Shared care for social security payments 007-02050000

Customer advises - temporary absence

• the child is absent temporarily from the person who normally cares for them, determine if the customer with principal carer status remains eligible to payments and/or remains the principal carer of the child during the absence, see Child leaves customer's care/custody. Procedure ends here

Customer advises - change in care

A principal carer determination is required if the customer shares care of a child.

To check if a principal carer determination has been made for:

• JobSeeker Payment
• Austudy
• Youth Allowance (job seeker), or
• Special Benefit (SpB) under JSP conditions

Go to the Principal Carer Circumstance Details (PCCD) screen (in NSS system).

For Parenting Payment (PP), go to the SSA Share Care (SSC) screen.

Has the customer told Child Support of a change in arrangements?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, go to Step 4

Note:

• in rare cases, for example multiple carers and legal responsibility for the child cannot be established, the Child Support assessment and any Family Tax Benefit (FTB) assessment should not be used
• see Making a decision on a shared care arrangement in Notification and assessment of shared care arrangements for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Check the customer's record to determine if the care decision is being undertaken by Child Support.

• Check if there is an unfinalised Manual Follow-up (MFU) which may contain details of a Child Support care decision for the date of event (DOV)
• Go to the Child Selection (CHS) screen and 'S'elect the relevant child. Check the:
• Care Alignment Details (!CADDS) screen to see if Child Support commenced a care activity. Note: when Child Support commence (pend) a care decision, the Centrelink system expects to get a finalised decision in 21 days. When this does not occur, the commenced care line as shown on !CADDS is meant to lapse. A known system issue is preventing this from occurring. If the !CADDS screen shows a care decision commenced by Child Support is more than 21 days old, disregard
• FTB Shared Care (FSC) screen to see if Child Support have finalised a care activity, record will display as 'CSP Care Decision'
• Document List (DL) screen for relevant DOCs

Note: check the DOV as some Child Support assessments on the customer record may not relate to the most recent change.

Has Child Support commenced or finalised the care activity?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

Child support will electronically give care details when the care assessment is finalised.

When the care assessment is finalised, select the child from the Child Selection (CHS) screen and go to the FTB Shared Care (FSC) screen to see:

• the date the new care arrangement commenced,
• the care percentage, assessment method carer and agency (Child Support)

The date of the new care arrangement is the date of the most recent change. This date may be later than the date of a court order or written care arrangement.

Does the customer agree with the care decision?

• Yes, go to step 4
• No:
• a person (including a non-customer) wants to apply for a formal review of a care decision that was previously made by Centrelink, see Review of care decisions. Procedure ends here
• a decision made by Child Support and the customer wants to have this reviewed/disputed, warm transfer to Child Support. Procedure ends here
• a care determination has commenced, and the customer wants to ask about the status of the care assessment, warm transfer to Child Support. Procedure ends here
• a care determination has been finalised, and
• the care details have not been applied to the customer's income support payment and/or family assistance, and
• there is no MFU pending action on the Activity List (AL) screen, warm transfer to Child Support. Procedure ends here

If a step parent is claiming for their partner's child, see Pre-processing checks for standalone and combined claims for family assistance and/or Paid Parental Leave payments.

Note:

• if the customer does not have legal responsibility for the child, and
• their level of care means the dependent child definition is not met

They will need to give:

• a Court Order, or
• Parenting Plan, or
• written agreement for care arrangements that states they are a person the child is supposed to live with

See 'With child' rate of benefit for non-principal carers with shared care.

Customer agrees with the care determination outcome. Check the customer is receiving the correct rate of Income Support Payment (ISP).

If the customer is:

• The principal carer of a dependent child they may be eligible for:
• Parenting Payment (PP)
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP), or
• Youth Allowance (job seeker)
  subject to part-time mutual obligation requirements. Refer any customers requiring an update to their existing Job Plan to their Employment Service Provider. For more detail see Job Plans
• Not the principal carer, they may still qualify for a ‘with child’ rate of:
• JobSeeker Payment
• Youth Allowance
• Austudy, or
• Special Benefit (SpB)

Is the customer currently in receipt of an Income Support Payment?

• Yes, go to Table 2
• No:
• if the customer has not yet lodged a claim, invite them to claim the relevant income support payment and/or Family Tax Benefit (FTB), see Contact in relation to an intended claim (CLK). Procedure ends here.
• for customers who have lodged a claim for Income Support, go to Step 5

A customer advises their shared care has changed within a new claim for: JobSeeker (JSP), Youth Allowance (YAL), Austudy, Parenting Payment (PP) and Special Benefit (SpB)

Has a principal care determination been completed?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No:
• staff trained to undertake a shared care/principal carer determination. See Principal carer of a dependent child for coding details
• staff not trained to undertake a shared care/principal carer determination, refer the customer for a Shared Care/Principal Carer assessment using Fast Note - select Auto text, use Families > Updates > Principal Carer Determination Required. Select Confirm and place claim on hold. Procedure ends here

Is the customer claiming JSP, YA, Austudy, PP or SpB?

• Yes, the 'with child' rate may be paid even if the dependent child definition is not met due to the level of care (14% or more) or (30% for SpB). See 'With child' rate of benefit for non-principal carers with shared care. Go to Table 2
• No, Procedure ends here

Note:

• if the customer does not have legal responsibility for the child, and
• their level of care means the dependent child definition is not met

They will need to give:

• a Court Order, or
• Parenting Plan, or
• written agreement for care arrangements that states they are a person the child is supposed to live with

See 'With child' rate of benefit for non-principal carers with shared care.

A change of care may cause a change of entitlement to existing income support payments:

• Parenting Payment - the customer will no longer be qualified if principal carer status is lost for all children aged under 14 years (if single) or under 6 (if partnered). If appropriate offer the customer a transfer to JSP, see Transfer to JobSeeker Payment (JSP) from another payment
• JSP or YA - an increase in care may mean customers can be treated as a principal carer and qualify for a higher rate of payment, additional concessions and reduced mutual obligation requirements, see Principal carer of a dependent child

For customers who gain principal care of a child:

• Parenting Payment (PP) should be offered if a child aged under 14 (if single), or under 6 (if partnered) and customer is not already PP current. See Claiming Parenting Payment and Processing Parenting Payment (PP) claims
• Single JobSeeker Payment (JSP) and Youth Allowance (YA) customers may qualify for a higher rate of payment, additional concessions and reduced mutual obligation requirements. See Principal carer of a dependent child and Shared care for income support payments and principal carer determination

Customers who do not have, or lose principal care of a child, However, have shared care.

If Parenting Payment (PP) principal carer status is lost:

• for all children aged under 14 years (if single) or under 6 (if partnered), the customer will no longer be qualified. If appropriate, offer the customer a transfer to JSP. See Transfer to JobSeeker Payment (JSP) from another payment, and
• the customer still has shared care of another PP child in principal care this child may be included on their concession card and the customer may be eligible for the additional child income free area
• see Principal carer of a dependent child and Shared care for income support payments and principal carer determination

If JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy, Special Benefit (SpB) and Farm Household Allowance (FH) principal carer status is lost:

• single customers may be entitled to the 'with child' rate if they have at least 14% care of a child. As per 'With child' rate of benefit for non-principal carers with shared care, a single JSP or YA-JSK customer must have either:
• legal responsibility (alone or jointly with another person) for the day to day care, welfare and development of a child or a family law order, or
• parenting plan which states the child is to supposed to live with the customer

ACTDOCs assigned to 'JCS' Region:

• If actioning a Manual Follow up (MFU) (Fast Note) -adjust mutual obligations for customers on JobSeeker payments, see Mutual obligation requirements for principal carers
• If the child has a disability, invite to claim for Carer Payment/ Carer Allowance
• Change in principal carer status: using information in the ACTDOC, determine the revised mutual obligation requirements for the customer and renegotiate their Job Plan
• Qualification for income support: using the information in the ACTDOC, determine ongoing entitlement to current payment. If no longer eligible, cancel payments from date of the change of the care arrangement via the Benefit Action (BA) screen if necessary
• for Youth Allowance (YA), check if assessed as independent
• Shared care and income support arrears: using the information in the ACTDOC, determine the customer's entitlement to arrears.
• Select the FCC activity from the AL screen,
  go to the AR screen to view arrears calculated for ISP, and
  make ISP arrears adjustment required. How to manually calculate arrears
• annotate the shared care determination DOC with the decision and action taken. Complete the DOC