Customer advises care arrangements for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 007-02040010

Separate procedures apply if the customer:

• wants to claim for a newborn or adopted child
• wants to claim for a child entrusted to care as part of the process of adoption or surrogacy
• is not FTB current and wants to claim FTB instalments for the child
• is FTB current for another child and there has been an increase in care to 14% or more for the child not linked to the customer; reassess FTB for the additional child entering care

A mutual customer to both Centrelink and Child Support can notify either program of changes to their care arrangements for a child. Both programs will use the same rules to make a care determination.

The program receiving the information will make the care determination and the care information will be transferred to the other program.

For further information about alignment of care determinations between Child Support and Centrelink mutual customers, see Transfer of information between Centrelink and Child Support.

A separate procedure outlines shared care entitlements for family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme payments.

When a customer contacts to advise care arrangements for a child (or to request a reassessment of their level of care under post July 2010 rules), preliminary assessment details need to be recorded for family assistance and child support assessments to commence. The Service Officer should check and record the care status and assessment information (where required).

If there has been:

• a decrease in the level of shared care provided, the record can be updated with the relevant information
• an increase in the level of shared care provided, the record can be updated if the customer has legal responsibility of the child (e.g., parent) and supplied a Details of your child's care arrangements form (FA012) signed by both parties, or advised verbally about the increase in care and the losing carer's record has previously been documented advising of the change in shared care

If there has been a change in care and the gaining carer is a grandparent or non-parent carer:

• Grandparents - See Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for grandparent carers for examples on requesting evidence to support the change in care
• Non-parent carer (e.g. foster carer, other relative or friend) - See Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a child in foster care for examples on requesting evidence to support the change in care

Note: for grandparent and non-parent carers (including foster carers), the care arrangements can be formal care or informal care. See Resources page for examples of evidence to support a care arrangement.

If the customer advises they have separated, there are key steps a customer should consider in order to protect their personal details. See Separating Safely - protecting personal details.

If a customer is advising they are separated under one roof, always ask a Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) Risk Identification Question before issuing a Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012) and Relationship Details - Separated under one roof (SS293):

Are you, or has anyone else been, concerned about your or your family's safety?

• If yes, explore further as per the FDV Support Model (FDVSM) to clarify the customer's circumstances. Consider if it is appropriate to issue the FA012 and SS293 to customer's ex-partner. In some instances where there is FDV, issuing the forms could put the customer's safety at risk.
• If no, advise the customer of the forms that will issue to their ex-partner and ask the additional question: Is there any other reason we shouldn't send these forms to your ex-partner to confirm your separation?
• If yes, explore further as per the FDVSM to clarify the customer's circumstances. Consider if it is appropriate to issue the FA012 and SS293 to the customer's ex-partner. In some instances where there is FDV, issuing the forms could put the customer's safety at risk
• If no, issue the forms