Family Tax Benefit (FTB) automatic letters 007-07120010

A child status 'on' letter is produced when:

• a child becomes eligible for a benefit after previously being ineligible, or
• an eligible child becomes eligible for a different reason

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

No letter is produced if the child was stillborn. A manual letter activity is set up for these cases.

A child status 'off' for letter is produced when:

• a child is or becomes ineligible to attract payments (this occurs when a claim for a child is rejected or when a current payment for a child is cancelled), or
• an ineligible child is made ineligible for another reason

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

No letter is produced if the child was stillborn, or has been recorded as deceased. A manual letter is set up for these cases.

A child exclusion exists when a child has been restricted to being eligible for the base rate of FTB Part A only for one of the following reasons:

• NMA - Maintenance Action not taken
• SAV - CDA/DOP Savings provision
• O06 - Overseas 6 weeks (for pre-1 July 2016 departures)

A child exclusion letter is produced when one of the above exclusions is first applied to a child, or a different exclusion is applied if one existed previously.

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

An initial Maintenance Action Requirement Notification letter is automatically produced if the customer or their current partner has a requirement to take reasonable action to obtain child support for a child in their care and it is within a 91 day Deciding Maintenance Action (DMA) period.

The letter will be sent at the finalisation of a new claim or at the completion of a circumstance change activity. See Maintenance Action Test (MAT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers.

A reminder 'Maintenance Action Requirement Notification letter' will be sent to the customer 21 days after the initial letter was sent if:

• it is within the DMA period
• no Child Support assessment data has been received, and
• the initial letter was sent on or before day 63 of the DMA period

Each letter advises the customer of the action required and the effect of the FTB rate if they do not take action.

The initial or reminder letter will not be produced if the customer is within a 28 day child bereavement period. A new Manual Follow-up (MFU) (I013MN) will be created. Manual contact with the customer will be required as the customer will not receive an automated letter about their maintenance action requirements.

Due to the sensitive nature of the customer's circumstances, the Service Officer must contact the customer as part of this MFU. For details, see Completing Child Support Manual Follow-ups (MFU).

If a customer or their partner is in receipt of maintenance income for a child, the income may have an effect on the rate of FTB payable.

A letter is produced when the Maintenance Income Test has resulted in the customer being entitled to FTB Part A at the base rate.

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

Multiple Birth Allowance (MBA) is a component of FTB and paid to customers who have a multiple birth of triplets or more. The allowance is payable until the children turn six years of age. For MBA rates, see the Multiple Birth Allowance (MBA) - Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A (pf) link on the Rates and thresholds page.

Letters are produced when MBA is granted or cancelled.

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

Customers who care for a foster child are entitled to receive a Health Care Card for their foster children, if the child's family was in receipt of a Health Care Card. A letter is produced when:

• the customer is granted FTB for their foster child, or
• the customer's FTB is reassessed to include payment for a foster child

If one or more of the following occur on a customer's record, a rate change letter is produced:

• the regular gross rate of one or more payment components changes
• the rate of an advance repayment changes
• there is no Consumer Price Index (CPI) activity covered by the letter

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

Any excess income recorded for FTB is not taken into account when calculating the rate of FTB Part A and the maximum rate is paid if a customer and/or their partner are recorded as:

• a current pensioner or allowee
• a current or suspended beneficiary, or
• a current Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) pensioner

A letter is sent to the customer when:

• FTB is granted and one of the above situations applies, or
• The customer's income status changes
• A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity

FTB Part A customers can elect to receive a lump sum advance payment. Advances are issued on 1 January and 1 July each year. If the lump sum advance is rejected for one of the following automatic reasons, an advance rejection letter will be sent to the customer:

• FNF - FTB(A) not twice FTB advance rate. For the FTB advance rate, see the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Advance link on the Rates and thresholds page
• FNE - Ineligible FTB(A) at start of period
• FAP - Lump Sum Advance already paid
• FSP - Person had debt at advance request day
• FAC - Lump Sum Advance rejected as customer had a debt at conversion from FAM to FAO

When an advance is requested and approved, a separate letter is not produced. The customer is advised of their lump sum advance payment amount and repayment amount as a component in the 'Payment Details' section of a letter.

When a customer's payment (including SIFS only claims) is reassessed due to end of year processing, a letter will be produced.

A claim is classed as non-effective when one of the following applies:

• Claim not appropriate
• Claim not complete
• Requested supporting documentation not provided
• Tax File Number not provided
• Claim already made
• Instalment entitlement exists
• Prior cancellation to be reviewed
• Outside allowable timeframe
• Bank account not nominated
• Tax Instalment Deductions declared
• Claimant has withdrawn claim
• Did not lodge Tax Return

A letter is produced when a claim has been rejected for one of the above reasons.

Centrelink will be responsible for issuing a reconciliation result letter when:

• The reconciliation result cannot be included on the Notice of Assessment
• The customer's record is reconciled using estimated income only
• The customer's record is re-reconciled as a result of an amended Notice of Assessment
• The customer's record is reconciled as a result of an ex-partner lodging
• The customer initiates a re-reconciliation

When a reconciliation result cannot be printed on the Notice of Assessment issued by the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink will automatically advise the customer of the outcome in the following three circumstances:

• Reconciliation credits. The letter code CRA is used for the standard reconciliation letter
• The customer's FTB is reconciled or a reconciliation credit is used to offset a debt. Letter codes CRA, CRB
• A Nil adjustment. Letter code NRA. This letter will only be issued where a customer's FTB is reconciled using an estimate for either the customer or partner. The letter is issued to ensure that customers for whom actual income details are not required are advised that estimated income has been used to reconcile their payments and that they can have that amended if it is incorrect

Customers will not be advised of a nil adjustment if only actual income was used in the initial reconciliation. However, if a customer initiates a re-reconciliation which results in a nil adjustment, they will be advised.

Reconciliation overpayments

Customers whose reconciliation results in a debt will be advised of the debt on an overpayment advice.

For details of the message text included within various reconciliation letters, see the Resources page.

An automatic letter can be previewed by using the online print preview function before finalising an activity.

Letters created in the previous 28 days can be viewed and reissued from the History Summary (HS) screen.

Older letters can be retrieved through the Advice History (AH) screen in the Customer Archive Retrieval (CAR) system.

Letters are limited to one page where possible, but may take up to two pages depending on the events that have triggered the production of the letter. For statement style letters, a maximum of 20 events can be printed in the text portion of letters. If more than 20 events have occurred on a customer's record in the one day, a clean skin letter will be produced.

Clean skin letters only contain the minimum amount of information - that is information about the current payment a customer is receiving.

A single letter is produced for any combination of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Double Orphan Pension (DOP) payments. Separate letters are issued to customers who also receive Child Care Subsidy (CCS). These letters are viewable on the Customer Letters page in Process Direct, by entering HS in the SuperKey field.

If a customer is granted any combination of the following payments, a customer status 'on' letter is produced:

• Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A and Part B including past period claims
• Double Orphan Pension (DOP)

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

A customer status 'off' letter is produced when:

• a benefit is cancelled, or
• a benefit is rejected, and
• a clean skin letter has not been requested, or
• the letter production has not been inhibited during an activity

A manual letter activity is produced if the cancellation or rejection reason is 'Other' or 'Death'.

A customer exclusion exists when a customer has been forced to receive the base rate of FTB Part A for one of the following reasons:

• AUA - Data collection form not returned
• AUR - Data collection form returned, not processed
• CLR - Customer request
• CPP - Customer receives precluding payment
• EXI - Excess income
• KID - No kids at more than the base rate
• MIT - Maintenance income
• O06 - Overseas for 6 weeks (for pre-1 July 2016 departures)
• OIS - Off income support
• OTH - Other
• CRP - Child related payment
• SAV - CDA/DOP Savings provision in place
• SPP - Partner receives precluding payment
• TBR - Tapered base rate

An FTB customer exclusion letter is produced when one of the above exclusions is first applied to a customer's record, or a different exclusion has been applied if one existed previously.

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

If a customer has at least one child attracting more than the base rate of FTB Part A, Rent Assistance (RA) is paid via the FAO system.

A letter is sent when:

• the amount of RA changes, or
• RA is rejected or cancelled for one of the following reasons:
• BAS - More than the base rate of FTB Part A is not paid
• NRP - Customer no longer pays rent
• HOM - Customer is an ineligible homeowner
• GOV - Customer commences to pay government rent
• NCH - Number of RA children is nil
• RTP - Rent drops below single rent threshold
• BLS,BLP - Board of lodgings drop below threshold
• NVE - Rent is not verified
• LNK,ULK - Linking and Unlinking of customer

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter was requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

A letter is sent when withholdings start, vary or stop.

A letter will not be sent if a clean skin letter has been requested, or if letter production was inhibited during the activity.

Whenever a customer's payday is changed a letter is issued advising of:

• immediate payment (if applicable)
• regular payment amount
• payment to and from dates and the date payment is due

Customers and their partners must advise Services Australia of their Tax File Number (TFN) when they are applying for payment of FTB.

A letter is automatically sent to the customer if they have not complied with TFN requirements.