Claiming Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) 065-06010000

A person may qualify for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card on the day they submit or lodge a claim if they:

• have reached Age Pension age, and
• meet Australian residence, and
• not in receipt of a precluding Centrelink/DVA payment (see the Resources page for a link to Services Australia website for Income support payments and DVA payments), and
• provide a Tax File Number (TFN) or been granted an exemption from supplying a TFN, and
• meet identity confirmation requirements, and
• meet income test requirements. See the Resources for link to Services Australia website for Income test for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

For details about payments and services available, see:

• Initial contact by a customer who has retired or is about to retire
• Initial contact by customers claiming Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)

If a customer or their correspondence nominee contacts to claim Commonwealth Seniors Health Card:

Online claim

Service Officers should offer the customer or their correspondence nominee an online claim first. Explain the benefits of claiming online, such as:

• help with applying for the right entitlement through streaming questions and early warnings to establish eligibility
• less information for them to provide, as details from their Centrelink record will be pre-populated into the online claim
• monitoring the progress of their claim through their Centrelink online account, myGov or Express Plus Centrelink mobile apps

Assisted customer claims

If the customer or their correspondence nominee declines the online claim offer, Service Officers can use Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) to collect the required claim information . This can be done over the phone or face-to-face. To submit a claim, they must:

• Answer all mandatory questions
• Provide all required documents
• Verify their identity if there is no Identify Confirmation (ICI) recorded
• Accept a verbal declaration

Exceptions apply for some vulnerable customers.

If a customer/nominee declines to make a verbal declaration, invite the customer/nominee to log on to their online services, accept the declaration and submit their claim. If the customer/nominee fails to submit their claim, the claim will expire after 13 weeks.

Paper claim forms

If the customer or their correspondence nominee is unable or unwilling to claim online or through ACC, run the First Contact Service Offer (FCSO) workflow. This will send out a pre-populated SA443 Claim for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. If both members of a couple want to claim a CSHC, run FCSO for both members of the couple.

Alternatively, customers or their correspondence nominees can download and complete theSA296 Claim for Commonwealth Seniors Health Card from the Services Australia website. See the Resources page for a link. Note: the SA296 claim form, can be used to claim for both customer and partner if eligible.

If the customer's CSHC has been cancelled for:

• less than 13 weeks (with the exception of cancelled due to income). The customer may be able to have their CSHC restored
• less than 26 weeks the customer can complete a re-claim or a full new claim
• more than 26 weeks will need to have a full new claim. See the Process page for information on how to assist a person to claim a CSHC

For previous CSHC claimants who were SHC-NOI (non-income tested) see Non-income tested (NOI) Concession cards for more information.

A change in a customer's circumstance may include, but not limited to their relationship status, income, address or telephone number. If a customer reclaim includes any changes see Changes in a customer's circumstances and effect on concession card entitlement.

Portability cancellation

Customers may be able to re-claim verbally to have their CSHC restored if all of the below conditions are met:

• the CSHC cancels due to a temporary departure overseas
• they have returned to Australia and contact within 13 weeks of the cancellation
• they have previously provided income details from their TNA for either of the previous 2 years, or they are ‘not required to lodge’ an income tax return, and
• any account based income streams owned, have been coded on the SUPS (Pensions /Annuities) screen