Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) debts for the 2000-2001 income year 107-04090060

Answer: The $1,000 waiver applied to debts resulting from the 2000-01 reconciliation for:

• FTB paid as instalments
• FTB paid as a combination of instalments and a past period claim via the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or Services Australia
• CCB received as reduced child care fees

Note: a separate $1,000 waiver applies to both FTB and CCB.

The $1,000 waiver applies to the above debts resulting from:

• Under estimated:
• actual taxable income (ATI) for FTB and CCB
• maintenance income for FTB
• FTB child's ATI for FTB and CCB, child's income over the child income limit
• incorrect shared care percentage for FTB, and
• incorrect multiple child rate for CCB reduced fees

In some cases reconciliation will not occur. However, the waiver may still apply. For example, cancellation of a customer's FTB due to their only FTB child's income was over the limit. In these cases, apply the waiver manually.

Answer: Debts resulting from:

• past period FTB claims through the:
• ATO or
• agency and
• the customer did not receive any FTB via instalments in 2000-01
• changes in circumstance, not income, during 2000-01 (for example, child left care)
• FTB Advances (ADV) or Duplicate payments
• Over-anticipated FTB entitlement through reduced tax withholdings. This is a Tax Debt
• CCB claims for registered care
• CCB Lump Sum claims (or recalculations of the claim)
• non-lodgement of an Income Tax Return where it is required for FTB/CCB reconciliation for 2000-01

Answer: If reconciliation of FTB or CCB results in a debt, the Debt Management Information System (DMIS) automatically applies the waiver if applicable.

• If the debt is:
• less than $50, it is waived under the small debt waiver provision
• less than $1,000, it is waived under the $1,000 waiver provision
• between $1,000 - $1,049.99, it is waived under the $1,000 waiver and small debt waiver provisions
• $1,050 or more, $1,000 is waived and a debt is raised on DMIS for the balance of the debt, less the waiver
• Waiver provisions apply automatically at reconciliation. Debt processing may need manual completion. See Manual Follow-ups (MFUs) for family assistance reconciliation recovery
• A 'Family assistance re-reconciliation advice (including statement of recoverable amount)' (Q418) letter is automatically issued to the customer. The exception is where the debt was less than $50 and waived under the small debt waiver provision

Answer: At re-reconciliation, the previous reconciliation debt is automatically finalised on DMIS. The full amount of the original debt comes back into the reconciliation process.

• If payments were received on the reconciliation debt, the zeroed debt will be over-recovered
• If the re-reconciliation results in a new debt for the 2000-01 income year, these payments will be added to the new debt. See Transferring debt repayments
• Manually refund any amount repaid by the customer, if there are no other outstanding debts. See Refunding debt repayments

Answer: View details of the debt on DMIS from:

• Debt List (OPDL) screen, 'S'elect the debt
• press [Enter] to display details on the General Information (OPGI) screen
• go to the Waiver screen (OPWA) to see waiver details

The $1,000 waiver applies to debts with:

• debt benefit type FTB or CCF
• User ID *DB (automatic) or the user's Logon ID if manually raised
• debt reason codes:
• FRC FA reconciliation
• FRR Centrelink generated re-reconciliation
• FRA ATO amended a Notice of Assessment which triggered re-reconciliation

Waiver reason codes:

• LTF - debt has been waived under the small waiver provision, less than $50
• TWC - CCB transitional waiver. $1,000 waiver applied to CCF reconciliation debt
• TWF - FTB transitional waiver. $1,000 waiver applied to FTB reconciliation debt
• CER - clerical error (manual)
• SER - system error (manual)
• IFR - Adjusted and included in FA Reconciliation. The waiver amount from a reconciliation debt has been included at re-reconciliation (automatic code only). The Amount waived: field on the OPWA screen is adjusted to zero

To view the amount that was waived:

• Key 'XPDEBT' in the Nxt: field and press [Enter]
• 'S'elect the previous reconciliation debt and key 'WV' in the Group field at the top of the screen. This will show waivers applied to this debt

Answer: If a circumstance debt of FTB or Child Care Benefit for approved care (CCF) for the 2000-01 income year is manually raised:

• Before reconciliation, if reconciliation changes the debt result:
• the debt is cancelled and
• the original debt amount is included in reconciliation
• normal $1,000 waiver processing applies

If reconciliation does not change the result, there is no change to the debt. There is no effect on the reconciliation result.

• After reconciliation, re-reconciliation triggers. The manually raised debt amount is included in re-reconciliation. This may change the result. A Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity will be created for a Service Officer to finalise the raised debt. See MFUs for family assistance reconciliation recovery

Answer: The debts can be repaid by:

• Withholdings - if the customer is receiving Centrelink payments - see Withholdings or
• Cash - see Arranging cash repayments to recover debts for family assistance reconciliation

Note:

• FTB and CCB debts will not be recovered through the tax system
• ATO FTB lump sum claim or Centrelink FTB Past Period claim entitlement will not be used to offset any FTB or CCB debt
• CCB lump sum claim entitlement will not be used to offset any FTB or CCB debt

Choose the debt type:

• Key '1' for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Key '2' for Child Care Benefit (CCB) instalments
• Key '3' for CCB lump sum

Note: check the ADDL Ref No field on the Modify/Assess Debt (OPMA) screen to identify whether CCB is:

• instalments (2001INST) or
• lump sum (2001LUMP)

Insert the relevant financial year in the format yyyy/yyyy. For example, 2000-2001.

If the re-reconciliation debt is waived in full or in part under the $1,000 waiver provision, key '1'.

Otherwise, key '2'.

To view the amount of the waiver applied to a reconciliation debt:

• go to the Waiver (OPWA) screen
• 'S'elect the original reconciliation debt identification number

To view the reason:

• 'S'elect the debt from the Debt List (OPDL) screen
• go to the General Information (OPGI) screen

If the debt reason is:

• FRR Centrelink FTB generated re-reconciliation, key '1'
• FRA Australian Taxation Office (ATO) amended tax Notice of Assessment (NOA) re-reconciliation, key '2'

• If the customer is owed a refund, key '1'
• If no amount is due, key '2'
• If the amount owed is less than $50, key '3'
• If the customer owes an amount to Services Australia, key '4'

These dates relate to the details on the amount payable for the period. They will always be for the full financial year that has been re-reconciled.

For example, the 2000-2001 reconciliation year start date 01/7/2000 and end date 30/6/2001.

This is the total amount paid to the customer over the period.

To view the total amount paid column:

• ‘S’elect the finalised reconciliation record from the Families Reconciliation & Claim Summary (FRCS) screen
• scroll to the Totals field

This is the total amount the customer should have been paid.

To view the total re-reconciliation column:

• 'S'elect the finalised re-reconciliation record from the FRCS screen
• scroll to the Totals field

Note: do not look at the recalculation line on the FRCS screen in isolation. Look at it with the previous reconciliation result.

This is the amount overpaid before the application of waiver or repayments.

To view the amount overpaid:

• 'S'elect the finalised re-reconciled record from the FRCS screen
• scroll to the Totals field to view the total Difference column
• the total negative amount is the amount of the overpayment

This is the portion of the $1,000 waiver applied.

To view the waiver amount applied:

• go to the Waiver (OPWA) screen
• 'S'elect the re-reconciled debt identification number

The original reconciliation debt would have been zeroed.

The OPWA screen shows the amount of the waiver reapplied to the re-reconciliation debt.

This is the total amount repaid on the original overpayment.

The original overpayment was zeroed and recalculated in the re-reconciliation.

If there are:

• repayments to be transferred to the re-reconciliation debt, key '1'
• no repayments to be transferred to the re-reconciliation debt, key '2'

This is the amount payable after:

• application of the waiver and
• transfer of any amounts already repaid

View the current balance of the re-reconciliation debt on the Debt List (OPDL) screen.

Include the Interest Charge warning on the manual Account Payable notice, if the customer is:

• non-current and
• they do not have an acceptable payment arrangement in place

This is the amount the re-reconciliation debt would be over-recovered by if:

• all the repayments on the original reconciliation debt were transferred to this debt and
• any amount transferred to another debt, rather than refunding to the customer

Choose the payment method applicable, if the customer:

• only has a debt detailed in the letter and is in receipt of Centrelink payments, key '1'
• has current withholdings for other debts (whether or not they also have a non-withholding arrangement), key '2'
• has a current non-withholding arrangement only for other debts, key '3'
• has no current payment arrangement (even if they have other debts), key '4'

Select either:

• Family assistance payments or
• Centrelink payments

This must be:

• $20 per fortnight for debt balances up to $750, or
• $40 per fortnight for debt balances of $750 or more

Insert the payment type from which there will be withholdings.

For example, JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Family Tax Benefit (FTB).

See Customer entry for Debt Raising and Recovery enquiry number in Debt and Compensation Program (DCP) Branch and Payment Assurance Operations (PAO) contacts.

Insert the POSTbillpay/BPAY Reference number (not the CRN) from the Extra Details (OPXD) screen in the format nnn nnn nnn nn