Making a decision about a hardship advance or anticipated payment 003-10020000

First instalment

A hardship advance payment is an advance of part of the customer's first instalment of their pension or benefit. It is paid at grant or straight after restoring their payment. It is to help people in severe financial hardship, including those released from prison or psychiatric confinement.

The available amount is the amount after any deduction from the payment, for example Centrepay, tax deductions.

Note: for customers in vulnerable circumstances, see Intent to claim and vulnerable customers.

Eligible payments

Payments eligible for a hardship advance include all social security benefits and social security pensions. This does not include the Home Equity Access Scheme, ABSTUDY, Carer Allowance (CA), Double Orphan Pension (DOP), Mobility Allowance (MOB) and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES). Family Tax Benefit is not an eligible payment for a hardship advance.

If a claim is to be granted or a payment restored and waiting for the due date of the first instalment would cause the customer financial hardship, it is possible to pay some entitlement in advance.

Determining eligibility

It is important to understand how arrears affect entitlement to the hardship advance. The hardship advance should be considered as unavailable when arrears are payable.

For customers released from prison or psychiatric confinement, a hardship advance may be paid in addition to a crisis payment. These payments cannot be paid without verification of the release at the time of the claim, for example a prison or psychiatric release document.

Prisoners due to be released who qualify for Crisis Payment (CrP) are also entitled to an anticipated payment of the first instalment of their social security pension or benefit. This is also known as hardship advance.

This is not at the Service Officer's discretion. It must be offered to all customers.

This applies to customers paid fortnightly.

ABSTUDY customers are not entitled to an anticipated payment.

Customers on weekly payments cannot be paid a hardship advance, anticipated payment or urgent payment in their first instalment period. This would require removing them from weekly payments.

If a customer requests to be placed on weekly payments, they must receive 1 full fortnightly payment. The request for weekly payments needs to be addressed after the hardship payment/anticipated payment is made.

The available amount is the amount after any deduction from the payment, for example Centrepay, tax deductions.

Before customers make an informed decision about whether to take the payment and how much, tell them about:

• recovery arrangements
• the impact on their next payment, and
• other service delivery options

The amount issued as an anticipated payment or hardship advance will be recovered from the first regular payday.

Hardship advances and anticipated payments can be delivered by direct credit (standard processing), or priority direct credit via the New Payments Platform (NPP) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).

Only consider an EBT card when other payment options are not suitable or will place the customer in further hardship. Agents and Access Points cannot issue Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards. Office Locator can be used to search for the location of agency Agents and Access Point sites. Do not refer a customer to these sites to collect a payment.

If a customer has a Managed Service Plan (MSP), this will determine the payment method. Direct credit, NPP or RTGS are the only options if the customer is prohibited from attending a service centre.

A person can complete the Identity Confirmation process at any time, not only when making a claim.

Note: not all claims require Identity Confirmation. See Payments and services that require Identity Confirmation.

The Identity Confirmation process requires completion of linkage and the provision of identity documents. One original document from each of the following categories is required:

• Commencement of Identity (CoI)
• Primary Use in Community (PUiC)
• Secondary Use in Community (SUiC)

In most cases, a different identity document is required for each identity category. For these documents only, it is acceptable to use one document to verify 2 separate categories:

• a Foreign Passport, which can be used as a Foreign Passport and a Visa, and
• an ImmiCard, which can be used as a Visa and an ImmiCard

See Identity documents A to Z.

Make sure the customer record is the correct one by asking authentication questions to verify Proof of Record Ownership (PORO) before assessing or issuing an urgent payment. See Authenticating a Centrelink customer.

If the customer contacts in person, it is preferable the customer also provides identity documents, including one with their photo for a comparison.

If this is not available and the Service Officer is in doubt they are speaking with the customer, they must ask further authentication questions. These must not be limited to details a customer's friends and relatives are aware of, such as the customer's date of birth or how many children are in the family. The questions must be searching, but must not be so personal as to be intrusive. If appropriate, explain to the customer why they are being asked these questions.

If the Service Officer doubts they are speaking to the customer, do not release information. Verbally deny the payment application.