Income Management and enhanced Income Management customers entering or leaving prison 103-01050140

In Customer First, go to the Customer Details (CRN/BP) screen.

Check the benefit status line (BSt) to identify if the customer is welfare quarantined:

• INM will show if they are on IM
• EIM will show if they are on enhanced IM

Income Management

• Service Officers who are not trained in IM or enhanced IM, go to Step 2
• Service Officers who are trained in IM or enhanced IM, go to Step 3

IM

• Income Management Summary screen verifies a customer's IM status
• Contact the Technical Support Line (select the IM option) for help with conducting the interview, or
• Seek help from a specialised Service Officer (if available) or Service Support Officer (SSO)
• For more information, see Resources
• Go to Step 3

Enhanced IM

• Refer the customer to the SmartCard eIM hotline

IM

• Cold transfer the customer to:
• the Income Management line
• the Indigenous Services queue, if appropriate, or
• Multilingual Call, if appropriate
• To view the National Transfer numbers in Office Locator, see Resources
• Procedure ends here

Enhanced IM

• Record a transfer DOC and cold transfer the customer to the SmartCard eIM hotline
• Procedure ends here

IM customers

• If customers has entered prison, go to Table 2
• If customer has left prison, go to Table 3

Enhanced IM customers

• If customers has entered prison, go to Table 4
• If customer has left prison, go to Table 5

When an IM customer enters prison, the customer’s income support payment will be suspended and all IM allocations will continue to be paid until their income managed funds are exhausted, or their IM participation ends. For more information, see Effect on Income Management when payment is suspended, on zero rate, cancelled, or an Unemployment Non-Payment Period applied.

Incarcerated customers generally do not have access to outbound correspondence.

If an incarcerated customer does make contact Service Officers will:

• explain the impact of the suspension or cancellation of payments on the customer's IM participation and,
• if the customer has a BasicsCard, determine if their card should be suspended or closed

If appropriate, the Service Officer will also conduct a disbursement interview with the customer to tell them how any remaining IM funds will be disbursed.

The impact on IM differs depending on whether the customer's income support payment is suspended or cancelled.

If the customer's payment is:

• suspended, go to Step 3
• cancelled, go to Step 4

If a customer's income support payment is suspended, their IM participation will continue until the payment is restored. If the income support payment is subsequently cancelled, the customer's IM participation will automatically end.

Take the following action when the customer enters prison and their income support payments are, or will be, suspended:

• Priority needs: if the customer's IM account has a credit balance, these funds will be available to them for their priority needs. It is highly likely that incarceration will change the customer's priority needs. Consider customers who may be supporting their family members by using their income managed funds while they are in prison
• IM expenses: a customer's IM expenses can be stopped when they are admitted to prison, until the customer can be contacted. This should happen immediately where the priority need is no longer relevant (for example, regular allocation to a BasicsCard), until discussions can be held with the customer. If no action is taken to end the customer’s IM expenses, they will continue to be paid until their income managed funds are exhausted, or the customer’s IM participation ends. Where IM expenses continue to be paid, recovery of funds may be needed following discussions with the customer
• For more information see Recall of Income Management funds from a Third Party Organisation (TPO)
• BasicsCard: if the customer will be incarcerated for less than 13 weeks, suspend the BasicsCard upon the customer’s entry to prison to avoid unauthorised use of the card. If the customer's income support payment is subsequently restored, the BasicsCard can be reactivated for immediate use by the customer
• Arrears payments: if a customer is paid an arrears payment, 100% of the payment will be income managed. An Unrestricted Cash payment (UCP) may be payable if the customer asks
• Payment Nominee: customers may choose to appoint a payment nominee during their period of incarceration. If appointed, the payment nominee will be responsible for managing a customer's IM funds.
• For more information see Nominee arrangements under Income Management

If needed, Service Officers can seek support from a Service Officer in the face to face Incarcerated Customer Servicing team to confirm admission or release details. To contact the Incarcerated Customer Service Team, see Resources.

For more information, see:

• Prison admission process and claims during incarceration
• Effect on Income Management when payment is restored or re-granted
• Coding Income Management expenses
• Restricted Direct Payment (RDP)
• Unrestricted Cash payment (UCP)

Procedure ends here.

If a customer's income support payment is cancelled, the customer’s IM participation will automatically end. Customers are notified in writing of the end of their IM participation and are invited to contact Services Australia to discuss how they would like any of their remaining IM funds to be paid.

The following will happen when a customer's IM participation ends when the customer enters prison:

• IM expenses: IM expenses will continue to be paid for 14 days. If the customer's income support payment is not likely to be restored within 14 days, regular expenses should be ended when notification is received that the customer has entered prison.
• BasicsCard: given that the customer will not be able to use their BasicsCard while in prison, the card should be closed upon the customer’s entry to prison to avoid unauthorised use of the card.
• Disbursement of residual funds: incarcerated customers are unable to attend disbursement interviews. When a customer’s IM participation automatically ends, any remaining IM funds will be disbursed under the Auto Disbursement rules. Funds are paid to the customer's last known payment destination. It is important that the payment destination details are correct for Service Reason 'GPY.'
• Payment Nominee: customers may choose to appoint a payment nominee during their period of incarceration. If appointed, any residual funds will be paid to the payment nominee's nominated bank account. For more information, see Nominee arrangements under Income Management.

If needed, Service Officers can seek support from a Service Officer in the face to face Incarcerated Customer Servicing team to confirm admission or release details. To contact the Incarcerated Customer Services team, see Resources for Incarcerated Customer Services contacts.

Incarcerated IM customers may be eligible to claim an income support payment within 21 days of their expected release date.

In most cases, Service Officers in the face to face Incarcerated Customer Servicing team may arrange a pre-release interview with the correctional facility to help customers to claim a Crisis Payment and Anticipated Payment, if eligible.

Service Officers who are contacted by a customer immediately after leaving prison should help the customer following the current business process.

To view the incarcerated customer directory (which contains the contact details for the face to face Incarcerated Customer Services team, and face to face Incarcerated Customer contacts), see Resources.

If the customer’s payment is restored or re-granted to date paid to +1 (ie. there is no payment gap), the customer is then considered to have been eligible for IM continuously, and must remain on the IM program.

However, if their payment is not restored or re-granted to date paid to +1 (ie. there is a payment gap), the customer must commence enhanced IM as a new customer. For more information, see Table 5 in Effect on Income Management (IM) or enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM) when a payment is restored or re-granted.

Go to the Check Benefit Status (XBS) Screen in Customer First to check if the customer’s payment is restored or re-granted to date paid to +1 (i.e. whether there is a payment gap).

Note: the system may automatically reinstate IM for a customer even if they are no longer eligible to participate in the IM program. If this occurs, and the customer’s payment is not restored or re-granted to date paid to +1 (i.e. there is a payment gap), the customer must commence enhanced IM as a new customer with a waiting period.

Is the customer eligible for IM or enhanced IM?

• If IM, go to Step 4
• If enhanced IM, go to Table 4.

If IM, and the customer's IM participation was reinstated automatically after the customer was released from prison, Service Officers should conduct an interview with the customer to:

• remind them how their IM participation will affect their income support payments
• review their priority needs and set up any new IM deductions,
• reactivate a previously suspended BasicsCard or issue a new, or replacement BasicsCard, if needed,
• remind them of the available IM and BasicsCard self-service options,
• discuss exemptions (which are only available to Disengaged Youth [DEY] and Long Term Welfare Payment Recipient [LTWPR] customers), or exclusions (which are only available to Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient [VWPR] customers) from IM, if applicable, and
• consider whether the customer should be referred to an appropriate specialist officer, or other internal support within the agency, following the current business process.

Go to Step 5.

• Liquid assets for a Crisis Payment: if a customer applies for a Crisis Payment after they are released from prison, consider the funds that are available in the customer’s IM Account as liquid assets when determining whether the customer is in severe financial hardship (ie. when determining the customer’s eligibility for a Crisis Payment).
• Customer's payments are income managed: if an IM customer is granted a Crisis Payment, the Crisis Payment will not be income managed.
• Crisis Payment because of release from prison or psychiatric confinement: this may result in the customer being automatically identified for the VWPR (Youth) measure for a 12-month period. If this occurs, the customer must then commence the VWPR (Youth) measure under the enhanced IM program as an initiative transfer customer, due to the closure of the IM program to new entrants.
• For more information, see Income Management and enhanced Income Management for Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients (VWPR).

IM customers who are released from prison are automatically identified for the VWPR eIM measure if they:

• are under the age of 25,
• live in a declared location, and
• have received a Crisis Payment because they were released from prison within 13 weeks of meeting other eligibility criteria for this measure of enhanced IM.

These customers will commence the VWPR (Youth) measure under the enhanced IM program, and not the IM program, due to the closure of the IM program to new entrants.

Service Officers in the face to face Incarcerated Customer Servicing team, and Service Officers should explain to customers that the reason that they are identified for welfare quarantining is not solely because they have been granted a Crisis Payment.

For more information, see:

• Crisis payment scenarios in Resources
• Enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM)
• Income Management and enhanced Income Management for Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients (VWPR)
• Exclusions for automatically triggered Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipient (VWPR) Youth Income Management and enhanced IM for Service Officers

Customers who leave prison and who have, or will be, moving to an enhanced IM location, should be made aware of their option to apply to volunteer for the enhanced IM program, if they meet the eligibility criteria.

The customer may choose to volunteer for enhanced IM if they believe that it will help them to manage their finances. In some instances, volunteering for enhanced IM may act as a harm reduction strategy for the customer.

For more information, see:

• Enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM)
• Voluntary Income Management and enhanced Income Management

If a customer's income support payments are income managed when an Anticipated Payment has been granted, the payment will be income managed at the percentage that is applicable to their IM measure at the time.

When an enhanced IM customer enters prison, their enhanced IM participation will be impacted by the length of time that they will be in prison. The customer’s enhanced IM participation will continue unless their payment is suspended or cancelled for more than 13 weeks.

If the customer asks about their funds, the customer should be advised that there is no change to the way that they access their enhanced IM account.

If possible, customers should be supported to stop any direct debit or other regular payments from their enhanced IM account. This is to prevent rejected transfers whilst the customer is incarcerated, as well as payments from entering the customer’s account.

If the customer’s payment remains cancelled after 13 weeks, enhanced IM ends automatically.

• The customer’s enhanced IM account will be closed within 91 days of the end date
• If possible, the details of the customer’s nominated bank account should be confirmed for the disbursement of any residual funds

For more information, see Ending enhanced Income Management.

If the customer is entitled to receive other benefits, such as Family Tax Benefit (FTB), the benefits are sent to either the customer’s nominated bank account or, if they have a Payment Nominee relationship, the Payment Nominee’s nominated bank account.

Procedure ends here

Incarcerated enhanced IM customers may be eligible to claim an income support payment within 21 days of their expected release date.

In most cases, Service Officers in the face to face Incarcerated Customer Servicing team may arrange a pre-release interview with the correctional facility to help customers to claim a Crisis Payment and Anticipated Payment, if eligible.

Service Officers who are contacted by a customer immediately after leaving prison should help the customer following the current business process.

• To view the incarcerated customer directory (which contains the contact details for the face to face Incarcerated Customer Services team, and face to face Incarcerated Customer contacts), see Resources

Select the appropriate timeframe:

If the customer’s payment is restored or re-granted within 13 weeks of the suspension or cancellation date, enhanced IM is reinstated automatically. Their enhanced IM account will also remain active.

For more information, see Effect on Income Management (IM) or enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM) when a payment is restored or re-granted.

If the customer needs:

• a new SmartCard, see Temporary SmartCards
• access to enhanced IM funds, see Transferring enhanced Income Management funds

Note: Ensure the customer’s nominated bank account and personal details are correct.

For enhanced IM account and SmartCard support, the customer should be transferred to the SmartCard eIM hotline (customers with TCU as their card issuer should be instructed to contact TCU for enhanced IM account and SmartCard support).

However, if a customer’s payment is cancelled, and they cease participating in the enhanced IM program, and are identified, or request to volunteer for enhanced IM at a later date, the customer must commence enhanced IM as a new customer.

For more information, see Enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM).

Note: If a customer's income support payments are welfare quarantined when an Anticipated Payment has been granted, the payment will be income managed at the percentage that is applicable to their enhanced IM measure at the time.

If a customer’s payment has been cancelled for 13 weeks enhanced IM participation will automatically end.

If the customer applies for an eligible payment or their payment is restored or re-granted after 13 weeks, and they continue to maintain their eligibility for welfare quarantining, the customer will commence enhanced IM as a new customer with a waiting period.

For more information, see Effect on Income Management (IM) or enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM) when a payment is restored or re-granted.

Procedure ends here.