Updating address details 102-03010010

Before starting the address update, check the customer and/or partner's record and gather information about any other change in circumstances.

For example, a customer advising of a new address may have become separated or partnered, may have sold or purchased a home or have other changes in circumstances that can affect their rate of payment and in some circumstances their eligibility for a payment.

Staff MUST use Customer First to complete address updates unless the address update is one of the following:

• Failed Online Updates: When an online Address, Accommodation and Contact Details (AAC) update cannot finalise automatically, this creates an Address & Accom - Update (ZCOC_SAARA_FAILEDUPD) work item. When this happens, the work item allocates to staff for manual processing, see Address, Accommodation and Contact Details (AAC) failed updates
• New Claims: If a customer provides new contact details in their claim
• If the claim will be finalised and there is no need to request information, staff may update the address details within the claim.
• If a Request for Information needs to be sent the update needs to be completed in Customer First outside of the claim activity. This will prevent any requests for additional information being sent to an incorrect address. Refer to Indexing, re-indexing, and cancelling claim activities to cancel the claim activity and then update the address details provided in the claim in Customer First

Note: If the above does not apply, due to system replication issues staff MUST complete address updates in Customer First only.

If the change in address is due to:

• Failed myGov updates: When a customer updates their address details via myGov Profile through ‘Tell us Once’ and the details do not finalise, or if you have been allocated a work item MyGov General Address (ZIAM_ADHOM_GEN), see Table 8 > Using myGov accounts
• Separation -a customer advising of a separation, staff must help them at first contact. Do not tell them to update via online services. Go to Step 2
• C/O AUTO CTAT address on a customer’s record, go to Step 3
• a job seeker notifying the employment service provider of the change, go to Step 4
• Overseas customers – if the customer is living overseas and paid to an overseas bank account, go to Step 5
• allocation of a Future Address - Sharer Details DOC, go to Step 6
• a Youth Allowance (YA), ABSTUDY, Disability Support Pension (DSP), Disability Support Pension Blind (DSB) or Age Pension Blind (AGB) customer, go to Step 7
• Corrections – if the customer’s address needs update or correction, go to Step 11
• Postal Address – if a postal address update only, go to Step 17
• Homelessness or risk of homelessness - customers experiencing or at risk of homelessness or the customer does not have a fixed address, see Where customers are unable to provide a residential address. If the customer does not meet the definition of Homelessness continue to Step 8
• Note: staff must consider the individual’s own perception about the suitability of their accommodation when applying this definition.
• For example:
• Customers who advise of no fixed address but who choose to live in a motor home, caravan or boat for the purposes of travel, are not considered homeless
• Customers may also live in a motor home, caravan or boat as a lifestyle choice
• Customers who have limited choices for their accommodation may live in a motor home, caravan or boat and consider themselves homeless
• See:
• Assessing caravans, boats and park homes
• Rent Assistance (RA) for travellers
• Temporary Accommodation - the customer advising they have moved into temporary accommodation, go to Table 2
• any other change, go to Step 8

If the customer contacts and advises a change of address due to relationship status changing from partnered to single, staff must:

• not ask customers to update their address details via online services
• take appropriate action to keep the customer's personal information safe from the other person by completing the unlinking tasks or adding relationship qualifier codes applicable to the customer's circumstances, before updating any personal details refer to the following processes:
• Family and domestic violence
• Separating safely – protecting personal details
• Change in relationship status from partnered to single

Where a customer is at risk of FDV, take care when updating addresses to ensure updates do not flow to the previous partner’s record. If a customer indicates they are at risk of FDV and are concerned for their safety, their relationship status can be updated immediately. Verification must then be provided within 14 days.

Change in relationship status from partnered to single contains further information. Consult the procedure at every interaction.

A C/O AUTO CTAT address is applied to a customer’s record when a child (CHI) record is promoted to a person (PER) record:

• during an automated process, or
• when staff convert a child to person record and no confirmed current contact details are available (for example, within a new claim or scanned document)

If a customer contacts and they have a C/O AUTO CTAT address on record, tell them the address is temporary, and it is only applied to their record until their actual address details are confirmed.

Staff must update the customer’s address at this contact.

See Troubleshooting Centrelink self-service for more details when a customer is unable to complete their online claim because of a placeholder C/O AUTO CTAT address.

Select from the below options:

A WLM staff activity with error code E245ZC generates when failed online updates for personal and interpreter details occurs during the Child to Adult Transfer (CTAT) process and creates a Change of Circumstances Interaction.

This issue is due to staff not updating a C/O AUTO CTAT address when issuing a myGov linking code.

To process the failed activity, complete the following in Customer First:

• Go to the Activity List (AL) screen and use the CLI/CDC (CLI/Customer Details) activity where available
• Go to the Address Summary (ADS) screen and overwrite the address line of C/O AUTO CTAT to C/O (C/O AUTO CTAT). The date of event (DOV) should remain as the CTAT date unless the customer started living at the new address after the CTAT process
• Go to the Other Contact Detail (OCD) screen and confirm the details the customer tried to update in the online claim Personal Details flow. To find these details, in Customer First:
• go to the Online Interaction Summary screen
• select the personal details (interpreter) online CoC interaction
• view the Notes tab
• Finalise the updates and confirm CLI/CDC activity on AL is complete
• Use the Staff Feedback Tool to provide feedback on the incorrect process followed when the linking code was issued to the customer
• Procedure ends here

• update their address and tell them they can now complete and submit their online claim
• use the Staff Feedback Tool to provide feedback on the incorrect process followed when the linking code was issued to the customer

See Table 4 for more information.

Do not undertake any MALEP assessments. The Department of Social Services (DSS) have paused all Moving to an Area of Lower Employment Prospects (MALEP) assessments.

If a job seeker has given their Employment Services Provider their new address details, the Employment Service Provider will tell the job seeker they must contact Services Australia to update the home address.

When the job seeker contacts Services Australia, staff must:

• confirm the home address details
• access the relevant Customer First Action Issue
• check the Online Diary for scheduled appointments. If appointments need to be rescheduled due to the change of address, update the Online Diary
• select the Change in Contact Details hyperlink

Note: the home address will only be updated on the job seeker's record, not their partner's.

Determine if there are any potential impacts on eligibility, mutual obligation requirements and/or ongoing entitlement. For more details, see Job seeker change of address. This may include the consideration of Moving to an Area of Lower Employment Prospects (MALEP) employment related exclusion period.

Tell the customer these updates can be made online.

Go to Step 8.

Check if a customer is paid to an overseas bank account.

Go to the Payment Destination Overseas (PAPO) screen:

• check if there is a Display on Access (DOA) DOC advising of address requirements relating to overseas payments, and
• check the ‘Country Specific factor’ section in Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for the country the customer is being paid to

Note: the customer may be residing in one country but being paid in another. For example: customer resides in Hungary, but their Australian payment is being paid to a bank account in Germany.

If the country the customer is being paid by requires the home address to be recorded in a specific way:

• see Table 5 > Step 11
• otherwise go to Step 8

Where an address change is advised within an early claim for YA, system limitations may prevent these updates being made at the time the claim is processed. Under these circumstances, a Future Address - Sharer Details DOC is created for allocation via workload manager to process the address update at the time the change will occur.

Service Officers allocated a Future Address - Sharer Details work item must action these updates in Customer First:

• go to the Document List (DL) screen to review the Future address - Sharer details DOC sharer information
• check the record to see if the customer has told the agency about any change to their accommodation circumstances since their claim lodgement
• contact the customer to confirm the sharer details are still correct, before updating the record

Was contact with the customer successful?

• Yes, update the address as advised by the customer, see Table 4
• No:
• update the address with the details contained on the DOC
• ensure the DOC is complete
• see Table 4 > Step 4

Based on the information provided by the customer about their change of address, a review of the rate of their payment may be needed.

While the customer is receiving the dependent or at home rate, RA will not pay. Specific action is needed when updating address and accommodation details for customers receiving:

• DSP under 21 years
• ABSTUDY under 22 years, or
• YA

If a customer is receiving DSP (blind) or Age Pension (blind) and is no longer claiming RA or commences claiming RA, a change to the PDI screen may be required.

For staff untrained in ABSTUDY processing who are actioning an update for a secondary boarder:

• send an ABSTUDY Boarder Action Request to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team
• use Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Boarder ACTION Request > Confirm
• make sure all relevant details listed above are included

If the customer meets any of the above and the Service Officer:

• is trained to action the review, function as per the relevant procedure and then go to Step 8:
• YA student or jobseeker independence
• YA away from home rate
• DSP
• ABSTUDY Away from Home rate
• ABSTUDY independence
• Income and assets tests for blind customers
• is not trained to action the allocated work item, adjust the capability of the work item. See Table 2 > Step 12 in Completing the Accommodation Details (AC) screen and assessing Rent Assistance (RA). Procedure ends here
• is not trained to action the review and the customer is advising the address/accommodation change via phone, transfer the customer to relevant payment queue. Procedure ends here

A customer may have one or more Centrepay deductions going to Centrepay businesses to pay rent and/or utilities for their existing address:

• Check the Payment Instruction Summary (PINS) screen for any active Centrepay deductions that may be impacted by the change of address
• Tell the customer of the potential for overpayment to Centrepay businesses if they do not cancel existing deductions relating to their previous address

If a customer requests to update their Centrepay deductions with their address update over the phone or in person in a service centre:

• Process the request using either the Centrepay Guided Procedure or Centrepay workflow
• Cancel the active Centrepay deductions for rent and/or utilities for their previous address from the date the customer moves to prevent any overpayment to the Centrepay business/es
• If unable to cancel deductions immediately add an end date or target amount

For more information on Centrepay deductions, see Starting, changing and cancelling a Centrepay deduction at the request of a customer.

A customer may have one or more deductions to pay government rent to their state housing authority (HA) through the RDS.

Check the Payment Instruction Summary (PINS) screen for any active RDS deductions that may be impacted by the change of address (for example, a rent deduction type of RNT, LON, ARR, OHP or OHO).

Does the customer have a current RDS deduction?

• Yes, and they are moving within the same state:
• Encourage the customer to contact the relevant housing authority to discuss their circumstances before cancelling their deduction
• If the customer insists, they want their RDS deduction ended, cancel the deduction. See Terminating a Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS) deduction
• Yes, and they are moving interstate:
• the RNT RDS deduction will automatically cancel
• advise to contact their HA and make other arrangements if they still need to make rent payments to avoid falling into rental arrears

If the customer has other RDS deduction types, advise them that these will continue. Cancel if requested by the customer. See Terminating a Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS) deduction.

• No, go to Step 10

When updating a customer's address, staff must check and update the following:

• all current addresses, including postal address
• telephone details, including mobile phone numbers

Encourage customers to update a change of address using their online account or Express Plus App if capable of self-management. See Accessing and using Centrelink self-service. Note: if the customer declines to update via self-service channels, staff must update the customer’s address details for them.

Note: where a customer advises they are separating, do not refer the customer to update their address online. See Separating safely - protecting personal details to make sure personal information is kept safe.

Is the customer able and willing to make these updates online?

• Yes, see Checking, locking and unlocking Centrelink self-service access and Update address, accommodation or contact details online for more details. Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 11

Note: due to system limitations, complete address updates in Customer First only.

• If only the Date of Event, or the Date of Event and address details need correction, go to Step 12
• If the address details only need correction (for example, misspelt or wrong street type), go to Step 13
• For all other changes of address, go to Step 14

In Customer First, access the Address Summary (ADS) screen.

• Select the appropriate line, then select 'Continue'
• Update the Is RA being claimed on this address: field to 'Yes' or 'No' depending on whether the customer is claiming Rent Assistance (RA). If rent is or was being paid, see Completing the Accommodation Details (AC) screen and assessing Rent Assistance (RA)
• Correct the date of event and address details if necessary
• Complete Source: and Receipt Date: fields
• Select Continue until the activity is placed on the Activity List (AL) screen
• Select the activity from the AL screen and finalise

Note: if the customer is claiming RA, update the Accommodation Details (AC) screen. Customers only in receipt of a LIC, CSHC or CCS, cannot access RA. These customer's rent details (that is, the AC screen) do not need to be coded.

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

• In Customer First, run the Change in Contact Details workflow or access the Address Summary (ADS) screen in Customer First
• Select the appropriate line, then select Continue
• Select 'No' as the response to the question 'Is RA being claimed on this Address?'
• Overstrike/correct the incorrect address details
• use Rapid Addressing Mode
• Complete Source: and DOR: fields
• Select Continue
• Finalise the change, see Table 6

If only updating a postal address, go to Step 17.

If the address change is not just for a postal address, go to Step 15.

The Centrelink computer system divides Australia into a series of geographically based environments. When a customer changes their address from one environment to another, their computer file record must also be transferred.

Staff can check if an environment transfer is required by checking the environment of the customers closest Service Centre in Office Locator.

Where the customer is moving to a different environment, update the address details before starting the transfer.

Go to Step 16.

Is the change of address to an aged care home or retirement village?

• Yes, and the change is to:
• an aged care home, including where a customer is current on JSP, go to Change of address to an aged care home
• a retirement village, see Retirement villages before coding the change of address. To code the change of address, see Table 2
• No, see Table 2

If the change in address is due to separation, see

• Family and domestic violence
• Separating safely - protecting personal details
• Change in relationship status from partnered to single

If the customer needs to change the postal address only, see Table 7.

Service Officers must discuss whether the change of address is temporary or permanent.

An address could be considered temporary if the customer:

• is going into respite care
• intends to return to their current principal home
• has sold their principal home and will be using the proceeds to build, renovate or buy another
• is living temporarily in 'refuge type' accommodation; that is, a refuge, crisis or emergency accommodation which is short term and not more than 3 months
• other reasons - to provide care to another person, to attend training or education, to enable a child to attend school, because the principal home is uninhabitable
• is living away from home for study. This should be coded as a term (TER) address

A customer whose address is only temporary may be incorrectly profiled for Income Management (IM) or enhanced IM if:

• the address type is recorded as HOM or TER, and
• the location is within a declared IM area or enhanced IM location

Is the change of address temporary or permanent?

• if temporary and the customer is a homeowner, see Temporary vacation of principal home. Procedure ends here
• if temporary and the customer is a non-homeowner, go to Step 2
• if permanent and the customer is a homeowner, see Permanent vacation of principal home. Procedure ends here
• if permanent and the customer is a non-homeowner, see Table 4

Is the customer going into respite care?

• Yes:
• See Temporary change of address to an aged care home for respite care
• For carers/care receivers, see Temporary cessation of care (respite) and hospitalisation (CLK)
• Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 3

Is the customer a carer or care receiver?

• Yes, see Change of circumstances or absences for carer and/or care receiver. Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 4

Is the customer partnered?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, see Table 4

Will the customer be living apart from their partner temporarily?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, see Table 4

Is the customer receiving a payment eligible for Rent Assistance (RA) and the temporary accommodation reason will entitle them to receive RA?

• Yes, see Table 3 > Step 1
• No, see Table 3 > Step 2

• On the Marital Status (MS) screen code the relationship qualifier. See Customer is separated from their partner – temporarily or due to respite care
• On the Address Details (AD) screen, code 'Y' in the Is RA being claimed on this address: field

This will allow everyone’s RA to be paid, if applicable. See Temporary accommodation and Rent Assistance (RA).

See Table 4.

• On the Marital Status (MS) screen code the relationship qualifier. See Customer is separated from their partner – temporarily or due to respite care
• On the Address Details (AD) screen code 'N' in the Is RA being claimed on this address: field

See Temporary accommodation and Rent Assistance (RA).

Staff MUST use Customer First to complete address updates unless the address update is one of the following:

• Failed Online Updates: When an online Address, Accommodation and Contact Details (AAC) update cannot finalise automatically, this creates an Address & Accom - Update (ZCOC_SAARA_FAILEDUPD) work item. When this happens, the work item allocates to staff for manual processing, see Address, Accommodation and Contact Details (AAC) failed updates
• New Claims: If a customer provides new contact details in their claim
• If the claim will be finalised and there is no need to request information, staff may update the address details within the claim.
• If a Request for Information needs to be sent the update needs to be completed in Customer First outside of the claim activity. This will prevent any requests for additional information being sent to an incorrect address. Refer to Indexing, re-indexing, and cancelling claim activities to cancel the claim activity and then update the address details provided in the claim in Customer

Note: If the above does not apply, due to system replication issues staff MUST complete address updates in Customer First only.

Before updating the address, consider the following:

Check the current Marital Status (MS) and if it has changed.

Has the MS screen been updated with a relationship qualifier or should a previously coded qualifier be ended before coding Accommodation Details (AC) screen?

This must be done if a customer is:

• Partnered and separating temporarily (that is, going into temporary accommodation)
• Partnered and separating permanently (that is, relationship has broken down)
  Note: where a customer advises they are separating, see Separating safely - protecting personal details to make sure personal information is kept safe

Where a customer indicates that their partner is not moving with them, this is considered a family and domestic violence interaction point. See Family and domestic violence.

Check if the customer is currently assessed as Separated Under One Roof (SUOR)

• Assessed as SUOR and is no longer sharing with their former partner. The 'SUR' qualifier code must be ended on the MS screen. See Member of a Couple (MoC) and Separated under one roof (SUOR) assessments for how to end the 'SUR' qualifier code
• Homeless Indicator: see homelessness indicator
• Staff must record a homeless indicator if the customer no longer has a home address, or their accommodation is temporary or unstable
• If the customer already has a homelessness indicator on their record, review and update the homelessness indicator to reflect the change in circumstances
• Before updating a customer's residential address to no fixed address, the customer must have an alternate postal address. See Where customers are unable to provide a residential address
• Future address updates
• can be made to a customer’s record if the change is occurring within the next 14 days, and they are not a sharer
• Tell the customer mail cannot be sent to the new address until the future date has been reached. For example, if a Rent Certificate is issued, it will be sent to their current address, with the future address details included for verification
• Tell the customer they can provide an alternative mailing address to ensure their information is kept secure
• Temporary (TEM) address:
• TEM addresses require an expected end date to be coded
• TEM end date would not be more than 3 months in the future, if it is required to be coded for than 3 months – staff must record the details in a DOC
• When coding TEM addresses for customers, staff must tell them that if they do not supply a further update before the TEM address end date, mail may be sent to their previous address
• Term (TER) addresses:
• are where students are living away from home to study and these addresses are expected to have an end date that aligns with their study end date
• Postal Addresses and end dating:
• When updating the address, check if there is a current postal address as this may need to be end dated if no longer required
• Note: use yesterday's date as the end date to ensure outgoing mail is sent to the correct address. If there is a new future postal address, mail may be sent to the customers home (HOM) address
• Remote Area Allowance:
• If the customer is moving to a remote area, assess entitlement to Remote Area Allowance (RAA)
• Prison release customers
• to correctly receive surface mail to their new address, the postal address on record must be end dated the day before any pre-release claims are processed or payments are restored
• Nominees
• If the customer acts as a nominee for another person, update their nominee details
• Do not change the customer's address (for example, postal address) to that of the nominee's, unless the customer and the nominee reside at the same address
• If it is a court appointed arrangement and the nominee does not want the customer to receive their correspondence, suppress the customer's copy without changing the postal address
• Centrepay deductions for rent/utilities
• If the customer has an existing deduction to a Centrepay business for an expense for their previous address such as rent and/or utilities.
• Tell them of the importance to cancel these deductions and they can use self-service to manage the cancellation of their Centrepay deduction. Service Officers can code the cancellation or change, see Starting, changing and cancelling a Centrepay deduction at the request of a customer
• RDS deductions for government rent
• encourage customers to contact their state housing authority before cancelling their RDS deduction. See Terminating a Rent deduction Scheme (RDS) deduction for more information
• If the customer is the applicant for an ABSTUDY student (for example, for Schooling A payments)
• staff must update their address details on that customer's record as well
• Care should be taken when updating an address for customers living in an Indigenous community. See Assessing independence for ABSTUDY customers
• An ABSTUDY student who is independent or on the away from home rate and returning to the parental home, see Returning to the permanent home when in receipt of the Away from Home rate of ABSTUDY

Note: if the customer is in receipt of ABSTUDY as a secondary school student with living away from home entitlements, do not code any change of circumstances on the customer's file. For the correct hand off process, see Cessation of the ABSTUDY Away from Home rate. Procedure ends here for these customers.

Is the address update due to allocation of an ABSTUDY Boarder action request DOC?

• Yes, see Table 1 > Step 8 in Payment of Remote Area Allowance (RAA) when term address changes, before continuing with this procedure
• No, go to Step 2

Note: If the workflow is unavailable, manually navigate to the appropriate screens.

Points to consider when answering questions in the workflow:

On the Overview screen in the Change in Contact Details workflow, review all current address/es recorded for the customer

Postal Address

• If the customer has an existing postal address, staff MUST confirm with the customer if the postal address is still current
• If the customer wants their mail delivered to a different address to their home address a postal address must be updated

No Fixed Address

• If the customer has no fixed address as a home address, then the customer must have a postal address recorded

Other Contact Details

• Review the customer’s other contact information such as telephone and email addresses to ensure they are still current

Accommodation Details

• Review the Accommodation section on the overview screen as this will give an overview of whether the customer is a homeowner or non-homeowner. It will also display (if applicable) any rent paid and rent verification recorded

On the Change in Contact details Setup page in the workflow

• Update the activity details with the appropriate fields

Update Options

• Select the appropriate check box/es (address, accommodation, telephone etc)
• or select all to go through each
• press Continue

Address Summary

• On the address summary page select the address types that need to be updated and press continue

Address Details (AD) screen

• On the Address Details (AD) screen, update all current addresses (including postal address), ensuring the correct start date is recorded. The start date is the date the customer advises they have moved
• Make sure Is RA being claimed on this Address? field is coded with 'Y' so the system will assess if the customer is eligible for Rent Assistance (RA)
• Check the Make Partner the same: field is coded accordingly
• If the customer is separated from their partner, select ‘No’ to make sure the address update is not applied to the ex-partner’s record
• If the change in address is due to separation, see Separating safely - protecting personal details, Family and domestic violence and Change in relationship status from partnered to single
• Make sure the screen is correctly coded for when an ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance (YA) customer leaves home
• If the update is for an ABSTUDY customer living away from home as a secondary boarding student, see Table 1 > Step 8 in Payment of Remote Area Allowance (RAA) when term address changes, before continuing with this procedure

Single name address with no street type

If the address is a single name address with no street type (eg: 286 Broadway, RESERVOIR, VIC, 3073) this will present with the following error E945CU – Address lines 1 & 2 have failed validation

Complete the following workaround to have the correct address update on the system

• Add a Street, Road etc to the address being added, and press continue, this will navigate back to the Address Summary (ADS) screen with the provisional address displayed.
• Select the provisional address, press continue
• turn the Rapid Addressing mode off by selecting the Enter non-Australian address button on the Address Details (AD) screen.
• Remove the street, road as required
• Select yes for the question “Should this address be recorded as an exceptional address?”
• Select yes for the question Are you sure this address needs to be recorded as an exception address?
• What is the reason for recording this address as an exception address? Select the option “Address lines 1 & 2 will not validate” from the drop-down list.
• Press continue, check the address is displaying correctly on the Address Summary (ADS) screen and press continue
• Make sure Is RA being claimed on this Address? field is coded with 'Y' so the system will assess if the customer is eligible for Rent Assistance (RA)
• Check the Make Partner the same: field is coded accordingly
• Note: if the change in address is due to separation, see Separating safely - protecting personal details, Family and domestic violence and Change in relationship status from partnered to single
• Make sure the screen is correctly coded for when an ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance (YA) customer leaves home

Accommodation Details (AC) screen

• Staff must code the AC screen regardless of whether or not the customer is paying for accommodation. See Completing the Accommodation Details (AC) screen and assessing Rent Assistance (RA)
• Exceptions: No AC screen updates are required where:
• a student with term addresses ('TER') contacts to advise a change in parental home details only
• the customer has moved into a temporary address ('TEM') and the reason the customer has moved does not entitle them to receive RA for their temporary accommodation. See Temporary accommodation and Rent Assistance (RA)

Telephone Details (TD) screen

• See Updating telephone details and/or paying Telephone Allowance (TAL)

Office Code (OC) screen

• Code if changed

Updating the Regional Location Details (RLD) screen when the parental home changes

• YA and ABSTUDY customers who are full-time students in an approved scholarship course may also be eligible to receive Relocation Scholarship. For details on coding the RLD screen, see Relocation Scholarship (RS) payment and coding

YA and ABSTUDY customers leaving the parental home

• YA and ABSTUDY customers leaving the parental home, whether temporary or permanently, may be entitled to a higher rate of payment. For more details, see:
• ABSTUDY customer leaving parental home ,or
• Youth Allowance (YA) customer leaving the parental home
• If the update is for an ABSTUDY customer living away from home as a secondary boarding student, see Table 1 > Step 8 in Payment of Remote Area Allowance (RAA) when term address changes, before continuing with this procedure

Sharing accommodation

• If a person is sharing accommodation with another person who is not a family member, staff must ask the Living Arrangements question set
  Note: change of address details for dates in the future are unable to be coded for sharers. Tell these customers to re-contact once they have physically moved address

Go to Step 3.

Possible overpayments

• Check for possible overpayment if notifying outside of 14 days to determine if a debt exists

Future Appointments booked

• Check if the customer has any future appointments booked at the service centre. If yes, update or rebook the appointment at the customer’s new local service centre

Updating Child Support and Medicare

• Tell the customer they may need to contact Child Support and Medicare separately to update their address details

If the customer has moved into a declared Income Management (IM) area:

• they may be identified for IM if they meet the criteria for the measure/s available in that location
• tell the customer they may be identified for IM if they meet automatic criteria, are referred, or volunteer for IM
• record details of discussion on a DOC

If a customer has moved to an enhanced IM location

• they may become eligible for enhanced IM if they meet other eligibility criteria

Centrepay Deductions

• If the customer has existing Centrepay deductions for their previous address, staff must make sure the customer knows they need to cancel or change the deductions. See Starting, changing and cancelling a Centrepay deduction at the request of a customer

Moving due to work

• If the customer is moving because of work, see Commencing or returning to work

If the customer's relationship status is changing, see (whichever is appropriate):

• Family and domestic violence
• Separating safely - protecting personal details
• Change in relationship status from partnered to single
• Claiming Parenting Payment (PP)

If the customer is blind

• check to see if they need to provide income and assets details. See Income and assets tests for blind customers

If the customer is going or returning from overseas, see:

• Portability of payments
• Returning to Australia

If the customer is selling or purchasing their home:

• see Permanent vacation of principal home (not necessary for family assistance only customers), Sale of principal home and Purchasing another residence
• for eligibility for RA, see Temporary accommodation and Rent Assistance (RA)
• follow up any changes in income and assets and code changes as required

Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS)

• Check Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS) details

Changes in assets and/or income from real estate

• Is there a change in assets and/or income from real estate? For example, it may be necessary to go to the Real Estate Detail (RE) screen to add or remove a property that has become, or ceased to be, an asset. See Assessment and sale of real estate and timeshare asset

Family assistance customers

check the following:

• Does their income estimate need updating?
• If there is a debt activity on the Activity List (AL) screen stopped for manual intervention

• who are renting, tell them:
• to provide verification even if their income estimate is currently too high to receive RA
• that verification will make sure that, after the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation process occurs at the end of the financial year, they receive arrears of any possible RA entitlement they may have in their top up payment

Concession Card preferences:

• If the customer has previously chosen an address preference for their concession card, this may need to be updated as well, see Preferences for concession cards
• Concession cards will normally be mailed to a customer's postal address and show their home address. Where a customer has more than one address recorded on the Centrelink computer system (for example, term address), they can:
• nominate a preference as to which address should be shown on the concession card, and
• choose to have the card mailed to an address other than the default postal address

Note: the home address on the system will not be changed just to issue a Health Care Card (HCC) or Low-Income Health Care Card (LIC) with a different address (for example, term address for students). Customers can nominate a preference as to which address should be displayed on the HCC or LIC. See Preferences for concession cards for more details

See Table 5.

Check if the customer is identified for IM or enhanced IM:

• Current IM customers will show as INM at the beginning of the Benefit Status line
• Current enhanced IM customers will show as EIM at the beginning of the Benefit Status line

Is the customer currently on or identified for IM or enhanced IM and relocating out of a declared IM or enhanced IM area?

• Yes, if:
• not trained in IM/enhanced IM, go to Step 2
• trained in IM/enhanced IM, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

Service Officers are to:

• complete all non-IM/enhanced IM business related with the customer's contact
• ensure all relevant advice regarding the change of address has been given
• transfer the customer unannounced to the IM line or the SmartCard eIM hotline. The Resources page has a link to the National Transfer numbers

• Service Officers are to seek assistance from a:
• specialised Service Officer (if available)
• Service Support Officer (SSO)
• Income Management Line, or
• Enhanced IM Technical Support Line (select enhanced IM option 6)
• contact Technical Support Line (select Income Management option 7)
• Specialised staff will assist Service Officers to provide correct advice to the customer

Go to Step 6.

Current IM/enhanced IM customers

Customers whose payments are income managed and who move permanently outside of a declared IM/enhanced area will continue to have their payments income managed. The duration of Income Management will depend on the measure applicable to the customer. See Customer moves out of an Income Management (IM) or enhanced IM area.

Income Management customers must have their priority needs reassessed to ensure they meet their current requirements. See:

• Changes to Income Management priority needs
• Determining a person's priority needs for Income Management
• Coding Income Management expenses

Customers profiled but not current on enhanced IM

Customers who have been identified for but have not yet commenced enhanced IM may still have their payments quarantined if they move out of a declared IM area during their enhanced IM initial waiting period. See Customer moves out of an Income Management (IM) or enhanced IM area.

Go to Step 6.

Check if the customer has moved to an enhanced IM location. See Resources for enhanced IM locations.

Has the customer moved to an enhanced IM location?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 6

When updating a customer’s address to an enhanced IM location, make sure the correct address type is being recorded:

• temporary, or
• permanent

Customers who move permanently to an enhanced IM location may result in the customer becoming eligible for enhanced IM if they meet other eligibility criteria. Service Officers must tell the customer:

• their new address is within an enhanced IM location, and
• they may be identified for enhanced IM if they meet other eligibility criteria

If the customer would like to discuss enhanced IM eligibility, refer them to the SmartCard eIM Hotline.

Note: updating or deleting a home or term address for the purposes of avoiding enhanced IM will not automatically end a customer’s participation on enhanced IM.

Go to Step 6.

• ABSTUDY and YA customers, including those who are also family assistance customers, go to Step 7
• Students, go to Step 7
• Carers, go to Step 8
• DSP customers, go to Step 9
• PP customers participating in Parent Pathways, go to Step 10
• For customers overseas, go to Step 11
• SpB customers participating in Parent Pathways, go to Step 12
• For all others, see Table 6

When updating a YA or ABSTUDY customer's change of address update the following:

• The AC screen
• Where appropriate, the Independent/Homeless/Away from Home Details (NIH) screen. This is essential to make sure the customer receives the correct rate of payment

Check the following to make sure the customer is receiving the correct rate of pay. For example, at home or the away from home rate.

• For a customer moving out of the parental home, see:
• Away from Home rate for ABSTUDY
• The away from home rate for Youth Allowance (YA) customers
• For a customer returning to the parental home, see:
• Returning to the permanent home when in receipt of the Away from Home rate of ABSTUDY
• Returning to the parental home when independent or qualified for the away from home rate of Youth Allowance (YA)
• Cessation of the ABSTUDY Away from Home rate
• Commencement, cessation, and coding of the away from home rate for Youth Allowance (YA)
• Qualification for the payment of Rent Assistance (RA)

Note: customers who are independent under State Care, unreasonable to live at home and disadvantaged will lose qualification to independent status if they move to the home of a parent.

• For customers moving from one parent's home to live with another parent, see Changes which may affect the Parental Income Test (PIT)
• For customers who are full-time students and receiving the away from home rate advising a change to their parental home address, the Regional Location Details (RLD) screen may also need updating. For details on coding the RLD screen, see Relocation Scholarship (RS) payment and coding

YA and ABSTUDY customers who are full-time students in an approved scholarship course may also be receiving Relocation Scholarship.

• For independent customers, consider if they are an accommodated independent person. See The away from home rate for Youth Allowance (YA) customers
• For independent ABSTUDY customers, review their circumstances to identify any issues associated with independence, such as homelessness. See Reviews of independence for ABSTUDY
• If the customer also changed school/education institution, see Changing or correcting course of study for Youth Allowance, Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement students

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

• A review must be conducted if either the carer or care receiver notifies of a change of address. This is to make sure the constant care or supervision criteria are still being met. See Change of address for Carer Payment (CP) and Carer Allowance (CA) for more details
• For CP, consider the following if the carer and care receiver are living in different homes:
• The time involved for the carer in travelling between the 2 homes
• The level of care provided
• The accessibility of the carer to the care receiver
• For CA, in general, the carer and care receiver must reside together, unless certain exceptions are met. Check if the specific qualification criteria are still met
• CP customers participating in Parent Pathways who have moved to a Community Development Program (CDP) area will no longer be eligible for Parent Pathways

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

• If the customer moves in with their carer, their principal home may remain an exempt asset for up to 2 years. See Vacation of principal home due to illness
• DSP customers are exempt from the sharers' rate of Rent Assistance (RA)
• If they are under 21 (receiving Youth Disability Support Pension) the rate of payment will vary depending on whether they are living with their parents or independently. See Assessing payment rates and independence for Disability Support Pension customers under 21 years
• If the customer is blind, check to see if they need to provide income and asset details. See Income and assets tests for blind customers

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

PP customers participating in Parent Pathways who have moved to a Community Development Program (CDP) area will no longer be eligible for Parent Pathways.

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

For Australian payments to be made to certain countries, the home address needs to be formatted to accommodate the banking requirements for the country.

Refer to the ‘Country Specific factor’ section in Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for the country the customer is being paid to:

• Record information as instructed in the country task card in OBAD as Address Type: HOM
• Set the ‘Send all mail’ indicator to No
• Annotate the Display on Access (DOA) DOC with the updated address changes

Note: if there is no DOA DOC on the record, create one.

Does the customer have a home and different postal address?

• Yes:
• Record the home address as Address type: TEM
• Record the postal address as Address Type: POS
• See Table 6
• No, customer’s home address is the same as their postal address:
• Record their home address as Address Type: POS
• See Table 6

SpB customers participating in Parent Pathways who have moved to a Community Development Program (CDP) area will no longer be eligible for Parent Pathways.

Finalise the change, see Table 6.

• Record the details on a DOC
• Finalise the activity on Assessment Results (AR) screen
• Start Inter-environment change of address (ICoA) if required
  Note: SMS or email reminders are not issued to customers who are registered in the incorrect environment, even if they are registered for electronic messaging
• If a new claim activity had to be cancelled for the update, staff must reindex the claim

Is the customer a job seeker?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, procedure ends here

Update the Job Seeker Snapshot if the customer has changed address due to a change in circumstances that may affect the Job Seeker Snapshot result. That is, if they:

• change who they are living with
• have moved to an area that is/is not near a large town/city
• are no longer homeless or living in unstable accommodation

For more details, see Conducting a Job Seeker Snapshot interview.

Is a Job Seeker Snapshot required?

• Yes, the Job Seeker Snapshot update must be done using Process Direct. See Conducting a Job Seeker Snapshot interview
• No, procedure ends here

If the address change is a change of postal address only, entitlement will not be affected. All mail will go to the postal address.

Has the customer indicated that they are updating their postal address due to a change in their relationship status?

• Yes, see:
• Family and domestic violence
• Separating safely - protecting personal details
• Change in relationship status from partnered to single
• No, go to Step 2

Does the customer act as a nominee for another person?

• Yes, update their nominee details
• Do not change the customer’s postal address to that of the nominee’s, unless the customer and the nominee reside at the same address
• If it is a court appointed arrangement and the nominee does not want the customer to receive their correspondence, suppress the customer’s copy without changing the postal address. Go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 3

Check if the customer:

• is the applicant for an ABSTUDY student, for example, for Schooling A payments. If so, staff must change the address details on that customer’s record as well
• is providing a postal address in a different location to their residential address. Investigate if:
• additional assistance is needed
• the customer is averting the impacts associated with a change in residential address. For example: change in Workforce Australia Employment Services provider, MALEP, change in marital status, Income Management eligibility
• has advised of a date from which the postal address applies
• is end dating a postal address - using yesterday’s date - make sure any future outgoing correspondence is sent to the correct address

Go to Step 4.

To add a new postal address

• Run the Change in Contact Details workflow or access the Address Summary (ADS) screen in Customer First
• Select the postal address line, then select Continue
• Start Date: use the date from which the address started or will start to be applicable. For more details, select the ‘?’ next to the Start Date
• End Date: leave this blank unless the customer has advised they no longer have a postal address. In that case, end-date a postal address using yesterday’s date to make sure any future outgoing mail is sent to the correct address
• Select ‘No’ as the response to the question ‘Make partner’s address the same as the customer’s?’
• Update the postal address using Rapid Addressing Mode
• Complete Source: and DOR: fields
• Select Continue
• Finalise the activity on the Assessment Results (AR) screen. Procedure ends here

To end date an existing postal address where the customer no longer has a postal address

• Run the Change in Contact Details workflow or access the Address Summary (ADS) screen in Customer First
• Select the postal address line, then select Continue
• End Date: end-date using yesterday’s date to make sure any future outgoing mail is sent to the correct address
• Select ‘No’ as the response to the question ‘Make partner’s address the same as the customer’s?’
• Update the postal address using Rapid Addressing Mode
• Complete Source: and DOR: fields
• Select Continue
• Finalise the activity on the Assessment Results (AR) screen. Procedure ends here