Rejecting a Parenting Payment (PP) claim 106-07130220

Risks to a customer's privacy have been identified. See Separating Safely - protecting personal details to make sure the customer's personal details are safe before progressing.

This document outlines the process of rejecting a claim for PP.

Income support payment eligibility

To be eligible for PP, a person must be both qualified and payable.

If a customer does not meet qualification and payability, the claim may be rejected.

Claim withdrawal

Customers (or their nominee) can withdraw a claim:

through their Centrelink online account
verbally or
in writing

If a customer or nominee requests a claim to be withdrawn, the status of the claim is to be updated to withdrawn.

Where the customer's claim has already been granted it cannot be withdrawn. See Cancellation of Parenting Payment.

Manual and automatic rejections

Some rejections are coded manually and some are automatic because of details coded within the claim. An automatic rejection is the preferred option. This will make it easier if a customer phones Services Australia, or asks for a review.

Rejection due to residence

A customer whose claim is rejected for a residence related reason may have the claim rejected based on:

details the customer has provided, or
details received from the Department of Home Affairs including visa, citizenship and movement information

Note: Information received from the Department of Home Affairs will take precedence over any conflicting details given by the customer.

Rejection due to assets

A customer with substantial assets could be in financial hardship, because they may be unable to rearrange their finances to give themselves an income through their assets. For more details, see Assessment of assets hardship.

Recording unverified circumstances

If a customer advised of a change in their circumstances but does not verify the change:

do not include the details in the rejected claim
include the details in the rejection document that customer advised but did not verify

For streamline rejections, any changes to circumstances that may impact a customer’s and/or partner’s current payments or benefits must be updated within the streamline rejection process.

Customer notification

If a claim is rejected, an advice is sent to the customer outlining the rejection reason(s) and including their rights of review and appeal.

Deceased customers

Under some circumstances, claims lodged after the death of a customer would also be assessed.

Operational Information