Reassessment of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a current customer where an additional child enters care in the current or previous financial year 007-07030120

An additional child can increase the rate of FTB and Rent Assistance (RA) payable to the family.

Separate procedures apply for:

• customers claiming Parental Leave Pay (PPL)
• customers claiming for an adopted child
• non-FTB current customers claiming FTB for children in care other than a newborn or adopted child
• customers claiming Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS)

A reassessment of FTB for an additional child for a period during which the customer received FTB instalments can only be granted back to 1 July of the preceding financial year. FTB instalment customers should request a reassessment of FTB for an additional child before the end of the lodgement year, for example by 30 June 2019 for 2017-2018.

All customers should be encouraged to use online services to advise their child's details and for assessment of payments. This should be encouraged due to the payment streaming, assessment of the customer's circumstances, and re-use of existing customer information.

If a current FTB instalment customer does not complete the online claim process, is not claiming Parental Leave Pay (PPL), or if it is unreasonable for them to access online services, their FTB can be assessed as follows:

• Newborn children (up to 12 months old): if all information is available (for example, the newborn Child Declaration (FA081) has been completed in full), and it is established the customer does not intend to claim PPL for the child, the information provided on the FA081 can be used to add the newborn child
• Older children (excludes newborns): customers can verbally advise that an additional older child has entered their care and request a reassessment of their FTB for the additional child. The customer must provide any requested additional information for the reassessment to occur. A current year or lump sum claim is not required

A mandatory attempt to confirm the change of care with the previous carer (in most cases) must be made to ensure that payments are made to the correct person.

If the previous carer has not notified the change of care, or if the change is contested, the customer must provide evidence to support the actual care arrangements. If the losing carer is not current, and does not have a Centrelink record, a record needs to be created if the gaining carer is able to provide enough information for this to occur. Once the record is created, the children then need to be linked to that record.

If a change of care has occurred as a result of a child being removed from their parent's care by a state welfare authority, or family and domestic violence situation, and there is concern that the customer or children will be placed at risk if the losing carer is contacted, evidence supplied by the gaining carer can be used to confirm the change of care.

If the customer requests a reassessment for an additional child but the child is assessed as not in the care of the customer, the link child activity must be cancelled, and a DOC recorded with details.

If a grandparent, other relative or non-parent carer contacts to advise they have gained care of a child, further information can be requested if the following conditions are met:

• the losing carer is the parent of the child, and
• there are no Court Orders or Child Protection orders in place for the care of the child

This includes asking the following questions to help make a change of care decision:

• What is the reason for the change of care?
• Is the child going into the care of a grandparent, other relative or third non-parent carer? If so, do they live in the same residence as the parent?
• What involvement will the parent continue to have with their child/ren while in the grandparent’s or third party's care?
• Is the reason for the change of care due to work related reasons and/or study?
• Who will be providing financially for the child while in the grandparent's other relative or non-parent carer’scare?
• Is the child listed on the grandparent's, other relative, or non-parent’s carer’s Medicare card?
• Who will be making the major decisions for the child regarding health education and discipline?

Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012)

If the grandparent, other relative or non-parent carer is providing a co-signed FA012, evidence must be provided before a claim can be assessed. The Service Officer needs to be satisfied the evidence provided is sufficient to make a determination before granting FTB. See the Resources page for examples.

Note: where evidence is not provided, the claim should be rejected NDE.

Any evidence relevant to the decision should be documented and scanned to the record. For grandparent carers, see Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) (grandparent) eligibility and applications.

If the Service Officer needs help in determining eligibility where there has been a change of care of a child from the parent to the grandparent, other relative or non-parent carer, get help from Local Peer Support (LPS) or a Service Support Officer (SSO) using standard escalation protocols.

For further information to help make a change of care decision:

• for grandparents, see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for grandparent carers
• for non-parent carers (not grandparents) and foster carers, see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a child in foster care

If the customer has care of a child from a previous relationship, check if action to obtain child support is required to meet the requirements of the maintenance action test.

Customers required to seek child support will need to take action within the initial 13 week period to continue to be paid more than base rate FTB Part A for the child.

Customers claiming Family Tax Benefit Part A for a child who is not their or their partner’s biological or adopted child may be eligible to receive Double Orphan Pension.

Double Orphan Pension helps families with the costs of caring for orphaned children or children who are unable to be cared for by their parents in certain circumstances. For more information on eligibility and how to claim, see Double Orphan Pension (DOP).

Customers may advise of a child entering care, or a change to an existing care arrangement for a child in care within the following claims:

• income support payment
• Low Income Health Care Card (LIC)
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)
• Foster Child Health Care Card (FST)

If the claim is allocated for processing in:

• Customer First, there is no change to the existing protocols for referral and assessment
• Process Direct (PD), an Assessment of Care Arrangements Referral work item (ZCRF_AOCA_REFERRAL) will be generated and the assessment must be completed before the claim can be finalised

The Assessment of Care Arrangements work item will be allocated to a suitably skilled Families Service Officer to complete the care assessment in Customer First.

After the care assessment has been completed, income support payment, LIC, CSHC and FST processing staff will proceed to claim assessment and finalisation.

From 10 June 2019, FTB top-ups, supplements, lump sum claim amounts and instalment arrears can be used to recover any family assistance, social security, student assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme payment overpayments. This will occur even if the customer has a current payment arrangement. Previously, FTB amounts could only be used to recover FTB, Child Care Benefit (CCB) and Child Care Rebate (CCR) debts.

Where exceptional and/or unforeseen circumstances apply which may cause the customer to suffer severe financial hardship, customers can request to be temporarily excluded from debt recovery prior to any money being taken from their FTB arrears, lump sum or top-up payments.