Cancellation, suspension and rejection codes for Parenting Payment (PP) 007-02220080

Services Australia (the agency) uses codes when a decision to cancel or suspend a payment, or to reject a claim, is recorded on the computer system. A description of the code is used in correspondence with the customer about their income support payment.

Payments may be rejected, cancelled or suspended in the PEN or PGA system due to specific eligibility requirements not being met, and/or a variety of other reasons.

A payment cannot be manually suspended pending investigation (INV). Before a payment is suspended or cancelled, the Decision Maker (DM) must be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that the customer is either:

• not qualified for the payment, or
• the payment is not payable

If there is not, information must be requested from the customer via a notice under the appropriate section of the Social Security (Administration) Act; section 63, 67, 68, or part 5, division 1.

If the customer fails to comply with the notice by not providing the requested information, the DM may, after considering all the available evidence, decide to suspend or cancel the payment.

The Resources page contains more information about the legislative basis for suspending or cancelling payments.

If the decision to suspend payment is made, prompt action should be taken to give the customer a notice of decision which details the reason for the suspension and their rights to seek review.

When an unfavourable decision is to be made, a DM must provide the customer with:

• an explanation of the decision, and
• an opportunity to provide further information or evidence relevant to the decision

The DM must also advise the customer of their review rights and if required, record a request for a review of the decision. This includes unfavourable decisions made by Service Officers in Smart Centres.

If a DM is not speaking with a customer at the time of making a decision, they are required to make genuine attempts to contact a customer prior to finalising an unfavourable decision.

If a customer's claim is to be rejected either Failed to Respond to Correspondence (FRC) or Failed to Supply Documents (FSD), and the customer has been advised verbally or in writing of their requirement to provide further information, there is no requirement to attempt to contact the customer. This does not apply to vulnerable or at risk customers.

Where Parenting Payment customers with mutual obligation requirements fail to comply with their compulsory requirements, the participation payment may be cancelled or suspended.