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

For the purposes of welfare quarantining, a correspondence nominee is a person or organisation who has been nominated to assist another person (the principal) in their dealings with Services Australia. The principal is referred to as the customer.

The actions correspondence nominees can take is different under Income Management and enhanced Income Management. For more details on what the correspondence nominee can do on behalf of the customer, see Process – Role of correspondence nominee.

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). The principal is referred to as the customer.

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 or 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 customer.

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

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

If a customer adds a payment nominee who is welfare quarantined under one of the measures listed below, they will be welfare quarantined under the same measure. This is the case unless the customer is already welfare quarantined in their own right.

• Child Protection
• Supporting People at Risk, or
• Compulsory Income Management or enhanced IM (Disengaged Youth and Long Term Welfare Payment Recipients)

For more information see Nominee Income Management (NIM) and Nominee enhanced Income Management (NeIM)).

Customers who appoint an excluded payment nominee for Income Management (IM) and enhanced IM purposes, are not eligible to be 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 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 IM.

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 customer.

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 identify or decide at any time that a nominee arrangement is not in the best interests of a customer, they must review the appointment. For details on nominee reviews, see 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

The appointment and removal of payment nominees should consider the following:

• Payment nominee arrangements are not used 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 customer’s unqualified funds to the customer or payment nominee