Mutual Customer Identification (MCI) for family assistance 007-13020000

An important aspect of the changes to family assistance from 1 July 2000 was the concept of reconciling a customer's entitlement after the end of each financial year so that customers are paid correctly based on their actual income for that financial year.

Where customers have received FTB instalments or CCS/CCB fee reductions and are lodging a tax return, Centrelink will obtain their actual income details from the ATO to reconcile their payments.

To reconcile amounts of FTB, CCS and CCB paid during a particular financial year, Centrelink is required to establish a link with the ATO. This link is necessary to identify mutual customers of the ATO and Centrelink.

The use of Tax File Numbers is critical in the matching process. Correctly matching customers ensures that correct income details are transferred from the ATO for the customer (and their partner) for reconciliation of their FTB/CCS/CCB.

When ATO has flagged a customer record as a mutual customer they will advise Centrelink of the match and following assessment of the tax return, pass income information to Centrelink for use in the reconciliation process.

The link will be terminated three years after the relevant financial year, unless the customer has an outstanding FTB non-lodger debt. This ensures that Centrelink does not receive income information for a taxation year that it has no legal basis to collect (and protects the privacy of the individual). After the three years, to confirm actual income details customers will need to provide proof directly to Centrelink.

For customers with outstanding FTB non-lodger debts, the link can be extended from the 2000/01 financial year.