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

A correspondence nominee can:

• Enter the customer into a Voluntary Agreement
• End a Voluntary Agreement on the customer’s behalf
• Request an exemption or exclusion from enhanced IM for the customer
• Update the customers payment destination, only where the principal (customer) is the primary or joint account holder
• Consent to move from IM to enhanced IM

A Correspondence nominee cannot:

• Request enhanced IM account or SmartCard information
• Request urgent fund transfers, recurring transfers, one off transfer or balance enquires
• Be issued a SmartCard or access the enhanced IM account

The correspondence nominee cannot be issued with a SmartCard and cannot act or enquire in relation to the enhanced IM account, which includes making urgent or one-off transfer requests and account balance enquiries.

A correspondence nominee can be told how much of the customer’s income support payment was paid into the enhanced IM account.

If the customer wants a correspondence nominee to be issued a SmartCard or be able to enquire or act in relation to the enhanced IM account, they must appoint the correspondence nominee as a payment nominee.

To request the appointment of a nominee, or to appoint a payment nominee the customer must:

• use online accounts, or
• complete the Authorising a person or organisation to enquire or act on your behalf (SS313). See Resources page for a link to the form

SmartCards are issued to the payment nominee and has the payment nominee’s name embossed on the front of the SmartCard. The enhanced IM account that is linked to the SmartCard is also managed by the payment nominee.

The customer has no access to a SmartCard and will have their online services disabled, cannot lodge transfer and/or payment requests, or give account instructions. They may only make enquiries on their account.

The payment nominee:

• has access to online services, and can lodge transfer and payment requests, make account enquiries, and give account instructions
• can access temporary SmartCards at selected service centres, participating Agent sites, or Traditional Credit Union (TCU) branches (TCU customers only), or from a visiting Remote Servicing Team (RST)
• may consent to the customer being issued a SmartCard (this includes a temporary SmartCard). In this case, the payment nominee is transferring access to the customer and the payment nominee’s card will be closed

Online access will be available to both the payment nominee and customer. Only Services Officers on the SmartCard eIM hotline who are trained in financial procedures can action a request from a payment nominee to transfer the SmartCard over to a customer.

Note: a payment nominee does not have the authority to request to move a customer from IM to enhanced IM. More information about actions that customers and payment nominees can take on the enhanced IM account is available for SmartCard eIM hotline in the Payment Nominee financial procedure.

A payment nominee does not have the authority to request other actions on behalf of the customer, including:

• entering an enhanced IM Agreement (VeIM), or exiting a VIM or VeIM Agreement
• requesting an exemption or exclusion
• signing relevant forms and statements on behalf of the customer

Only correspondence nominees can make these types of requests.

Where a payment nominee is being welfare quarantined, they:

• do not need to be on the same welfare quarantining program as the customer they are payment nominee for
• will hold 2 cards and manage both their own account and the customer's account

Depending on the program the payment nominee and the customer is on, the payment nominee may hold either:

• 2 BasicsCards
• 2 SmartCards, or
• a BasicsCard and a SmartCard

Customers can only have one nominee of each type, one correspondence nominee and one payment nominee, or one nominee for both roles (combined nominee) The obligations of each arrangement are different.

For enhanced IM purposes, a combined nominee can:

• Enter the customer into a Voluntary Agreement
• End a Voluntary Agreement on the customer’s behalf
• Request an exemption or exclusion from enhanced IM for the customer
• Consent to move from IM to enhanced IM
• Request enhanced IM account or SmartCard information
• Request urgent fund transfers, recurring transfers, one off transfer or balance enquires
• Be issued a SmartCard or access the enhanced IM account
• Update the customers payment destination
• Appeal enhanced IM decisions, such as:
• commencing enhanced IM
• not granting an exemption from enhanced IM

Note: if the combined nominee request to change the payment destination to an account that is not in the combined nominees name, the payment nominee arrangement should be cancelled.

If the request is outside the above actions a combined nominee can do on behalf of the customer, see Tier 0 technical support – self-sufficiency.

Service Officers must complete a review of the payment nominee arrangement for customers who have been referred to or become eligible for any measure of enhanced IM, regardless of whether the nominee is an excluded payment nominee.

See Reviewing nominee arrangements.

Note: termination of an excluded payment nominee arrangement may result in a customer becoming eligible to be income managed again.

When a customer meets eligibility to be income managed under this measure and appoints:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer will not income manage. For more details, see Ending enhanced Income Management
• a payment nominee that is income managed, the customer will remain on their current program or will commence on the enhanced IM program (IM was closed to new customers from 4 September 2023)

Where a customer has been referred for this measure and is not eligible due to an excluded payment nominee, the referring authority may choose to revoke the current Notice.

When a customer meets eligibility to be income managed under these measures and appoints:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer will not commence on welfare quarantining. For more details, see Ending enhanced Income Management
• a payment nominee that is income managed, the customer will commence under the same measure as their payment nominee, unless they qualify for a higher measure in the hierarchy
• IMCO are responsible for processing. For more details, see Nominee Income Management and enhanced Income Management

Where a customer has been referred for this measure and is not eligible due to an excluded payment nominee, the referring authority may choose to revoke the current Notice.

A customer who requests to commence this measure and appoints or has already appointed:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer is not eligible to enter a Voluntary Agreement
• a payment nominee that is welfare quarantined, can enter a Voluntary Agreement for enhanced IM

For more details about ending a Voluntary Agreement as the customer is no longer eligible, see Ending enhanced Income Management

Note: a payment nominee does not have the authority to request the customer commence on VeIM.

The correspondence nominee cannot be issued with the BasicsCard.

If the customer wants a correspondence nominee to be issued a BasicsCard, they must:

• request appointment of a nominee using online accounts, or
• complete the Authorising a person or organisation to enquire or act on your behalf (SS313) to appoint the correspondence nominee as a payment nominee as well. See Resources page for a link to the form

Expense allocations from the IM account

If the customer does not have a payment nominee, a correspondence nominee can act as if they were the customer (principal for Income Management and enhanced Income Management purposes) when deciding on expense allocations. In all circumstances the Service Officer should have regard to the best interests of the customer and their dependants.

A correspondence nominee may request certain actions on behalf of the customer.

They can request:

• to exit a Voluntary IM Agreement or
• apply for an exemption or exclusion

For more details about correspondence nominees and what they can do, see Nominees,

The payment nominee can choose to have the BasicsCard issued in the customer’s name rather than their own. The system identifies that a customer has a payment nominee and will show an assign card screen at the end of the authentication screen.

For more details, see Initial offer or replacement of BasicsCard.

Where there is a payment nominee, both the customer and the payment nominee can request one off and regular allocations.

A payment nominee does not have the authority to request other actions on behalf of the customer, including:

• exiting a Voluntary IM Agreement, or
• requesting an exemption or exclusion, or
• signing relevant forms and statements on behalf of the customer

Only correspondence nominees can make these types of requests.

Where a payment nominee is being income managed, they:

• do not need to be on the same income management quarantining program as the customer they are payment nominee for
• will hold 2 cards and manage both their own account and the customer's account

Depending on the program the payment nominee and the customer is on, the payment nominee may hold either:

• 2 BasicsCards
• 2 SmartCards, or
• a BasicsCard and a SmartCard

Service Officers must complete a review of the payment nominee arrangement for customers who have been referred to or become eligible for any measure, regardless of whether the nominee is an excluded payment nominee.

See Reviewing nominee arrangements.

Note: termination of an excluded payment nominee arrangement may result in a customer becoming eligible for enhanced IM.

When a customer meets eligibility to be income managed under this measure and appoints:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer will not be income managed
• Income Management Contact Officers (IMCO) are responsible for ineligibility coding, see Nominee Income Management and enhanced Income Management
• a payment nominee that is income managed, the customer will remain on their current program or will commence on the enhanced IM program (IM was closed to new customers from 4 September 2023)

Where a customer has been referred for a measure and is not eligible due to an excluded payment nominee, the referring authority may choose to revoke the current Notice.

Where a customer meets eligibility to be income managed under this measure and appoints:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer will not be income managed
• Income Management Contact Officers (IMCO) are responsible for ineligibility coding, see Nominee Income Management and enhanced Income Management
• a payment nominee that is income managed, the customer will commence income management under the same measure as their payment nominee, unless they qualify for a higher measure in the hierarchy. For more details, see Nominee Income Management (NIM) and Nominee enhanced Income Management (NeIM)

Where a customer has been referred for this measure and is not eligible due to an excluded payment nominee, the referring authority may choose to revoke the current Notice.

A customer who requests to commence this measure and appoints or has already appointed:

• an excluded payment nominee for Income Management or enhanced Income Management purposes, the customer is not eligible to enter a Voluntary Agreement
• a payment nominee that is income managed, can enter a Voluntary Agreement for enhanced IM

For more details about terminating a Voluntary Agreement as the customer is no longer eligible, see Nominee Income Management and Nominee enhanced Income Management (NeIM)

Note: a payment nominee does not have the authority to request the customer commence on VeIM.