Immediate payment by payment method New Payments Platform (NPP) 003-18092746

The New Payments Platform (NPP) is a priority direct credit payment infrastructure that can deliver payments in real time, 24 hours a day, every day of the year including weekends and public holidays. The system will always default to NPP where the account is NPP reachable.

The NPP should be used to issue the following payments within the ISIS system when the customer requires the payment immediately:

• immediate payments
• Crisis Payments
• emergency payments:
• Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP)
• Disaster Recovery Payment for New Zealand Special Category (subclass 444) visa holders (NZ DRP) - previously known as ex-gratia Disaster Recovery Payment (ex-gratia DRP)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance for New Zealand Special Category (subclass 444) visa holders (NZ DRA) - previously known as ex-gratia Disaster Recovery Allowance (ex-gratia DRA)
• Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP)
• one-off Income Management payments:
• Restricted Direct Payments (RDP)
• Unrestricted Cash Payments (UCPs)

Farm Household Allowance (FHA) and Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) are within the SAP system, and cannot be delivered via the NPP. These should be issued via Real Time Gross Settlement.

When issuing these immediate payments, consider the most appropriate payment method for the customer.

The expectation is to pay the customer into their bank account by either direct credit, or priority direct credit (NPP or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)).

Issuing an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards can only be considered if these options are not suitable. EBT cards cannot be used to deliver payments to customers who do not have a bank account.

A customer's account must be enabled for NPP by their bank or financial institution ('NPP reachable'). The system will automatically check if the customer's BSB is NPP reachable. If so, the option to pay via NPP will be displayed for staff to select. If the request is via self service channels, and the customer has selected the priority direct credit option, it will pay via NPP where possible.

If an account is NPP reachable, but the payment fails to deliver, it will automatically re-issue via RTGS if available, or via direct credit.

NPP and RTGS should only be used where the customer previously had a regular payment issued to the payment destination (except for Crisis Payment and AGDRP). Customers will not be able to use the self service channels if they have changed their payment destination prior to requesting the urgent payment and have not yet received a regular payment into this account.

Customers receiving Farm Household Allowance or Status Resolution Support Services can only be paid an urgent payment via Direct Credit or RTGS.

When a payment is granted, it will generally be delivered in 1 or 2 business days depending on the payment type.

For customers granted an immediate payment, staff can reissue some or all of the payment via the New Payments Platform (NPP) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), depending on the customer's financial institution's capabilities, or via an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card.

Both the original and immediate payments will display on the Payment Summary (PS) screen for staff and on the View Payments History for customers via Centrelink Online Accounts. These payments will display by most recent delivery date.

The original payment will show the full Gross amount, with the Net amount reduced by the immediate payment amount delivered via NPP.

The immediate payment will display under the original payment, and can be identified by 'NPP' under the 'Type' column.

Ensure the customer record accessed is the correct one by asking authentication questions to verify Proof of Record Ownership (PORO) prior to assessing or issuing, an immediate payment. See Authenticating a Centrelink customer for a detailed process.

Urgent Payments or Hardship Advances paid via the NPP will have an expanded payment description delivered with the payment:

• You have received an Immediate Payment from Centrelink. You can see how this will affect your future payment/s by signing in to myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink app to access your online account

This can be viewed on the customer's mobile banking app or online banking, and is in addition to the standard remittance advice they see on their bank statement. It is up to the customer's bank if and where the description is viewable, and how it is displayed.