Where customers are unable to provide a residential address 003-06010080

In line with a zero tolerance approach to harm of children, if a staff member in the course of their duties observes behaviour, which raises concerns about a child or young person's safety, Services Australia sets out specific steps that must be taken. Follow the agency’s Risk Identification and Reporting model when identifying and responding to child safety concerns. See Risk identification and management of threats to the safety or welfare of a child for more information about this model and the agency’s commitment to the safety of children and young people.

Services Australia defines ‘homelessness’ as someone:

• without conventional accommodation (for example, sleeping rough, squatting, living in a car), or
• who lives in, or moves frequently between, temporary accommodation arrangements:
• for example, with friends or extended family, emergency accommodation, youth refuges

Services Australia defines ‘at risk of homelessness’ as someone who:

• lives medium to long term in a boarding house, caravan park or hotel, where accommodation is not covered by a lease
• lives in accommodation which falls below the general community standards which surround health and well-being:
• such as access to personal amenities, security against threat, privacy and autonomy
• is facing eviction
• lives in accommodation not of an appropriate standard:
• which may be detrimental to their physical and mental well-being, and/or
• where they have no sense of belonging or connection
• for example, Indigenous Australians living in crowded conditions and/or disconnected from their land, family/kin, spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices

Note: staff must consider the individual’s own perception about the suitability of their accommodation when applying this definition.

For example:

• Customers who advise of no fixed address but who choose to live in a motor home, caravan or boat for the purposes of travel, are not considered homeless
• Customers may also live in a motor home, caravan or boat as a lifestyle choice
• Customers who have limited choices for their accommodation may live in a motor home, caravan or boat and consider themselves homeless
• See:
• Assessing caravans, boats and park homes
• Rent Assistance (RA) for travellers

Service Officers can help a customer with organising an alternate postal address by suggesting the following options:

• A Post Office (PO) Box
• Local Post Office. Australia Post provides a service whereby customers can receive mail 'care of' their local post office
• 'Care of' a friend or relative. Customers can use an address where the residents will be happy for them to have mail delivered and from which they can collect mail on a regular basis
• 'Care of' a local service provider. Customers may have their mail delivered to the address of local agencies such as youth services or drug and alcohol services. Customers will need to make these arrangements with the relevant agency
• ‘Care of' the correspondence nominee’s postal address - if the customer has a correspondence nominee they can make arrangements with nominee to collect the mail
• Note: if the customer has an involuntary nominee arrangement, the nominee receives a copy of all correspondence sent to the customer. The customer’s copy of the letters can be supressed by updating the nominee arrangement details, see Nominee Organisation
• 'Care of' the social worker or service centre Manager. Such arrangements depend on locally agreed procedures
• If a customer is residing in a family and domestic violence refuge only the postal address, (a PO Box) may be recorded on the customer’s record. In these cases, the ‘home address’ should be coded as "no fixed address" or "confidential". This will not impact the customers’ ability to receive Rent Assistance as rent verification is not required for customers residing in a refuge

Use the Rapid Addressing mode when updating address details. ’Care of’ information must be entered in double quotation marks or round brackets in the Street address: field, and must be followed by the relevant mailing address. See Rapid Addressing for more information.

A Homelessness Indicator should be coded for any customer who discloses homelessness or where one of the alternate contact addresses listed above is recorded.

If the customer has compulsory participation requirements and a Homelessness Indicator is recorded, information about the risk of or ongoing or temporary homelessness will automatically show under the title of Accommodation Arrangements on the Circumstances Impacting Compliance screen.

The circumstance will show as 'Automatically created - yet to assess impact' until a Service Officer is required to assess the impact of this circumstance on compliance. This does not need to be actioned at the time of recording the Homelessness Indicator.

This information will automatically update when changes are made to the Homelessness Indicator.

Electronic Messaging (EM) enables Services Australia to contact customers by SMS or email about things that are important. If appropriate, customers may receive messages instead of letters.

Types of messages include:

• requests and reminders to attend appointments, provide up-to-date information and provide documents
• notification of decisions and payments

The myGov Inbox allows customers to receive their mail as messages online in an easy to use, integrated and secure environment. Customers can receive messages online from participating member services including Centrelink, Child Support, Medicare and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Self service terminals (SSTs) are dedicated portals installed in most Centrelink Service Centres and some Medicare Service Centres, Agents and Access Points. The terminals have been provided to enable customers to self manage their business online, without Service Officer help.