Nominee arrangements under Income Management and enhanced Income Management 103-01010020

For the purposes of welfare quarantining, a payment nominee is a person or organisation who has been nominated to receive payments on behalf of another person (the 'principal'). A payment nominee includes:

• an appointed nominee
• the parent to whom payments for an under 18 year old Youth Allowance (YA) dependent customer are directed
• Note: once a YA customer turns 18, payment must be directed to an account in their own name ore a formal payment nominee arrangement must be made

A payment nominee is responsible for managing the Income Management account or enhanced IM account of the principal.

The appointment or cancellation of a payment nominee can impact a customer’s eligibility for welfare quarantining.

If a person is a payment nominee and they are welfare quarantined under Child Protection, Supporting People at Risk or Compulsory (Disengaged Youth and Long Term Welfare Payment Recipient) measures, their principal's payments will also be welfare quarantined. For more information see Nominee Income Management (NIM) and Nominee enhanced Income Management (NeIM)).

Customers who appoint an excluded payment nominee are prohibited from being welfare quarantined.

An excluded payment nominee is defined as a payment nominee, under a formal payment nominee arrangement, who is:

• a public trustee, or
• an individual who is not welfare quarantined, or
• an organisation

If a customer is currently welfare quarantined and appoints an excluded payment nominee for Income Management (IM) and enhanced IM purposes, they must be removed from welfare quarantining.

If a customer is excluded from welfare quarantining because of their payment nominee and that nominee arrangement ends, the customer may become eligible for welfare quarantining again and commence enhanced Income Management (IM program was closed to new entrants from 4 September 2023).

Payment nominees who become eligible for welfare quarantining under any measure, must have their nominee arrangement reconsidered to determine whether the arrangement is appropriate. Payment nominee arrangements should be cancelled or revoked if it is not in the best interests of the principal.

A review of the payment nominee arrangement must occur in all circumstances, whether a person:

• is or becomes a payment nominee, or
• has or appoints a payment nominee, and
• is referred or identified as eligible for welfare quarantining

Service Officers must determine if the nominee arrangement is in the best interests of the customer regardless of whether the nominee is an excluded payment nominee.

If staff decide at any time that an arrangement is not in the best interests of a customer, they must review the appointment. For information on nominee reviews refer to Reviewing nominee arrangements.

Before suspending, revoking or rejecting a customer’s payment nominee, service officers must consider;

• the customer and their dependant’s needs
• their ability to manage their unqualified funds
• available alternatives such as Centrepay and RDS

Service Officers must ensure that the appointment or removal of a payment nominee is not use as an instrument to avoid welfare quarantining.

The appointment and removal of payment nominees should take into account the following:

• Payment nominee arrangements are not used as a way to avoid welfare quarantining
• How the customer came to be referred to welfare quarantining
• Whether the current nominee arrangements are in the best interests of the customer and their dependants
• Any negative consequences of the direct payment of the principals unqualified funds to the customer or payment nominee

The actions payment nominees can take is different under Income Management and enhanced Income Management. For more information, see Process – Role of payment nominees.

The actions correspondence nominees can take is different under Income Management and enhanced Income Management, see Process – Role of correspondence nominee.