Change of care for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 007-07040070

For:

• changes of care that occur from a date that has previously been keyed, see Review of care decisions
• coding changes to shared care, such as increased or decreased levels of care, see Notification and assessment of shared care arrangements for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• current FTB customers who are adding an older child (not a newborn child), see Reassessment of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a current customer where an additional child enters care in the current or previous financial year
• income support customers, see Child enters customer's care/custody
• customers notifying a child has left care, see Child leaves customer's care/custody
• customers notifying of a child entering their care or custody, see Child enters customer's care/custody

Unless the change of care has been advised by the person previously caring for the child, an attempt must be made to contact the previous carer to confirm the change of care. This applies, even if that person is not receiving FTB for the child. This will ensure that FTB for the child is paid to the correct person and reduce the need for future reviews, as customers may claim FTB for a past period when the child was in their care.

Note: if a customer is advising they are separated under one roof, always ask a Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) Risk Identification Question before issuing the Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012) and Relationship details - Separated Under one roof (SS293):

Are you, or has anyone else been, concerned about your or your family's safety?

• If yes, explore further as per the FDV Support Model (FDVSM) to clarify the customer's circumstances. Consider if it is appropriate to issue the FA012 and SS293 to the customer's ex-partner. In some instances where there is FDV, issuing the forms could put the customer's safety at risk
• If no, advise the customer of the forms that will issue to their ex-partner and ask the additional question: Is there any other reason we should not send these forms to your ex-partner to confirm your separation?
• If yes, explore further as per the FDVSM to clarify the customer's circumstances. Consider if it is appropriate to issue the FA012 and SS293 to customer's ex-partner. In some instances where there is FDV, issuing the forms could put the customer's safety at risk.
• If no, issue the forms

If the previous carer has not responded to any contact attempts, a care determination can be made with evidence supplied by the gaining carer providing there is enough evidence to support the decision.

Permanent or long term changes of care (more than 4 weeks for FTB) can be formal or informal:

• Informal (where the parent/carer authorises the change of care) - this will affect eligibility and the customer will generally cease to be entitled to payment for the child. For example, a child may be residing with relatives for an extended period of time, that is longer than 4 weeks, and they are responsible for the day-to-day care responsibilities of the child during this period. In these cases, the child ceases to be an FTB child of the parent
• Formal (legal/court order) - where the child has been legally removed from the customer and placed in alternative care, that is, Youth Justice Centre or State Department, it is not considered a temporary absence as legal responsibility now belongs to the relevant state department. FTB for the child is to be cancelled from the date the child has been removed from the customer

Temporary changes of care (up to 4 weeks for FTB) can be formal or informal:

• Informal (where the parent/carer authorises the change of care) - this will not affect eligibility and the customer may remain entitled to payment for the child. For example, a child may be away on holiday with relatives for less than 4 weeks. The child may be given money for expenses by their parent who remains responsible for the decision making regarding the child's welfare while the child is away. In these cases the child is still an FTB child of the parent as temporary care provisions can apply. Note: if temporary care provisions are applied and the change of care becomes permanent, or is extended to a period longer than 4 weeks, a change of care is taken to have occurred from date the care changed to a longer period, not the start of the temporary care period
• Formal (legal/court order) - where the child has been legally removed from the customer and placed in alternative care (that is, Youth Justice Centre, State Department or foster care), this is not considered a temporary absence as legal responsibility now belongs to the relevant state legal authority. FTB for the child is to be cancelled from the date the child has been removed and temporary care provisions do not apply

The Resources page contains FTB examples of legal responsibility (both formal and informal) and temporary care provisions identifying when temporary care is not applicable.

A shared care assessment may be needed if part of a pattern of care where the child's care is shared between 2 or more people over a certain period).

The assessment may be based on the care set out in the written care arrangement for an interim period from when the written care arrangement ceased to be complied with, resulting in disputed care. The interim period may be anywhere between 4 weeks to 52 weeks depending on:

• the type of written care arrangement (interim periods will generally be longer for court orders than for parenting plans or written care agreements)
• how long the written care arrangement has been in place
• whether or not the person with increased care is taking reasonable action to participate in family dispute resolution

At the end of the interim period, the care assessment will be based on the 'actual care'

Note: before 23 May 2018 the interim period was for 14 weeks, up to a maximum of 26 weeks if special circumstances existed.

Skilled staff within the Child Support Smart Centre Division manage all disputed care cases. In disputed care situations, Service Support Officers (SSO) will make an 'interim period' decision and an 'actual care' decision. See Notification and assessment of shared care arrangements for Family Tax Benefit (FTB).

Where an abduction or the child's whereabouts is unknown, a customer may continue to receive FTB for the child for up to 14 weeks if the child has left their care without their consent. A referral to a social worker may be needed. If a child ceases to be in a person's care without their consent on or after 1 July 2012, the Secretary will have discretion to decide that the child immediately ceases to be an FTB child or regular care child of the person if there are special circumstances which support that decision.

If the change of care is a result of family and domestic violence 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. However, the delegate must be satisfied based on the available evidence that a change of care has occurred. The Resources page contains an example.

FTB is not payable to grandparents and non-parent carers who are caring for a child in a child care capacity, for example, child attending child care (either child care centre/family day care or care by a relative/friend) or staying overnight with a grandparent, other relative or family friend. If the customer is the grandparent or non-parent carer of the child, a determination should be made whether the care is a change in care or child care while the parents are working, studying or away.

If a grandparent, other relative, or non-parent carer contacts to advise they have gained care of a child and 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 (the care is informal)

further information, including the following questions, should be requested 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 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 whilst in the grandparent's, other relative, or non-parent's care?
• Is the reason for the change of care due to work and/or study related reasons?
• Who will be providing financially for the child whilst in the grandparent's, other relative, or non-parent's care?
• Is the child listed on the grandparent's or non-parent's Medicare card?
• Who will be making the major decisions for the child regarding health, education and discipline?

If a grandparent, other relative or non parent carer supplies a Details of your Child's Care Arrangement (FA012) signed by a parent of the child or they advised verbally, additional evidence is required to make a change of care determination.

Any evidence relevant to the decision should be documented and scanned to the record. For grandparent carers, see also Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) (grandparent). For other relatives and non-parent carers (e.g., foster carers), see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a child in foster care.

Note: if the Service Officer requires assistance in determining eligibility where there has been a change of care of a child from the parent to the grandparent or non-parent carer, seek assistance from Local Peer Support (LPS)/Technical Support Line or a Service Support Officer (SSO) using standard escalation protocols.

A mutual customer of Centrelink and Child Support can notify either program of changes to their care arrangements. The program receiving the information will make the care determination and the care information will be transferred to the other program for the assessment of family assistance, income support payments and child support entitlements.

For further information about alignment of care determinations between Child Support and Centrelink mutual customers, see Transfer of information between Centrelink and Child Support.

If the customer is a parent of the child and is not a mutual customer of Centrelink and Child Support or does not have a current child support case, they may need to apply for child support payments.

If there is disagreement over care arrangements, consider whether the customer has legal responsibility for the child. The percentage of actual care for each person will be based on available evidence to support the actual care arrangements.

Integrated Care skilled staff manage all disagreed care cases.

For Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and child support, a dispute in relation to the care of a child exists where:

• a written care arrangement (for example, written agreement, parenting plan or court order) for the child is in place
• there is a departure from the terms of the arrangement by one of the parties, and
• the person with reduced care (compared to the amount in the written care arrangement) is taking reasonable action to have the care arrangement complied with

The dispute may relate to a departure from shared care arrangements between 2 or more people, or to a departure from arrangements for the sole care of a child, where care changes from one person to another in breach of the arrangement. In these cases, there is no disagreement about how much care is actually being provided for the child.

Integrated Care skilled staff manage all disputed care cases.

In most cases, a mandatory attempt to confirm the change of care with the previous carer 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 care arrangements. If the losing carer 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. When a record is created, the children will also need to be linked to the record.

If a change of care has occurred, because 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.

Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012)

If the grandparent, other relative or non-parent carer is providing a co-signed FA012 for an informal change of care, 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.

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.