not happen, the staff member allocated the debt/s first must transfer any remaining debts from the partner record to their inbox for action. See Step 7 in Workload Management. |
|
Auto debts on hold |
Action auto debts on hold because of the debt pause at the same time as raising other debts on the record. Check the accuracy of the debt, then ask the APS5 Technical Support Officer to un-hold or FND the debt. |
|
Quality On Line (QOL) checking |
Submit all debts on both customer and partner records at the same time. Do not wait for one debt to be QOL checked before submitting the other debts. The QOL checker needs to look at the case holistically and release all debts at the same time. This also ensures all debt letters generate at the same time. A QOL checker may provide feedback where a debt officer:
However, assessment of each debt must be in accordance with national QOL principles. These principles do not support the return of an activity for correction (critical error determination) on the sole basis of other undetermined debt shells remaining on the record. QOL Checkers will assess the activity selected and release if correct. |
|
Exclusions |
There may be times where exclusions from the clean screen policy apply to some debt types. For example, compensation or other debts actioned by specific business areas. Payment Assurance Operations Daily News will also have updates as required. If unsure, talk to an APS5 Technical Support Officer. |
System generated duplicate payment debt example
Note: this example is only for system generated duplicate payment debts and not for debts resulting from a customer receiving a duplicate arrears payment.
Scenario
Customer contacted Services Australia to advise they had not received their payment for the period 9 to 22 March 2022. The payment was reissued and subsequently delivered to the customer’s account on 25 March 2022, however the original payment was not returned by the financial institution. This resulted in the customer receiving 2 payments for the same entitlement period. The system generates an undetermined duplicate payment debt for the payment that was reissued to the customer.
The customer received a second (reissued) payment to replace the payment not initially received for the entitlement period 9 to 22 March 2022. The event that led to the duplicate payment and the start and end date of the debt, all occur on the same day of 25 March 2022, the date the duplicate payment was delivered to the customer.
Coding this scenario on the Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen would show in these fields as:
- Date of Event (DOV): 25 March 2022 (date of the event that led to the debt)
- Start Date: 25 March 2022 (date of the first incorrect payment – as per ADEX activity details)
- End Date: 25 March 2022 (date of the last incorrect payment – as per ADEX activity details)