Rejecting a family assistance claim 007-07030150

For Families Smart Centre Processing staff

This document explains why a claim for family assistance would be rejected. Claims covered in this procedure include Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP). A customer's claim is rejected if they do not meet the eligibility requirements for the payment. Claims may be rejected at the customer level or child level (for example, the customer may be eligible for one child but not for another).

Rejection of FTB/SBP claims

The claim will be rejected if, for example:

a child is not a Family Tax Benefit (FTB) child of the customer, for example care requirements not met
family income over limit
the customer is not (or would not have been) the primary carer of the child for SBP
FTB/SBP has already been paid for the child
Parental Leave Pay (PPL) has already been paid for the child (for SBP)
the income estimate provided is not considered reasonable

Other Families claims

Separate procedures cover:

Residence requirements

All claims will be rejected if the customer does not satisfy Australian residence requirements.

A customer whose claim is rejected for a residence related reason may have the claim rejected based on information the customer has provided.

However, in some cases visa, citizenship and movement information, which is provided directly from the Department of Home Affairs datalink, may cause the claim to be rejected.

If the datalink with Department of Home Affairs has provided the information, this will take precedence over any conflicting information provided by the customer.

All claims will be rejected if proof of birth is not provided for the child. However, if the child's birth is not registered as required by parents of newborn children, Newborn Supplement (NBS) will not be paid with Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A and Parental Leave Pay (PPL) will be rejected.

Claims will either be automatically rejected, according to details recorded on the customer's record, or manually rejected when assessing the claim. A letter will be sent to the customer advising why the claim has been rejected. In most cases, the letter is sent automatically.

Non effective claim

If the claim is not effective, for example, not all required information has been provided as requested, the claim cannot be assessed. The customer is to be advised why their claim cannot be assessed and, if appropriate, advised that they will need to lodge a new claim to receive payment.

Early claim rejections

Claims lodged for family assistance, up to 3 months before the birth/entry into care of a child can be rejected by discretionary decision. For example, if the income is clearly above the allowable limit for the early claim. All early claim rejections will need to be coded manually and a rejection letter sent to the customer explaining the outcome of the decision. A person whose claim is rejected apply for a formal review of the rejection and can reapply for payment in the future.

The Resources page has example text for manual rejection letters.