Effect of a compliance action on Income Management 103-01040060

Customers subject to mutual obligation requirements can incur financial penalties or cancellation of payment as a result of non-compliance.

Income managed customers are not exempt from incurring these penalties.

A customer's Income Management must be reviewed if a financial penalty is applied or the Work Item 'I097Q1 - IM cust has a compliance penalty starting ####. Review expenses' displays on the customer's record.

Are the customer’s payments income managed (this information is located on the Income Management Summary screen)?

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

Is the Service Officer trained in Income Management?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, Service Officers not trained in Income Management are to complete all PST business and associated compliance activities, ensuring the customer understands how the compliance failure will impact their payments. Go to Step 3

Determine action required based on the type of penalty:

• If a reduction in payment, transfer according to below instructions
• If a non-payment period, transfer according to below instructions
• If future penalty is being applied, transfer according to below instructions
• If no effect on payment, go to Step 9

Transfer instructions:

• Service Officers (including PST Service Officers) are to transfer the customer unannounced to the Income Management queue. See Resources for a link to the National Transfer numbers
• Service Officers are to seek assistance from a specialised Service Support Officer (SSO) (if available), or contact the Access Service Support Line (select Income Management option 7). Specialised staff will assist Service Officers to be able to complete the customer's enquiry or update. See the Resources page for a link. As per usual protocol, if it is outside the Income Management Line’s usual hours of business, the customer should be advised to contact them directly on the next business day
• Procedure ends here

For Income Management trained Service Officers only

Read any Income Management-related DOA DOCs and action as required.

Ensure the customer understands the effect of the non-payment period or penalty period on their priority needs expenses taking into account the priority needs payment order when there are insufficient funds.

Failure of expenses will potentially place the customer in hardship.

Establish if any expenses have already failed. These can be identified as follows:

• On the Payment Summary (PS) screen INM payments will display as UNDLVD
• On Income Management Summary screen, Work Item Undelivered Income Management expenses and actioning Work Items display

Determine action required based on the type of penalty:

• If a reduction in payment, go to Step 5
• If a non-payment or No Show, No Pay Failure period, go to Step 6
• If future penalty is being applied, go to Step 7
• If no effect on payment, go to Step 8

For Income Management trained Service Officers only

Review the customer's priority needs, including any voluntary deductions.

Establish whether a change will need to be made to meet the customer's priority needs:

• Discuss reducing or suspending one or more expenses to align with the amount of Income Management funds being credited each fortnight
• Update any expenses via the Manage Expense workflow from the Expense Management Summary screen
• Complete the Priority Needs Expenses workflow
• Manually tick off the Work Item I097Q1 (if not automatically finalised by updating expenses). Record details on a DOC
• Advise the customer to contact at the end of their non-payment period to review their Income Management and voluntary expenses

Procedure ends here.

For Income Management trained Service Officers only

Discuss the customer's priority needs.

Establish whether the customer's Income Management account can cover the expenses during the penalty period.

• If there are not enough funds available, discuss cancelling or suspending all expenses (to prevent failed expenses occurring). Clearly record the reasons for cancelling/suspending expenses in a DOC or in the Expense Notes for manual payments
• Complete the Priority Needs Expenses workflow
• Manually tick off the Work Item I097Q1 (if not automatically finalised by updating expenses)
• Record details on a DOC
• Advise the customer to contact at the end of their non-payment period to review their Income Management and voluntary expenses

If there are insufficient Income Management funds to pay the customer's priority needs during the non-payment period, and it is determined that their income support payment will not be enough for them to live on, the customer may need to be referred to a social worker for assistance.

Procedure ends here.

For Income Management trained Service Officers only

Advise the customer:

• They will need to recontact Services Australia before the earliest penalty recovery date or on, or just before, the non-payment period start date
• This contact is to review their regular Income Management and voluntary expenses to avoid expenses failing

Manually tick off the Work Item I097Q1.

Record details on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

For Income Management trained Service Officers only

Advise the customer of their Income Management account balance, and the amount of discretionary funds available.

Review the customer’s priority needs including current Income Management expenses and make any changes as required.

Complete the Priority Needs Expenses workflow.

• If expense allocations are updated, Work Item I097Q1 will be automatically finalised
• If expenses remain unchanged, Manually tick off the Work Item I097Q1

Record details on a DOC.

Advise the customer of their Income Management account balance, and the amount of discretionary funds available. This can be found on the Income Management summary screen.

Read any Income Management related DOA DOCs and action as required, warm transferring to an IM trained Service Officer if required.

Discuss with the customer if they have any IM related queries, particularly around upcoming expenses and transfer as required.

Record details on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.