Disbursement interview for Voluntary Income Management 103-01190060

Only conduct a Disbursement interview at the customer's request. This can be held face to face or via telephone.

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

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

Service Officers not trained in Income Management:

Service Centre Service Officers:

• Use this process to conduct a Disbursement interview
• Seek assistance 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
• Go to Step 2

Cold transfer the customer to:

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

Procedure ends here.

Determine the reason for the Voluntary Income Management ending:

• If the customer requests to exit Voluntary Income Management, go to Step 4
• If the agency terminates Voluntary Income Management, go to Step 3

When the customer no longer meets the legislative requirements for Voluntary Income Management, the agency will terminate their Agreement.

Has Income Management been automatically ended?

• Yes, and customer:
• has attended interview, go to Step 6
• has not attended interview, the Auto Disbursement rules apply. Procedure ends here
• No, manually end Income Management, go to Step 7

A customer may request to exit Voluntary Income Management at any time.

Tell the customer:

• when they end their Agreement, they will not be able to enter into a new Agreement as IM has closed to new customers
• if they would like their payments quarantined in the future, it would be under enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM)

Eligible customers can end Voluntary Income Management online via their Centrelink Online Account.

The following are excluded from this online service:

• customers referred to Voluntary Income Management by a state referring authority
• customers who would be eligible for IM under the Vulnerable Youth or Crisis categories when their Agreement ends
• customers who have a Payment Nominee

Does the customer want to end their Voluntary Income Management Agreement online?

• Yes, confirm their eligibility to use the service, then direct the customer to their Centrelink Online Account to end their Agreement. Procedure ends here
• No,
• continue with the process below to end the customer's Voluntary Income Management agreement
• the customer's reason for requesting to exit from their Voluntary Income Management agreement must be recorded in the interview DOC
• go to Step 6

In Customer First, launch the Income Management Summary guided procedure.

Does the customer have funds in their Income Management account?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, and the customer:
• is present, go to Step 8
• is not present, go to Step 1 in Table 2

Before starting the Voluntary IM Assessment workflow 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 details, see Changing payment destination.

Is the customer present?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 1 in Table 2

Inform the customer of the impact of IM ending. This includes IM allocations ending and options available to continue meeting their ongoing expenses. Discuss the following with the customer:

• Tell the customer they will now be responsible for organising the payment of expenses previously paid from their IM funds
• Encourage customers to use Centrepay to continue paying for ongoing expenses where the Third Party Organisation is registered for Centrepay, or arrange for direct debits from their bank account
• Customers who were having rent deductions made via IM 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
• 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 IM has ended, the card will automatically close. Any remaining balance will be transferred into the customer's IM account. Alternatively, customers can close their BasicsCard and have the balance recalled immediately into their IM 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 available funds to their BasicsCard or request one off payments to TPOs for non-excluded items during the disbursement period
• their option to have a payment nominee

Go to Step 1 in Table 2

In Customer First, launch the Voluntary IM Assessment workflow.

Note: if an access error shows, no updates will be permitted. For help, contact the Income Management Contact Officer (IMCO).

Update as follows:

Voluntary Agreement Details page:

• Status: Select 'Terminated' from the drop down list.
  Note: only select 'Revoked' where the Voluntary Income Management Agreement was incorrectly commenced (for example, incorrect CRN, customer was not legislatively eligible at time of agreement)
• Customer referred by: This will show as 'Not referred' or with the state or non-state authority details where the customer was originally referred for VIM
• Agreement Termination Reasons: Select the appropriate reason from the following list (more than one reason may be selected if appropriate):
• Customer has payment nominee who is not subject to IM
• Customer not in receipt of Category H payment
• Customer has DVA agent or trustee who is not subject to IM
• Social worker intervention
• No longer feasible to income manage
• Customer request
• Customer is DVA agent/trustee-no principal consent
• Administrative error
• Interpreter requirements: Customer's spoken language will show, complete if an interpreter is required
• Income Management Agreement Termination: The text must be read to the customer, then tick the check box to confirm the customer understands and wishes to end their Agreement. Note: if the customer does not understand the impacts of terminating their Agreement, VIM should not be ended at this time
• Select Continue

IM Decision page:

• Check the details showing are correct and select Continue

Does the customer have any residual funds in their IM account?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 5

The Disbursements workflow will only present where the customer has funds remaining in their Income Management account.

Note: if conducting a Disbursement interview after IM has ended, launch the Disbursements workflow by selecting the workflow from Income Management option menu in Customer First.

Update as follows:

• Is it likely Income Management will resume within 60 days of IM ending? Select Yes or No as appropriate
• If Yes is selected, disbursement of residual funds will not be paid until 60 days after IM ends
• If No is selected, residual funds will be paid immediately
• Basics Card: If the customer has an active BasicsCard, messaging will prompt Service Officer to have appropriate discussions with the customer
• Expenses: Messaging will prompt Service Officers to have appropriate discussions with the customer
• How would the customer like their money disbursed? This will default to 'lump sum'. However, the customer can choose to have funds disbursed by instalments if the balance is $210 or more
• 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 IM 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 IM ended, ask the customer if they want the regular expenses to be ceased immediately. If so, cease regular expenses, see Coding Income Management expenses, otherwise, expenses will automatically cease 14 days after IM ends
• Transfer funds to the BasicsCard if requested
• Issue one-off payments to Third Party Organisations if requested. For more details about paying one off expenses, see Coding Income Management expenses

Select Continue.

• Does the customer wish to pay any one-off expenses from the residual funds? : option, select Yes or No
• If 'Yes' is selected the Manage Expenses workflow is launched and the one-off payment or Expense Request can be made
• Once any one-off payments have been coded, select Calculate Repayments. This will show the amount and date(s) funds will be disbursed. Tell customer of this information

For more details on paying one-off payments, see Changes to Income Management priority needs.

The Income Management Summary screen will show a message advising how residual funds will be disbursed. Finalise any Work Items that may display in the Work Items section.

Action any outstanding Work Items and finalise the activity on the Income Management Summary page.

If IM is ending at the customer's request, a DOC automatically generates by the workflow. If required, annotate the DOC with any other relevant information.

If the Agreement is being terminated for a reason other than at the customer's request, the workflow will not generate a DOC. Record the information given to the customer in the Activity Notes on the Income Management Summary screen, or in a DOC:

• Date Income Management ended
• Reason for termination
• If an interpreter was required but not used, how the interview was conducted (for example, relative, friend, Agent)
• How funds will be disbursed.(lump sum or instalments)
• Offer of Centrepay/Rent Deduction Scheme
• Any information required under the guidelines for adding a DOC to a customer's record

Finalise the activity on the Income Management Summary page.

Note: a letter is not issued confirming VIM has ended when the reason for ending is 'Customer request'.

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

• 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 details on nominees, see Adding or rejecting a nominee request.