Cancellation of Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES 102-10020240

Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES payments may be cancelled as a result of:

• an assessment of a change in a customer's circumstances, such as:
• the customer is no longer receiving a qualifying payment, or
• the customer is no longer undertaking qualifying study (for example, ceases study or reduces their study load)
• a request from the customer to cease payment, or
• a Service Officer making the decision to cancel payments (for example, if the customer has not met the requirements for payment, such as a failure to reply to correspondence)
• a customer transferring from one qualifying payment to another, see Cancellation of, or changes to qualifying payment for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), ABSTUDY PES or Assistance for Isolated Children PES

Automatic cancellation of PES or ABSTUDY PES occurs following coding reassessments that result in no continuing qualification or entitlement to a PES or ABSTUDY PES qualifying payment or if the customer is no longer undertaking approved study. In these cases, there is no need to cancel via the Benefit Action (BA) screen.

Manual cancellations are needed where the loss of qualification or entitlement is not the end result of a reassessment but the result of a decision to cancel payments.

If the payments are to be cancelled because:

• the customer is no longer in receipt of a qualifying payment, see Cancellation of, or changes to, qualifying payments for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES). Procedure ends here
• there is a change in the customer's study details, update in Process Direct on the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen or in Customer First on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen. For coding information, see Coding new study details. Procedure ends here
• the customer has ceased or deferred studies. See:
• Deferring or discontinuing study before end of course for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), or
• Payment of Youth Allowance (YA) ABSTUDY when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course
  Procedure ends here
• the customer requests the payments be cancelled, (other than for the reasons above) go to Step 3
• the Service Officer has made a decision to cancel payments, go to Step 3

The cancellation of PES or ABSTUDY PES must be coded manually when the customer's entitlement stops for a reason other than the result of a reassessment.

To access the PES screens, code 'ISS' in the Sys: field and in the Next: field type SVPES and press [Enter].

Go to the Benefits Action (BA) screen. Complete the following:

• Svc Rsn: field, code:
• EPF for PES, or
• EPA for ABSTUDY PES
• Action: field, code CAN
• Reason: field, see, Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), ABSTUDY PES and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) PES cancellation, suspension and rejection codes

Note: for ABSTUDY PES customers cancelling payments to transfer to PES to access Education Entry Payment (EdEP), code CPP and use Effect Date DPT +1.

• Effect Date: field, enter the date of the request/decision to cancel
• Notes: field, enter the reason for the cancellation
• complete the Source: and DOR: fields and press [Enter]

When the result of the assessment is a negative adjustment, the debt is to be finalised at the time of the study update. If the overpayment is for:

• PES, and the Service Officer is skilled in PES Debt Raising
• ABSTUDY PES, and the Service Officer is skilled in ABSTUDY Debt Raising

See Raising debts for students and Australian Apprentices or Raising ABSTUDY debts.

Will the activity be finalised without an overpayment?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, complete the relevant fields:
• Code: field, code ‘INV’ (under the Debt Action: column)
• Press [Enter]
• Go to Step 5

Note: debts under $50 will not be waived automatically once the assessment has been finalised. As debts can be transferred to third party CRNs, the debt amount shown on the ASC screen may not be an accurate reflection of the total debt amount.

Create a manual letter if a Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity creates on the Activity List (AL) screen the day after the cancellation has finalised.

Has a MFU activity created on the AL screen?

• Yes, send a manual letter to the customer, go to Step 6
• No, the customer will receive an automatic advice, go to Step 7

Create a Free Text (Q134) letter to send to the customer, detailing the reasons for the cancellation and advising the student of their review and appeal rights.

Record details of decision including all relevant Act and Policy Guidelines on a DOC.