Disbursement interview for Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients (VWPR) Income Management 103-01180070

A Disbursement interview is only conducted at the customer's request, and can be held face-to-face or via telephone.

If the customer requires an interpreter, see Booking an interpreter for an appointment.

Disbursement interviews should be conducted by Income Management trained Service Officers.

Service Officers trained in Income Management, go to Step 2.

Service Officers not trained in Income Management:

Use this process to conduct a Disbursement interview.

• Get help from a specialised Service Officer (if available) or Service Support Officer, or
• Contact the Technical Support Line (select Income Management option) for help with conducting the interview

The Resources page has a link to Office Locator. Go to Step 2.

Cold transfer the customer to:

• The Income Management line
• The Indigenous Services queue (if appropriate), or
• Multilingual Call (if appropriate)

The Resources page contains a link to the National Transfer numbers. Procedure ends here.

A customer must be exited from VWPR Income Management if any of the following circumstances occur:

• They have an excluded payment nominee for Income Management purposes
• Their category H welfare payment has cancelled
• For customers automatically identified for VWPR due to their circumstances:
• They have been granted an exclusion from Income Management, or
• They have requested to exit Income Management as they no longer have the automatic eligibility trigger (for example, no longer receive the Unreasonable to Live at Home (UTLAH) rate of payment, transferred from Youth Allowance (YA) to JobSeeker Payment (JSP))
• For customers assessed for VWPR by a social worker:
• Their Vulnerable Notice expires, or
• A social worker has reviewed their situation and determined they are no longer vulnerable, so the Notice is ended

Note:

• Customers are not cased managed and will continue to be income managed if they move outside of an income managed area. For more details, see Customer moves out of an Income Management area.

Customers are to be informed of the impact of Income Management ending. This includes Income Management allocations ending and options available to continue meeting their ongoing expenses. The following should be discussed with the customer.

• Tell the customer they will now be responsible for organising the payment of expenses previously paid from their Income Management funds
• Encourage customers to use Centrepay to continue paying for ongoing expenses where the Third Party Organisation (TPO) is registered for Centrepay, or arrange direct debits from their bank account
• Customers who were having rent deductions made via Income Management to their State Housing Authority (SHA) should continue to have their rent paid via the Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS). Send a Fast Note to Income Management Payment and Contact Team (IMPACT) asking that the RDS deduction be started or increased to meet the full rent amount. Select Auto Text, use Income Management > Update > State Housing Authority deductions
• Tell customers they can visit the 'Managing your money' page at servicesaustralia.gov.au/managingmoney, for useful information and resources to help manage finances. The Resources page has a link to the Services Australia website
• Check to see if the customer has an active BasicsCard and the current balance. The customer can continue to use the BasicsCard until the balance is depleted. However, on day 61 after Income Management has ended, the card will be automatically closed. Any remaining balance will be transferred into the customer's Income Management account. Alternatively, customers can close their BasicsCard and have the balance recalled immediately into their Income Management account to be included in the disbursement calculation
• If the customer chooses to close their BasicsCard, this must be actioned before the disbursement process. For assistance, see BasicsCard close an account
• Tell the customer they can transfer funds to their BasicsCard or request one-off payments to TPOs for non-excluded items during the disbursement period
• Tell the customer of their option to appoint a payment nominee

• Yes, and the customer has attended an interview, go to Step 5
• Yes, and the customer has not attended an interview the Auto Disbursement rules will apply. Procedure ends here
• No, and Income Management is to end within 28 days, go to Step 6
• No, and Income Management needs to be manually ended, go to step 5

This information is found on the Income Management Summary screen in workflow under the Income Management menu.

Does the customer have funds in their Income Management account?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, and:
• The customer does not have an Income Management account balance, and Income Management is to be manually ended, go to Step 8
• The customer does not have an Income Management account balance ad Income Management has ended, the Disbursements workflow is not required. See Step 2 in Table 2

Before commencing an assessment, or Disbursements workflow:

• Go to the Payment Destination Summary (PAS) screen
• Confirm the payment destination recorded for Service Reason 'GPY' matches the customer's most recent payment type

If there are no details recorded, or the account number is incorrect, select 'GPY' to go to the Payment Destination Details (PAD) screen to update account details. For more information, see Changing payment destination.

Is the customer present?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 8

When conducting a Disbursement interview, Service Officers are to determine whether the customer is likely to have their payments income managed within the next 60 days. Service Officers should consider:

• Whether the customer is likely to be eligible for another measure of Income Management when the current measure ends (by checking the Income Management Summary screen)
• Where Income Management is ending due to their eligible payment cancelling, consider the reason and history of cancellations. For example:
• CAN/OTH - check for cancellation reason. If reason is unknown, it is likely the customer will be income managed within 60 days
• CAN/CLR - check for details of why the customer requested cancellation of their payment. If the reason is unknown, it is likely the customer will income managed again within 60 days
• CAN/DNL or CAN/FRP - it is likely Income Management will be reinstated within 60 days once any outstanding report is lodged. However, if there is information on the customer's record that indicates they no longer wish to receive income support payments, it is not likely they will be income managed within 60 days

Note: the Auto Disbursement rules apply when customers choose not to attend a Disbursement interview.

For further information on disbursement of residual income managed funds, see Disbursement of funds when Income Management ceases.

Go to Step 8.

• Income Management is ending, due to the customer having an excluded payment nominee for Income Management purposes, see Step 1 in Table 2
• The customer has requested to exit Income Management as they no longer meet the automatic eligibility (for example, no longer eligible for UTLAH, transferred to JobSeeker Payment (JSP)), see Step 2 in Table 2
• Income Management has already ended and there is a balance in the Income Management account, see Step 3 in Table 2
• Income Management is due to end within 28 days, see Step 3 in Table 2
• Income Management has already ended and there is a nil balance in the Income Management account, see Step 5 in Table 2

Coding ineligibility is restricted to Level 2 Helpdesk staff with the necessary ICT resource.

Finalise the interview and complete any processing as required, including:

• Tell the customer what regular expenses have ceased
• If it has been less than 15 days since Income Management ended, ask the customer if they want the regular expenses to be ended immediately. If so, end any regular expenses. See Coding Income Management expenses
• Code any transfers to the BasicsCard
• Code any one off payments to Third Party Organisations (TPO)
• Explain how residual funds will be disbursed:
• If the customer is not likely to be income managed within 60 days, disbursement will commence immediately
• If the customer is likely to be income managed within 60 days of Income Management ending, disbursement will commence 60 days after the end date
• Whether residual funds will be paid via lump sum or in instalments
  Note: a lump sum payment is only applicable where the residual balance is less than $210
• Send the Customer Reference Number (CRN) via webform to the Income Management helpdesk requesting the customer be made ineligible as they have an excluded payment nominee. The Resources page contains a link to the helpdesk webform

The Helpdesk will update the customer's eligibility and complete the Disbursements workflow as per information recorded in the Disbursement interview DOC. Go to Step 6

Launch the Vulnerable IM Assessment workflow.

On the Decision screen select:

• Yes to Is the customer ineligible for Compulsory/Vulnerable (as applicable) Income Management?
• Select Excluded Payment Nominee from the dropdown menu
• Continue workflow

Complete Disbursement interview coding as per DOC recorded by Service Officer. Procedure ends here.

Customers can request to exit Income Management if they no longer have the automatic eligibility trigger. For example, customer turns 22 and transfers to JobSeeker Payment (JSP), customer no longer meets the Unreasonable to Live at Home (UTLAH) criteria, prison release customer turns 25.

• Launch the Vulnerable IM Assessment workflow
• Answer 'yes' to the question 'Does the customer wish to be exited from Vulnerable Income Management'?
  Note: system limitations prevent VWPR-Crisis customers who have turned 25 from being exited via the above workflow. Service Officers are to record details on a DOC, including Disbursement interview details, and email a request to end Income Management to Income.Management.Helpdesk. The helpdesk will code the customer as ineligible and disburse any residual funds as per information recorded in the DOC
• Select Continue

The Disbursements workflow should automatically present after the assessment workflow.

If the workflow does not present automatically, go to Step 3.

Run the Disbursements workflow. The Income Management Disbursement Interview screen will present.

• Is it likely Income Management will resume within 60 days of IM ending?: select Yes (default) or No
• If Yes is selected, instalments will start being paid 60 days from the date Income Management ends
• BasicsCard: if the customer has an active BasicsCard, messaging will prompt Service Officer to have appropriate discussions with the customer
• Expenses: messaging will prompt Service Officer to have appropriate discussions with the customer

Select Continue.

Information will appear at the top of the Expense Management Summary screen. For example:

• Customer is no longer on Income Management. The regular expenses will automatically cease on DD MMM YYYY, unless ceased earlier
• Disbursement of Income Management account available balance back to customer will commence on DD MMM YYYY

Further discussions regarding ongoing priority needs must be held with the customer:

• Tell the customer what regular expenses have ceased
• If it has been less than 15 days since Income Management ended, ask the customer if they want the regular expenses to be ceased immediately. If so, cease regular expenses, see Changes to Income Management expenses
• Code any transfer to the BasicsCard
• Code any one-off payments to Third Party Organisations (TPO)
• Explain how any residual funds will be disbursed:
• If the customer is not likely to be income managed within 60 days, disbursement will commence immediately
• If the customer is likely to be income managed within 60 days of Income Management ending, disbursement will commence 60 days after the end date
• Whether residual funds will be paid via lump sum or in instalments
  Note: a lump sum payment is only applicable where the residual balance is less than $210

Select Continue.

The Income Management Summary screen will display a message advising how residual funds will be disbursed.

Finalise any Work Items which may be displayed in the Work Items section.

Finalise the activity on the Income Management Summary page.

A DOC is not created by the workflow. The information given to the customer should be recorded in the Activity Notes on the Income Management Summary screen or in a DOC:

• Date Income Management ended/is due to end
• If an interpreter was required but not used, how the interview conducted (for example, relative, friend, Agent)
• How residual funds will be paid (that is, instalments or lump sum payment)
• Confirmation the customer was advised of the following:
• They can continue to use their BasicsCard for 60 days from the date Income Management ends (if applicable)
• Centrepay and Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS) options
• Eligibility for Voluntary Income Management (if applicable)
• Any information required under the guidelines for adding a DOC to a customer's record

Tell the customer of their option to apply for Voluntary Inome Management where they meet the eligibility criteria.

If the customer decides to use Centrepay for their ongoing priority needs, see:

• Centrepay customer interactions
• Starting, changing and cancelling a Centrepay deduction at the request of a customer
• Deductions options online

If the customer wishes to appoint a payment nominee, issue the customer with Authorising a person or organisation to enquire or act on your behalf (SS313). For more information on nominees, see Adding or rejecting a nominee request.