Child Care Benefit (CCB) reconciliation or lump sum claim pending 007-11020010

Customer enquires about CCB as reduced fees reconciliation or CCB lump sum claim. The service reason for CCB for approved care is CCF.

To find out why a lump sum claim was paid only at the zero rate, go to Step 6.

Check the CCB reconciliation outcome or CCB lump sum claim benefit status.

Select the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) Reconciliation workflow via Workspace>Families Benefits>FTB and CCB Reconciliation

Key events will provide information for the relevant financial year.

Manually navigate to the FAO Reconciliation and Lump Sum Claim Summary (FRCS) screen by entering FRCS in the Next: field to view more detailed reconciliation information, if required.

Is the CCF reconciliation or lump sum claim pending?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, to find out the CCB reconciliation outcome. See Customer enquires about CCB and/or Child Care Rebate (CCR) reconciliation or lump sum claim outcome. Procedure ends here

To view the reconciliation or lump sum claim pending reasons:

• 'S'elect CCF reconciliation pending or CCF lump sum pending line from FAO Reconciliation and Claim Summary (FRCS) screen and press [Enter]
• The Reconciliation and Lump Sum Pending (LRPC) screen displays actual income details that are expected and whether or not they have been received. For CCB lump sum claims it also displays the immunisation status for each child
• The Pending reason: field displays the reason

Note: where more than one pending reason applies it is displayed according to a hierarchy.

• For CCF reconciliation, go to Step 3
• For a CCF lump sum claim, go to Step 4

If the pending reason displayed for CCF reconciliation is:

• Income: actual income details are required for the customer. Go to Step 7
• Timing: this will only appear before the 4^th Monday in July of the lodgement year as processing cannot occur before this date. Procedure ends here
• Wait Actual Income: if actual income is received for one member of a couple, a delay of up to 4 days occurs in case the other member of the couple's actual income details become available. Go to Step 9

Procedure ends here.

It is not possible for a CCB lump sum claim to be pending income. If a customer elects to be income tested and actual income is not available, the zero rate will be applied. When actual income details are received from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), an automatic lump sum recalculation will occur. For zero rate reasons, go to Step 6.

If the pending reason for CCB lump sum claim is:

• Immunisation Unknown: all details are available but claim is awaiting the child’s immunisation status to be received from the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR). Go to Step 5, other information may also be needed
• Wait Actual Income: if actual income is received for one member of a couple, a delay of up to 4 days occurs in case the other member of the couple's actual income details become available. Go to Step 9
• Timing: this will only appear before the 4th Monday in July of the lodgement year as processing cannot occur before this date. Procedure ends here

All children aged under 20 are required to meet immunisation requirements at the time their CCB claim is determined. If a child has not been previously linked with the AIR, the customer is required to provide the child’s Medicare details as part of the lump sum claim/new claim for CCF.

Check that Medicare numbers are recorded for each child on the Medicare Number (MEI) screen.

Check the immunisation status for each child is displayed on the Child Immunisation Summary.

Advise the customer lump sum claim will be finalised once immunisation details are received electronically from the AIR. Note: check if other information is required (for example, actual income details) - if required, go to Step 7.

Record details of contact with customer on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

CCB reconciliation can occur for the following customers without actual income. This allows Child Care Rebate (CCR) to be paid sooner for:

• Customers who elected zero rate only and who are not eligible for a top up payment (zero rate was in force for entire year)
• Customers who have not received a fee reduction during the CCB year, including customers assessed as zero rate for the entire year due to:
• Non-compliant Tax File Number (TFN)
• Zero rate with entitlement at the end of the financial year
• Estimate was not acceptable
• Failure to provide an estimate

If only ex-partner actual income details are needed, partial reconciliation can occur. See Previous partners and Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) reconciliation.

A CCB lump sum claim can be assessed at any time using an estimate for an ex-partner. However, if actual income details are needed for the customer or current partner, CCB will only be paid at the zero rate until these are available.

View income tax return lodgement status by typing 'L' next to the line on the FRCS screen to go to the FAO Non Lodger Details (FNLD) screen.

Some records awaiting actual income may reconcile or re-reconcile during forced reconciliation in November of the lodgement year. See Step 10 for clarification.

• If the customer states the tax return has been lodged and the Notice of Assessment received, see Non-lodger and late lodger process for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation
• If the customer advises they, their partner or ex-partner are not required to lodge a tax return according to Australian Taxation Office (ATO) rules, see Non-lodger and late lodger process for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation
• To update the customer's estimate, see Updating previous financial year incomes for Family Tax Benefit (FTB), Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Child Care Benefit (CCB). Record details of contact with customer on a DOC
• To check tax file number details for a lump sum claim, go to Step 8

Otherwise, procedure ends here.

If all details from AIR have been received, the lump sum will have been assessed at the zero rate if:

• Either the customer, current partner or ex-partner are not Tax File Number compliant for CCB, (compliance of a partner only affects periods the customer was linked to that partner), or
• Either the customer or current partner have not matched during mutual customer identification processing. Matching of an ex-partner does not need to be successful. See Mutual Customer Identification (MCI) results for family assistance customer mismatches
• Claimed Zero % rate?: field is 'Y' on the Child Care Benefit (CCB) lump sum claim (CLSC) screen. If customer wants to claim a higher rate

Check that TFNs have been recorded. Ask customer to provide a TFN for themselves and either a TFN or TFN exemption reason for partner(s).

Note: an ex-partner's TFN or exemption must be recorded on the ex-partner's record.

Record details on a DOC and finalise activity on Assessment Results (AR) screen. If all other information is available, the system will attempt to finalise the lump sum claim and a warning to this effect will appear when navigating to the AR screen.

If actual income is received for one member of a couple and reconciliation or lump sum claim would complete using adequate income (not actual) details for the other member of the couple, a delay of up to four days occurs in case their actual income details become available.

This avoids the possibility of an amount being paid and then a debt calculated when the other member of the couple's actual income details are received.

The end date for the Wait Actual Income (WAI) review period can be checked on the FAO Income for Previous Year (FIPY) screen.

If actual income details for the other member of the couple are:

• Received within the review period, the review is deleted and reconciliation/ lump sum claim completes using actual income details for the customer and their partner
• Not received in this period, the reconciliation/ lump sum claim completes using the most recent adequate income details

If the result is to be sent to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), any debt offsetting by Services Australia applies first.

CCB and CCR top-ups are only used to recover CCB and CCR reconciliation debts. See Debt offsetting during family assistance reassessment, reconciliation and claim processing.

Services Australia will issue the relevant reconciliation top-up or lump sum claim amount and a letter to advise the result.

During bulk reconciliation, a review will be created to attempt reconciliation or re-reconciliation in November of the lodgement year if certain conditions are met (forced reconciliation). This can include records which are pending, and which have been reconciled at a zero rate. The reviews can be viewed on the Future Activity List (FAL) screen.

A review will be created in the following circumstances.

Low income review

The customer's or partner's estimated taxable income is equal to or less than the tax free threshold and there is no non-lodger exemption recorded on the FAO Non-Lodger Exemption (FNLE) screen.

300 days income support payment

The customer or their partner received income support payments for more than 300 days in the financial year. From the 2009-10 financial year, these reviews will not apply if the person:

• was not in receipt of an income support payment for the entire financial year, and
• is a paying or receiving parent under a child support assessment