Not effective, rejection, or withdrawal of claim for Family Tax Benefit or Stillborn Baby Payment 007-07030140

Separate procedures apply for not effective CCS and PPL scheme claims. See:

• Processing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) claims for not effective CCS claims
• Assessing Paid Parental Leave (PPL) claims for not effective PPL claims

If the claim is not effective a decision cannot be made about the customer's entitlement. The customer must be advised why the claim is not effective. In most cases, the customer will need to lodge a new claim to be assessed for payment. A claim can be made online or by lodging the appropriate paper claim.

Pre- processing checks for standalone and combined claims for family assistance and/or Paid Parental Leave payments contains information about early claim requirements.

General requirements for an effective claim:

• it is made on the approved claim form or online
• all information and documentation required to assess the claim have been provided by the claimant
• bank details for direct credit have been provided, unless an exemption has been granted
• Tax File Number (TFN) details have been provided for the customer (and their partner)

Note: a TFN is not required for claims by an Approved Care Organisation (ACO).

For the length of time claims should be held, see timeframes.

An FTB claim is not effective if the customer has already claimed for the same period except if claiming for an additional child entering care (for example, newborn or adopted child).

If instalments have been cancelled because the customer has not provided information, their claim is not effective and the decision to cancel the payment needs to be reviewed.

Family Tax Benefit claims can still be assessed if certain information is not provided. For example, accommodation details can be provided later to claim Rent Assistance (RA), FTB can be granted at the legislative rate if the customer does not advise their payment choice.

Customers, or their correspondence nominees, may withdraw an effective claim for family assistance at any time before a payability determination is made on it.

If a customer wants to withdraw their claim, the customer or their nominee must do so either in writing, verbally, or online. All staff can action the withdrawal request.

When a customer chooses to withdraw a claim, the claim is taken never to have been made. The claim is indexed and then cancelled and cannot be reinstated without completing a new claim.

When a primary carer submits claims for Parental Leave Pay (PPL) and FTB, the claim for PPL is determined first.

If the customer is not eligible for PPL, Newborn Supplement (NBS) and Newborn Upfront Payment (NBU) will be automatically assessed with their FTB claim.

If a claim is not effective, no decision can be made about the customer's entitlement and so it is not possible for a customer to apply for a formal review of a decision about their entitlement. The claim is taken not to have been made.

The customer can however ask for an explanation or apply for a formal review about why the claim was made not effective. If the claim is still found to be not effective, a new claim will need to be lodged.