Assessing and coding parental income for ABSTUDY, Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme and Youth Allowance (YA) 108-02010090

Select one of the options below:

Actual income + Read more ...

Estimate + Read more ...

Does the customer receive YA, and their payment is suspended?

• Yes, go to Step 1 in Table 2
• No, go to Step 3

If the update is to:

• code a new or updated estimate of parental income, go to Step 4
• assess a request for an extension of time to provide actual income figures, go to Step 5
• update details of actual income, go to Step 6
• assess a request for a current year income assessment, see Increase or decrease in parental income for Youth Allowance (YA), ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme

To code estimates select below:

Customer First or Customer Record + Read more ...

Process Direct (ABSTUDY and YA) + Read more ...

Before extending the Parental Income Test (PIT) estimate review date, check the parent(s)/guardian(s)' FAO Income for Previous Year (FIPY) screen. If there is verified actual income for the relevant financial year, go to Step 7.

For YA or ABSTUDY Living Allowance:

In Customer First, update the existing NHI entry:

• Review Date: field: the date the parent advises that actual income details will be available. The system will not allow a review date later than 31 August of the year following the base tax year. Note: the Review Date for students must never be set beyond the customer's student end date
• Taxable Income and all other income fields, if a change in estimate is also provided
• Action: field, 'U'pdate
• Accept Change: field, if the system-calculated Event Date for Parental Income is:
• correct, code Yes
• incorrect, contact Local Peer Support to decide if the record needs to be escalated. See Technical Support Model

In Process Direct, edit the existing NHI entry:

• Review Date: field, the date the parent advises that actual income details will be available. The system will not allow a review date later than 31 August of the year following the base tax year. Note: the Review Date for students must never be set beyond the customer's student end date
• Taxable Income and all other income fields, if a change in estimate is also provided
• Select Assess to go to the Entitlement (ELD) screen

When the review date on the NHI screen is reached, a letter is issued requesting verification of the estimated income.

If there is no reply within 21 days, the customer's payment automatically suspends PIE - Failed to verify Parental Income. If the evidence is still not available, an extension may be given to restore the customer's payments.

For ABSTUDY Living Allowance, when the review date on the NHI screen is reached, a Manual Follow Up (MFU) is created with the review reason PIT Estimate Reminder PIT Estimate Review. This MFU is not required and can be cancelled.

Procedure ends here until verification of actual income supplied.

For AIC ABA:

Suitable proof of income must be supplied for payment of ABA.

If the Annual Board Fees amount on the EILA screen:

• Has already been coded $1:
• No further action is required, as the applicant is only eligible for Basic Boarding Allowance
• Has not been updated to $1, code the EILA screen with:
• Living Arrangement Start Date: field, appropriate date to stop future payment of ABA when verification of parental income has not been provided for the relevant tax year
• Annual Boarding Fees: field, as $1
• Action: field, 'I'nsert
• Source: field, as appropriate
• DOR: field, system date
• Finalise the activity via the Assessment Results (AR) screen. This will stop future ABA payments
• Record details in a DOC

Procedure ends here.

Parent/guardian has provided actual income, including where they have previously provided an estimate and has now provided actual income details.

Any parent/guardian who is:

• Required to lodge an Income Tax Return must give Service Australia evidence of their income in order for the parental income to be considered verified. For examples on how verification can be provided, see:
• Documents accepted as evidence of parental income
• Documents required for Centrelink new claims
• Not required to lodge an Income Tax Return, is generally not required to give evidence of parental income
• If a Service Officer is satisfied they have enough evidence to support the parent(s)/guardian(s) income for the relevant tax year, no verification documents is needed
• A non-lodgement advice for the purposes of Family Assistance payments, is not considered sufficient evidence for parental income purposes
• See FAO Income Previous year (FIPY) and Parental Income Test (PIT) processing for Youth Allowance (YA), ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC)

Notice of Assessment (NOA) consideration:

A superannuation withdrawal under the First Home Super Saver (FHSS) Scheme is not included as assessable income for calculating the Parental Income Test.

The treatment of these withdrawals is different between Services Australia and the ATO:

• The ATO will make sure income received by the agency and the data exchange will automatically have amounts released under the FHSS excluded. This will not be the case for an individual's NOA
• For ATO purposes, part of the amount released is considered taxable income. It will be reflected on an individual's NOA as taxable income
• A customer supplying a NOA who has had a superannuation withdrawal under the FHSS will need to advise the amount considered taxable. This can be manually excluded for the agency's purposes

If the parent(s)/guardian(s)' FAO Income for Previous Year (FIPY) screen has been updated with verified actual income, use this information. However, if the parent/guardian contacts:

• and they have any of the following income estimates recorded on their family assistance record
• obtain the actual income information for these income components from the parent/guardian:
• Tax Exempt Foreign income (FEF screen)
• Foreign Income (FFI screen)
• Tax Free Pension/Benefit (FTF screen)
• Deductible Child Maintenance Expenditure (FDM screen)

Go to Step 7.

Update the NHI screen when verification of the parental income is provided, or available via the parent(s)/guardian(s) FIPY screen.

In Customer First:

• Next: field, NHI
• Event Date: field, see Event Date for Parental Income
• Fin Year Ending: field, with the relevant year
• Review Date: field, blank (if previous entry was an estimate, review date must be deleted)
• Estimate: field, 'N' - No
• Taxable Income field, as appropriate
• Source: field, as appropriate
• DOR: field, as the day the information was provided to the agency
• Action: field, 'I'nsert
• Accept Change: field, if the system calculated Event Date is:
• correct, code Yes
• incorrect, contact Local Peer Support to decide if the record needs to be escalated. See Technical Support Model

For AIC: code the Annual Boarding Fees field on the EILA screen with the actual boarding costs for that year

• If an overpayment occurs, go to Step 8
• If arrears occur, go to Step 9
• If no adjustment, go to Step 10

In Process Direct (ABSTUDY and YA):

• Go to the NHI screen
• Event Date: see Event Date for Parental Income
• Fin Year Ending: field, with the relevant year
• Estimate: field, 'N' - No
• Review Date: field, blank (if previous entry was an estimate, review date must be deleted)
• Taxable Income: field, as appropriate
• If an overpayment occurs, go to Step 8
• If arrears occur, go to Step 9
• If no adjustment, go to Step 10

The system will automatically code $1 in the Taxable Income: field on NHI if income of $0 is coded. This is to avoid the payment cancelling PIA (Parental Income and Assets Not Provided) inappropriately.

• Finalise the activity via the:
• Assessment Results (AR) screen in Customer First
• Entitlements (ELD) screen in Process Direct
• Go to Step 8

The system will create an overpayment where:

• a 1 October event date is being applied by the system and the customer has received at least 1 payment after 1 October, or
• actual parental income is greater than the estimate, and
• the Date of Receipt (DOR) is after the Event Date recorded on NHI

The system will create an overpayment from the entitlement period which commenced immediately before:

• 1 October, or
• 1 January

Until the Entitlement Period End Date (EPED) of when the customer was last paid.

Where an overpayment has occurred for a YA customer:

• send the overpayment for investigation 'INV'
• Go to Step 10

For ABSTUDY and AIC customers, see Raising Parental Income Test (PIT) debts.

• Go to Step 10

For YA

If YA payment is current and NHI is being updated with a Date of Receipt (DOR) that is between:

• 1 September and 31 December the system will generate arrears correctly from the DOR if the customer is entitled
• 1 January and 31 August the system will generate arrears from the Event Date recorded on NHI. The customer is only entitled to arrears from the DOR that the actual parental income was provided

If the arrears are not correct Service Officers must determine if:

• the arrears should be zeroed off in full:
• If the DOR is within the same entitlement period as the update being made, then arrears should be zeroed off in full
• a partial adjustment is required:
• If the DOR is in a previous entitlement period and the customer has received at least one payment. They are entitled to arrears from the DOR

Where a manual adjustment is required, Service Officers must complete this using the Rate Details (RATS) screen in Customer First, or the Daily Rate Component (RAC) screen in Process Direct. See How to manually calculate arrears

• In Customer First:
• On the Assessment Results (AR) screen, on the left hand menu select payment type arrears will be paid with
• Select RATS
• Select relevant period on RAC and make any changes to the rate
• Update the Man Adj $ and Man Adj Rsn fields
• Select ADJ as the manual adjustment reason
• In Process Direct:
• Select Assess to go to the Entitlement (ELD) screen
• Adjust the relevant lines under the Daily Rate Component (RAC)
• Scroll down to more options and apply RAC changes before selecting Finish

Where arrears have been incorrectly paid, Service Officers will need to Create a 'Stop Payment'.

For ABSTUDY

ABSTUDY customers are entitled to arrears for any period where:

• their rate of payment has reduced due to a parental income estimate, and
• the actual parental income amount is less than the estimate

Service Officers must check the NHI screen to ensure arrears are paid from the Event Date to the date the customer was last paid.

For AIC

AIC applicants are entitled to arrears for ABA for any periods where:

• the student qualifies for Basic Boarding Allowance
• the income level of the applicant and (if applicable) their partner is at or below the upper limit for the Parental Income Test (PIT), and
• the student's boarding costs exceed the level of Basic Boarding Allowance less $250 for incidentals. See Rates and Thresholds page and search Basic Boarding Allowance for current rates

Go to Step 10.

Once all actions have been taken, finalise the activity via

• Assessment Results (AR) in Customer First
• Entitlement (ELD) screen in Process Direct

Record details in a DOC including any of the following information where appropriate:

• Date of Issue of the parent's Tax Notice of Assessment
• amount and date range of any arrears payable
• amount and date of any arrears manually removed
• amount and date of any overpayments
• cancellation if parental income too high (CAN/PIH)

It is important to record any additional information as per the GIR DOC Minimum Standards.

Service Officers with relevant skills, must select all activities/scans to complete on the customer's record. This will ensure that once all work is completed, that all relevant work items are completed.

If a YA customer's payment is suspended, to restore the payment Service Officers may need to:

• update Household Income and Assessments (NHI) screen, and
• restore the payment in 2 separate activities

Two separate activities are sometimes necessary to prevent arrears being offset by an overpayment that needs to be reviewed by Service Officers trained in Debt Raising.

If the customer:

• is requesting an extension of time to provide actual income, go to Step 5
• has provided evidence of the actual income, or is providing a new income estimate, go to Step 2

Is the new income estimate or actual taxable income higher than the estimate currently recorded on NHI, and Parental Income Free Area (PIFA)?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 6

Update NHI with the income amount provided.

In Customer First:

• Next: field, NHI
• Event Date: field, code appropriate Event Date for Parental Income
• Fin Year Ending: field, with the relevant year
• Review Date: field, blank if income is actual, or an appropriate review date if the income is an estimate
• Estimate: field, 'Y' or 'N' as appropriate
• Taxable Income field, as appropriate
• Source: field, as appropriate
• DOR: field, the date the income amount was provided to the agency
• Action: field, 'U'pdate
• Accept Change: field, if the system calculated Event Date is:
• correct, code Yes
• incorrect, contact Local Peer Support to decide if the record needs to be escalated. See Technical Support Model
• Next: field, Assessment Results (AR)
• If an overpayment is created, Service Officers must send it for Investigation (INV)
• in the Debt Action field, select INV
• Finalise the activity

Go to Step 4.

When the NHI screen has been updated and finalised, in a separate activity go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen

In Customer First:

• Service Reason: field, YAL
• Action: field, restore
• Reason: field, blank
• Effect date: field, will pre-populate from the suspension date
• Source: field, as appropriate
• Receipt date: field, the date the restoration is being completed

Has the system created an arrears payment?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 9

In Customer First:

• Update the existing NHI entry
• Review Date: field, the date the parent advises that actual income details will be available. The system will not allow a review date later than 31 August of the year following the base tax year. Note: the Review Date for students must never be set beyond the customer's student end date
• Taxable Income and all other income fields, if a change in estimate is also provided
• Action: field, 'U'pdate
• Accept Change: field, if the system-calculated Event Date is:
• correct, code Yes
• incorrect, contact Local Peer Support to decide if the record needs to be escalated. See Technical Support Model

In Process Direct

• Edit the existing NHI entry
• Review Date: field, the date the parent advises that actual income details will be available. The system will not allow a review date later than 31 August of the year following the base tax year. Note: the Review Date for students must never be set beyond the customer's student end date
• Taxable Income and all other income fields, if a change in estimate is also provided
• Select Assess to go to the Entitlement (ELD) screen

Once the Review Date field on the NHI screen is updated, the system automatically sends the customer a letter asking for verification of the estimated income.

In the same activity, go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen to restore the payment:

• Service Reason: field, YAL
• Action: field, restore
• Reason: field, leave blank
• Effect date: field, will pre-populate from the suspension date

Go to Step 9.

Update the NHI screen with the:

• Extension
• New estimate
• Actual income, when verification of the parental income is provided, or available via the parent(s)/guardian(s) FIPY screen

In Customer First:

• Next: field, NHI
• Event Date: field, code appropriate event date for Parental Income
• Fin Year Ending: field, with the relevant year
• Review Date: field:
• Leave blank if income is actual
• Delete existing review date, if coding actual income where an estimate was previously recorded
• Enter an appropriate review date if the income is an estimate. Use the date the parent advises that actual income details will be available. The system will not allow a review date later than 31 August of the year following the base tax year. Note: the Review Date for students must never be set beyond the customer's student end date
• Estimate: field, 'Y' or 'N' as appropriate
• Taxable Income field, as appropriate
• Source: field, as appropriate
• DOR: field, as the day the information was provided to the agency
• Action: field, 'U'pdate
• Accept Change: field, if the system calculated Event Date is:
• correct, code Yes
• incorrect, contact Local peer support to decide if the record needs to be escalated. See Technical Support Model

In the same activity, go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen to restore the payment

• Service Reason: field, YAL
• Action: field, restore
• Reason: field, leave blank
• Effect date: field, will pre-populate from the suspension date

If the system has created arrears, go to Step 7.

Otherwise, go to Step 9.

This information is for arrears generated from the PIT reassessment only. To work out a customer's entitlement to other arrears generated see Payment of arrears after reassessment and stopping a payment.

If the arrears from the PIT update have been created from the:

• Suspension date, the customer is entitled to the arrears provided the Date of Receipt (DOR) the actual income has been provided is within 13 weeks of the suspension date
• Event Date recorded on the NHI screen. If the Date of Receipt (DOR) the actual parental income or updated estimate provided is:
• after the suspension date, Zero off any arrears from the NHI Event Date to the day before the date of suspension
• before the suspension date, Zero off the arrears from the NHI Event Date to the day before the DOR of when the estimate or actual parental income was provided

Is a manual adjustment required?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 9

Where a manual adjustment is required, this must be completed via the Rate Details (RATS) screen in Customer First

In Customer First:

• On the Assessment Results (AR) screen, on the left hand menu select payment type arrears will be paid with
• Select RATS
• Select relevant period on RAC and make any changes to the rate
• Update the Man Adj $ and Man Adj Rsn fields
• Select ADJ as the manual adjustment reason

If Service Officers encounter E241NS – Basic rate entered cannot be more than $XXX.XX when adjusting RATS, do not finalise the activity. Service Officers must contact Local Peer Support (LPS) to have the record escalated to a Service Support Officer (SSO). The SSO will need to issue a PYAJ. See, Technical Support Model.

Go to Step 9.

• Send any overpayment created for investigation
• in the Debt Action field, select INV

Once all appropriate actions have been taken, finalise the activity via

• Assessment Results (AR) in Customer First
• Record details in a DOC including any of the following information where appropriate:
• Date of Issue of the parent's Tax Notice of Assessment
• amount and date range of any arrears payable
• amount and date of any arrears manually removed
• amount and date of any overpayments
• cancellation if parental income too high (CAN/PIH)
• It is important to record any additional information as per the GIR DOC Minimum Standards

Service Officers with relevant skills, must select all relevant activities/scans to complete on the customer's record. This will make sure that once all work is completed, that all relevant work items are completed.