Creating, updating and ending Parental Income Test (PIT) links with dependent student, Australian Apprentice and job seeker recipients or claimants 108-02010100

This document outlines information relating to the linking of records of parents and guardians deemed to be a parent for the purposes of the Parental Income Test (PIT) for dependent recipients or claimants of:

ABSTUDY
Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme
Tertiary Access Payment (TAP)
Youth Allowance (YA)

This is commonly known as PIT Linking.

Automatic transfer information

Linking parents and guardians to the ABSTUDY, AIC, TAP and YA dependent child allows recorded information relevant to the Parental Income Test (PIT) to be automatically transferred between records.

Advantages of automatic transfer

Advantages include:

the family needs only notify Services Australia once of changes to their circumstances for the changes to be updated on the agency's records for all family members
records of the dependent recipient (and those students where the parent is also a recipient) will contain up-to-date information, ensuring they are receiving their correct entitlement
a reduction in the number of debts incurred, for example, in cases where the PIT exemption ceases automatically after notification of changes

Change in circumstances which may affect the PIT

Changes in circumstances, which may affect the PIT include:

a parent becomes an income support recipient
a parent ceases to receive an income support payment
a recipient (or student) loses or gains a parent on whose income the PIT is applied
a substantial increase or decrease in parental income
changes to the family pool

Updating recipient or claimant records

Service Officers can update records to:

create links with any parents, or persons deemed to be a parent for the PIT, if a link has not been created, or
cease links when a parent, or persons deemed to be a parent for the PIT, leaves the family situation and is no longer regarded as a parent for the PIT

ABSTUDY recipients placed in state care (including supported accommodation, hostels, or boarding schools) and who do not have a parent or carer, will require a PIT link to be made to the organisation. To create the link, a dummy person record is required for the organisation.

A dependent YA recipient may have an Indigenous student in their care who meets the eligibility criteria for Schooling A Award (ABT).

Requirement for CRNs

It is a requirement that all parents and dependent siblings are linked on the ABSTUDY or YA customer's record. In some cases a parent may not have received family assistance, a Social Security pension or benefit, or a child record was archived due to not being in use for a significant period of time.

It is important to conduct a thorough search to locate the correct customer record before updating the customer's details, or to confirm that no record exists before adding a new record for the customer.

See Searching for a customer on the system.

The requirement of a CRN is due to:

the data matching of parent income details with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
changes to the parents and siblings statuses, if they are or have been in receipt of a Low Income Health Care Card, pension or benefit from Services Australia, to determine the rate of payment for YA or ABSTUDY

Parent CRNs are a compulsory component of the coding of dependent ABSTUDY and YA new claims.