Re-reconciliation of Child Care Benefit (CCB) 007-11020020

Re-reconciliation of CCB will automatically occur if:

• the customer has received CCB as reduced fees for approved care during the relevant financial year or the customer has claimed CCB as a lump sum, and
• CCB reconciliation has been finalised for the customer after the end of the relevant financial year, and
• information for the relevant financial year is updated. For example:
• Actual adjusted taxable income details are transferred from the ATO. See Item 3
• New or corrected child care details are received. See Item 4. Note: when attendance is amended, the system waits three days before re-reconciliation occurs
• Other details are updated. See Item 5
• the system recalculates the customer's CCB and Child Care Rebate (CCR) entitlements using the new information and compares this with the result of the most recent reconciliation. CCB and/or CCR results will either be a top-up, overpayment or nil adjustment

Separated customers: Different reconciliation processing applies where the customer had an ex-partner during the relevant financial year.

CCB reconciliation letters (top-up, nil adjustment or overpayment) include total amounts of ‘Child Care Benefit paid as reduced fees’ and ‘Child Care Benefit entitlement’ including any weeks the work/training/study test or an exception applied was met or not. However CCR reconciliation letters only include weeks for which the work/training/study test (or an exception applied) was met.

For example: Customer was paid Child Care Fees of $500 and received $100 CCB, however they did not meet the work/training/study test or have an exception for a period where $100 was the Child Care Fees and $20 CCB entitlement.

The CCR Reconciliation letter will advise the Child Care Fees were $400 and the CCB was $80 (that is, excluding the amount for the periods they did not meet the work/training/study test or have an exception).

For time limits and date of effect of formal review of decisions, see Customer initiated review of decision.

Revised actual income can be transferred by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) at any time to trigger re-reconciliation. This depends on whether the link established through Mutual Customer Identification still exists with the ATO. The link with ATO is ended after three years, for example after 30 June 2009 for 2005-06 unless the customer has an outstanding FTB non-lodger debt for the financial year.

If the link no longer exists, the customer would need to provide the revised Notice of Assessment to Services Australia within 13 weeks of the date of the notice. See Mutual Customer Identification (MCI) process for family assistance customers.

Updates to child care attendance details can no longer be reported by an approved child care service.

Re-reconciliation of CCB will occur automatically if:

• CCB reconciliation was finalised using estimated income for the customer or their partner and actual income details are later received from the ATO for the person
• the ATO amends a Notice of Assessment and transfers corrected actual income for the customer, current partner or ex-partner to the agency. ATO link ended: If actual income details are required for a year for which the link has ended, the customer will need to provide their Notice of Assessment and tax return (if available). See Mutual Customer Identification (MCI) process for family assistance customers

Interim reconciliation occurs for a separated customer (where the previous result was based on partial reconciliation).

A change in income details, Tax File Number (TFN) details or income support entitlement will only trigger re-reconciliation if the customer has claimed more than the zero/minimum.

For more information on when a customer wishes to revise estimated income for a previous financial year, see Item 5.

Re-reconciliation of CCB will occur automatically if child care attendance details are updated for weeks included in reconciliation:

Child care attendance was expected to be reported weekly by the service to the Department of Social Services via the Child Care Management system (CCMS) and then these details were transferred electronically to Services Australia.

Processing rules apply to attendance when it is cancelled after reconciliation is finalised. The system waits three days to allow time for new attendance information to be received before re-reconciliation is attempted. This prevents multiple re-reconciliations when attendance is amended by child care services. This process is managed using review processing (an activity will be displayed on the Future Activity List (FAL) screen). If a second cancellation is received, the review maturity date is advanced to the cancellation receipt date + three days.

Any child care attendance submitted after reconciliation has occurred (if the customer is entitled to any further CCB entitlement) is then paid directly to the customer and not the service.

Note: attendance details can only now be applied or changed on a customer record by the Programme Legacy team.

Customers registered for online services can use the 'View Child Care Details option' to view attendance details reported by their child care services.

Use the Workspace>Family Assistance>View Child Care Attendance menu option to view a child's attendance details.

If any of the details below are updated by a Service Officer, retrospectively for a period covering CCB, CCB re-reconciliation will be triggered:

• revised estimated adjusted taxable income is recorded (for example, non-lodger update) for the customer, current partner or ex-partner
• TFN details are recorded for the customer, current partner or ex-partner
• customer is recorded as deceased. Re-reconciliation will result in an overpayment for any CCB entitlement previously calculated for the period from the Monday following the date of death
• child is recorded as deceased. Re-reconciliation will include all child care attendance recorded for the child and any fee reduction that applied after the child's death, or
• income support payment is retrospectively granted for the customer, current partner or ex-partner. A top up will be calculated for the difference between the maximum CCB rate and the income tested rate for the period from Monday of the week of the grant and the earlier of the first Sunday on or after 30 June or the Sunday following cancellation of the income support payment
• income support payment is retrospectively cancelled for the customer, current partner or an ex-partner (for reasons other than compensation - 'CMP'). CCB will be income tested from the Monday following the date of effect of the cancellation and an overpayment may result. For reason 'CMP', the customer is still entitled to CCB as if income support payment was not cancelled
• immunisation details are updated
• child in Child Care Details updated
• child in customer care details (child entered or left customer's care). At reconciliation, the system uses child care details reported in the customer's name to determine eligibility rather than child in customer care details
• school child status
• eligible hours limit on the Child Care Work Training Study (CWTS) screen

This list does not include all updates that may trigger re-reconciliation. It is important to note that although re-reconciliation is triggered, the result may not change.

Re-reconciliation is an automatic process.

The result of re-reconciliation can be:

• a top-up amount. After any debt offsetting, any remaining top-up amount is issued to the customer
• a debt
• nil adjustment

An automatic letter is issued to the customer to advise the result, unless there is nil adjustment.

Child Care Rebate (CCR) is recalculated when CCB re-reconciliation occurs. This may result in extra CCR being paid or a CCR overpayment.

Any previous CCF reconciliation overpayment for the same relevant financial year will be included in the re-reconciliation calculation. Depending on the result of the re-reconciliation, the original debt in DMIS will be either finalised or adjusted to the new debt amount.

Note: CCR will not recalculate for financial years prior to 2006-07 as CCR was paid through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

For more details, see CCB reconciliation and lump sum claim calculation screens.

Go to the Workspac e> Families Benefits > FTB and CCB Reconciliation Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) Reconciliation workflow. 'Key events' will provide information for the relevant financial year.

For reconciliation for 2010-11 and prior years, select Workspace > Family Assistance > Reconciliation > Child Care Benefit Reconciliation to June 2011

. Go to the FAO Reconciliation and Claim Summary (FRCS) screen (from within a reassessment activity, code 'V' next to the relevant line on the Assessment Results (AR) screen and press [Enter]).

• 'S'elect the latest CCF Re-reco Finalised line to display the latest CCF Calculation Result (FACR) screen
• From the FRCS screen, code 'V' against the CCF re-reconciliation finalised line to display any manual intervention reasons relevant to the activity. See Manual intervention into family assistance reconciliation
• On the FACR screen, the Calculation Result is: field shows the overall result of re-reconciliation. Each calculation period will show the CCB $ entitlement calculated at the previous reconciliation compared to the re-reconciliation result
• From the FACR screen, a calculation period may be selected to view assessment details
• From the FACR screen, code 'R' next to a calculation period to display the CCB Reconciliation Type Assessment (CRTA) screen
• If the initial reconciliation result was an overpayment, the amount will be added back in at re-reconciliation. The re-reconciliation will display an automatic adjustment line which will include a negative amount to reflect the overpayment that was added back into the calculation. Depending on the result of the re-reconciliation, the original debt in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) will be either finalised or adjusted to the new debt amount