New claim for Crisis Payment after customer released from prison or psychiatric confinement 003-07030030

To qualify for CrP-PRI a person must:

• meet the basic eligibility criteria for CrP
• claim, either:
• within 7 days after being released from prison or psychiatric confinement
• up to 21 days before their expected release date
• be in Australia when claiming the payment
• have been in prison or psychiatric confinement for 14 or more days
• have been charged with committing an offence

Note: if the date of release was more than 7 days ago, the customer may still qualify if they did either of the following within 7 days of release from prison or psychiatric confinement:

• make contact about a CrP-PRI, or
• seek a payment or concession card

Customers can claim CrP-PRI using the following channels:

• Online claim in Centrelink Online Services through myGov, and selecting:
• Make a claim
• Crisis Payments
• Apply for Crisis Payment for Release from Prison or Psychiatric Confinement
• Assisted Customer Claim (ACC)
• Paper claim for Crisis Payment - Release from Prison or Psychiatric Confinement (SU508)
• Request for restoration of Disability Support Pension or Age Pension Claim for Crisis Payment and Anticipated Payment (SU695)

Customers released from prison who had payments suspended may be eligible to have their payment restored.

For more details about restoring specific payments, see Restoration of payments (CLK).

Disability Support Pension (DSP)

Customers may have their DSP suspended due to imprisonment (SUS-IMP) for up to 2 years. There is no need for a new claim in these cases. DSP may be restored from date of release.

Parenting Payment

Parenting Payment Partnered (PPP) cannot be suspended for imprisonment. The customer will have to make a new claim.

Customers may have their Parenting Payment Single (PPS) restored from the date of release if they:

• meet all other eligibility for PPS from the release date, and
• contact within 13 weeks of the date of notice to suspend

See Cancellation, suspension and rejection codes for Parenting Payment (PP).

PPS customers will generally not have a dependent child in care while in custody. PPS may be restored upon the customer's release from prison if:

• the customer has the child with them in custody, and
• the child remains with them when released

If the customer is not eligible for PPS to be restored, assess their eligibility for JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) before their release from prison.

ABSTUDY Living Allowance

Customers may have their ABSTUDY Living Allowance suspended for up to 15 weeks.

In some cases, customers will have discharge documents from the facility where they were detained. These documents can be used to confirm their admission and release dates.

Staff can use these documents, unless they are illegible or if there is some doubt about their validity. For more information on assessing prison release evidence, see Centrelink service standards and procedures for pre-release and post-release prison customers.

For more information on determining admission and release dates, see Confirming prison admission and release dates.

For CrP-PRI, the 14 day detention period starts the day after the customer entered custody:

• 'Day 0' for the CrP-PRI count (the day they enter custody) is not included in the count of 14 days
• ‘Day 1’ for the CrP-PRI count starts from the next calendar day

The day the customer is released from prison is not included in the count of 14 days

See Resources for examples.

Note: 'in custody' means customers are either confined, while under sentence because they have been convicted of, or are pending trial for, an offence. A person is in custody if they are in prison, including in:

• psychiatric institutions
• remand centres
• police cells/watch houses
• youth training centres
• community correctional centres

Because of the urgent nature of CrP-PRI claims, the preferred payment method is Priority Direct Credit (PDC).

Only one CrP-PRI can be paid for the same circumstance. For example, if a customer is paid CrP-PRI under the Social Security Act 1991, and then becomes an ABSTUDY customer, they cannot claim CrP-PRI under ABSTUDY policy for the same circumstance.

If a customer has an MSP in place, see Managed Service Plan (MSP) - Customer service delivered through a One Main Contact (OMC).

It is important to follow the correct servicing arrangements for MSPs as per Operational Blueprint instructions when assessing CrP-EXV claims to make sure of consistent servicing.

If a customer has not requested an explanation or applied for a formal review for a decision, Service Officers should consider any new information being supplied to determine if the claim outcome can be reassessed and will result in a favourable decision.

See Reviewing and reassessing Crisis Payment (CrP).

If a customer indicates they do not agree with a decision, check if they want and explanation or a formal review. If a customer applies for an explanation or a formal review, record the request.

CrP-PRI is not payable if the customer is released from prison later than originally scheduled.

Reassess the original grant decision if both of the following apply:

• the customer has been paid CrP-PRI before release from custody, and
• the release date is revised to a date after the original scheduled release date

The customer must make another claim for the revised date of release.

See Reviewing and reassessing Crisis Payment (CrP).

See Resources for an example.

CrP-PRI customers paid in the last 14 days can pause their debt repayments for up to 3 months using either:

• self-service, using Money you owe
• the Express Plus app

To consider if a temporary exclusion from debt recovery is needed, see Temporary write off Centrelink debt.