Transferring debts from customers to child care services pre 2 July 2018 007-18110804

Customer contacts Services Australia.

CCMS team have investigated and found the recipient has a debt raised for CCB/CCR due to cancelled attendance and the child never attended care.

In these cases, the customer cannot follow up with the service. Action for the Services Australia CCMS Support team is as follows:

• code #CFMI for every affected year with the below notes:
  “Cancelled/Amended data to be corrected by Department of Education”
• provide the advice to the Department of Education via an email (as per current protocol)

Include the following information:

Please be advised that a debt has been raised against a family due to cancelled attendance data for care that never occurred. In the referral, provide the following:

• Customer/Child Name and CRNs
• CCB and/or CCR debt amount raised against the customer’s account that should be a service debt
• Amounts raised against the customer that is he customer’s debt i.e. CCR DTC
• Explanation of why the debt has been raised
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• Code CFMI for the applicable years as the Department of Education will attempt to once information has been confirmed code the adjustments to offset the debts. Please add notes on the CFMI screen of the following:
  “Cancelled/Amended data to be corrected by Department of Education”

Wait for the Department of Education’s response BEFORE coding any adjustments in the customer record via CRMA/FRMA as debt adjustments are not required in all circumstances. The Department of Education’s adjustment (CPOFRS see Item 2) may ripple over correctly in the started activity therefore no adjustments required.

Place a DOC on the customers record to advise information is being followed up by the Department of Education. Await further advice from Education.

The Department of Education will export the attendance data to determine the funds that were paid to the service for the cancelled attendance data. This may include amounts of Child Care Benefit (CCB) and/or Child Care Rebate (CCR).They will also check if the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag is ticked on the service’s CCB approval record.

• If yes:
• check if there are any payments pending to the service. If yes, change the status of the payments to ‘Ready for Release’ to prevent them from being processed
• check if there are any attendances pending (submitted or processing). If yes, check if these are likely to generate a payment to the service. If pending attendances/payments are located untick and re-tick the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag before the payment run is completed for the day.
  Note: this is not likely to be a common scenario so will be further explored if required
• If no, untick the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag

The Department of Education will then:

• create a Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) entitlement transaction to raise an automatic debt against the service in the FOFMS
• issue a debt notice to the service
• provide confirmation to Services Australia via email once the debt invoice is raised/sent. The email confirmation will include the following:
• Client/Child Name and CRNs
• Debt amount raised (include export of debt in a spreadsheet format)
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• Date the invoice was sent

CCMS staff to check:

• for a started MIV activity with the updated Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) adjustments coded by Department of Education.
• to ensure the Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) has adjusted the customer's account appropriately. As the attendance data is at a ‘Cancelled’ status Services Australia will be required to manually adjust the customer's account in line with the CPOFR

If these are not applying correctly on the customer's record the CCMS staff will manually adjust the result to obtain the correct outcome.

Reply to the email from the Department of Education to advise either:

• that manual adjustments were required (FRMA/CRMA) to finalise the record and the record is now reading correctly or
• that the CPOFR attendance data adjustments have been received and the record is now reading correctly

Create a DOC on the customers record using the appropriate option below:

Option 1

Customer contacted to advise attendance data received for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: <insert Services name here>

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed due and there is no ability to change the attendance data.

A decision has been made that the debt belongs to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The following amounts have been adjusted by the Department of Education via a CPOFR and are to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC

Option 2

Customer contacted to advise attendance data received for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: ABC Family Day Care<insert Services name here>

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed due and there is no ability to change the attendance data. A decision has been made that the debt belongs to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The following amounts have been adjusted by FRMA/CRMA (in line with the CPOFR completed by Department of Education) and are to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC

Notes:

• In any case where a customer has received CCB/CCR directly, this will be recovered from the customer by Services Australia
• The amount adjusted from the customer’s account must correctly reflect the amount to be recovered from the service. If there are discrepancies, it must be determined if these relate to other payments/subsidies or overpayments for legitimate child care
• In cases where a service has not cancelled all attendances for a particular period in which an customer claims care did not occur, the Department of Education will assess if the proceeding process will need to be followed, or if it is reasonable to cancel the remaining data
• In the event that the parent contacts the Department of Education directly, they will liaise with Services Australia and the Department of Education Compliance team of the process

Customer contacts and advises they have received a reconciliation debt but the child/children never attended the centre.

Services Australia CCMS team will:

• provide advice to Department of Education via email that a debt has been raised against an customer due to attendance data submitted for care that never occurred. In the referral, Services Australia CCMS team to provide as much information as possible including:
• Client/Child Name and CRNs
• CCB and/or CCR debt amount raised against an customer's account
• Details as to why the debt has been raised. E.g. Data submitted for care that never occurred, customers eligibility was backdated to ‘ineligible’, income related.
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• code #CFMI for every affected year with, with the following text 'Data to be corrected by Department of Education'
• place a DOC on the customers record to advise information is being followed up by Department of Education. Await further advice from Department of Education

The Department of Education will:

• export the attendance data to determine the funds that were paid to the service for the processed attendance data. This may include amounts of CCB and/or CCR
• assess if there is probable reason to believe that care never occurred (Services Australia's assessment may help inform this decision). Some questions/FOFMS system checks could include:
• Was the parent using another child care centre?
• Has the parent been receiving CCR for an extended period without notifying the agency?
• Did the parent ever provide their CRN details to the service?
• How old are the children?
• What care arrangements were in place if child care was not provided by an approved service?

If required the Department of Education will request Services Australia contact the customer and ask them to provide documentary evidence to support their claim (a template will be provided), and including (but not limited to):

• statutory declaration from customer including an explanation of arrangements at the time and underlying circumstance
• answers to any questions posed

Any required documentary evidence received will forward back to Department of Education once completed via email.

Once satisfied that care did not occur, the Department of Education will check if the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag and ‘Suspend New Attendance’ flags are ticked on the service’s CCB approval record.

• If yes:
• check if there are any payments pending to the service. If yes, change the status of the payments to ‘Ready for Release’ to prevent them from being processed
• check if there are any attendances pending (submitted or processing). If yes, check if these are likely to generate a payment to the service. If pending attendances/payments are located untick and re-tick the ‘Suspend Payment’ and ‘Suspend New Attendance’ flags before the attendance and payment runs are completed for the day.
  Note: this is not likely to be a common scenario so will be further explored if required.
• If no:
• untick the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag
• untick the ‘Suspend New Attendance’ flag

The Department of Education will:

• create a Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) entitlement transaction to raise an automatic debt against the service in the FOFMS system and then cancel the attendance data
• issue a debt notice to the service
• provide confirmation to Services Australia once the debt invoice is raised/sent. The email confirmation will include the following:
• Client/Child Name and CRNs
• Debt amount raised (include export of debt in a spreadsheet format)
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• Date the invoice was sent

Check to ensure the Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) adjustment has corrected the customer’s account appropriately.

There should be a ‘started MIV activity’ as CFMI was coded.

If these are not applying correctly on the customer’s record use FRMA/CRMA to obtain the correct result.

Services Australia then reply to the email from Department of Education to advise either that:

• manual adjustments were required (FRMA/CRMA – in line with CPOFR) to finalise the record and the record is now reading correctly or
• the CPOFR attendance data adjustments have been received and the record is now reading correctly

Create a DOC on the customers record as using the appropriate option below.

Option 1

Customer contacted to advise attendance data received for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: [enter service name]

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed and there is no ability to change the attendance data.

A decision has been made that the debt is a debt to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The data has been cancelled and the following amounts have been adjusted by the Department of Education via a CPOFR to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC

Option 2

Customer contacted to advise attendance data received for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: [enter service name]

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed and there is no ability to change the attendance data.

A decision has been made that the debt is a debt to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The following amounts have been adjusted by FRMA/CRMA (in line with CPOFR completed by Department of Education) and are to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC

Services provide advice to Department of Education via email that a debt has been raised against an customer due to attendance data cancelled, however the recipient has advised that the child did attend care for all or part of the period. In the referral, provide the following:

• Client/Child Name and CRNs
• CCB and/or CCR debt amount raised against the customer’s account
• Explanation of why the debt has been raised
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• Evidence from the customer showing proof of attendance
• Code CFMI for the applicable years as Department of Education will attempt to once information has been confirmed code the adjustments to offset the debts. Please add notes on the CFMI screen of the following:
  'Cancelled/Amended data to be corrected by Department of Education'

Place a DOC on the customer's record to advise information is being followed up by Department of Education. Await further advice from.

The Department of Education will:

• export the attendance data to determine the funds that were paid to the service for the cancelled attendance data. This may include amounts of CCB and/or CCR.
• assess if there is probable reason to believe that care did occur. Some questions/FOFMS system checks could include:
• Was the parent using another child care centre?
• How old are the children?

request (if required) Services Australia to contact the customer to provide documentary evidence to support their claim (a template will be provided), including (but not limited to):

• statutory declaration from customer including an explanation of arrangements at the time and underlying circumstance
• proof of fee charges/statement of account
• answers to any questions posed

Once satisfied that care did occur, the Department of Education will complete the following checks (in chronological order):

Check if the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag is ticked on the service’s CCB approval record.

• If yes:
• check if there are any payments pending to the service. If yes, change the status of the payments to ‘Ready for Release’ to prevent them from being processed
• check if there are any attendances pending (submitted or processing). If yes, check if these are likely to generate a payment to the service. If pending attendances/payments are located you will need to untick and re-tick the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag before the payment run is completed for the day. Note: this is not likely to be a common scenario so will be further explored if required
• If no, untick the ‘Suspend Payment’ flag

Department of Education will:

• create a Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) entitlement transaction to raise an automatic debt against the service in the FOFMS system
• issue a debt notice to the service
• provide confirmation to Services Australia once the debt invoice is raised/sent. The email confirmation will include the following:
• Client/Child Name and CRNs
• Debt amount raised (include export of debt in a spreadsheet format)
• Service Name
• Week ending period the debt relates to
• Date the invoice was sent

Services Australia check to ensure the resubmission of attendance data/ Cannot Pass On Fee Reduction (CPOFR) has adjusted the customer’s account appropriately.

There should be a ‘started MIV activity’ as CFMI was coded

If these are not applying correctly on the customer’s Services Australia record please use FRMA/CRMA to obtain the correct result.

Services Australia then reply to the email from the Department of Education to advise either:

• that manual adjustments were required (FRMA/CRMA - in line with CPOFR) to finalise the record and the record is now reading correctly, or
• that the CPOFR attendance data adjustments have been received and the record is now reading correctly

DOC the customers record using the appropriate option below:

Option 1

Customer contacted to advise attendance data cancelled for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: [enter service name]

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed and there is no ability to change the attendance data.

A decision has been made that the debt is a debt to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The following amounts have been adjusted by the Department of Education via a CPOFR and are to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC

Option 2

Customer contacted to advise attendance data cancelled for xx/xx financial year from the following service is incorrect:

Service: [enter service name]

Department of Education have confirmed that the service is closed and there is no ability to change the attendance data.

A decision has been made that the debt is a debt to the service under S71CA and/or S71CB of the FA Admin Act. The following amounts have been adjusted by FRMA/CRMA (in like with CPOFR completed by Department of Education) and are to be raised against the service:

[enter financial year] CCB -$[enter amount] CCR -$[enter amount]/debt is correct as this was paid DTC