Nominee Income Management (NIM) and Nominee enhanced Income Management (NeIM) 103-01210000

Where a payment nominee's payments are welfare quarantined under one of the below measures, the person for whom they are a payment nominee (the principal) will also have their payments welfare quarantined.

• Child Protection IM and enhanced IM
• Supporting People at Risk (SPaR) IM and enhanced IM, or
• Compulsory IM) and enhanced IM - Disengaged Youth (DEY) and Long Term Welfare Payment Recipient (LTWPR)

This only affects payment nominees, not correspondence nominees.

A review of the payment nominee arrangement must occur if a payment nominee is referred to enhanced IM to ensure they can continue to act in the best interests of the principal. If at any time, there is concern that the nominee arrangement is not in the best interests of a customer, the appointment must be reviewed. Payment nominee arrangements should be cancelled or revoked if not in the best interests of the principal.

A principal for IM and enhanced IM purposes will have their payments welfare quarantined under the same measure as their payment nominee, unless they qualify to be quarantined under a higher measure in their own right. The Resources page contains examples of IM and enhanced IM hierarchy. However, when a principal is no longer eligible for IM or enhanced IM in their own right, they will automatically be transferred to Nominee enhanced IM.

Principals who are welfare quarantined under NIM or NeIM are not required to meet the eligibility criteria of the measure applicable to their payment nominee. There is:

• no requirement to be receiving any qualifying payments
• no requirement to be on an eligible payment for a certain time period
• no partner processing rules
• no need for a notice/agreement
• no age restrictions, and/or
• no requirement to be living in a certain area

A movement customer is a principal who is currently on NIM and chooses to move to enhanced IM. A detailed discussion is had about the similarities and differences between the 2 programs to enable the principal to make an informed decision. Service Officers should not move a principal from IM to enhanced IM on the basis that their payment nominee has chosen to move from IM to enhanced IM. The Service Officer must also obtain the principal’s consent, in this instance.

Note: there is no legislative requirement for a principal and payment nominee to participate in the same program. That is, a payment nominee may participate in enhanced IM while their principal participates in IM, or vice versa. If the payment nominee and their principal currently participate in IM, both may make an independent decision on whether to move to enhanced IM.

For more information regarding the processes for moving from IM to enhanced IM, see Enhanced Income Management (enhanced IM) processes for Service Delivery staff.

Service Officers should manually end welfare quarantining if the customer is currently on IM or enhanced IM and they have an excluded payment nominee for IM and enhanced IM purposes.

If the parent/guardian that is receiving payments for an under 18 year old Youth Allowance (YA) dependent customer is welfare quarantined but there is no formal payment nominee arrangement in place (details recorded on Payment Summary screen (PAS) screen only), there is currently no functionality for the YA customer (principal) to be welfare quarantined under NIM or NeIM. Where a formal payment nominee arrangement is in place and the parent/guardian is welfare quarantined, the Youth Allowance (YA) customer is to be commenced on NeIM.

Service Officers should take the opportunity to remind YA customers that once they turn 18, payments must be directed to an account in their own name or a formal payment nominee arrangement must be made.

Note: the above restriction relating to NIM and NeIM does not affect a YA customer's eligibility for IM or enhanced IM in their own right.

Principals will cease to be welfare quarantined under Nominee Income Management or Nominee enhanced IM if:

• they are recorded as deceased
• their payment nominee is not subject to IM or enhanced IM
• their payment nominee is an organisation or public trustee
• their payment nominee is granted an exemption from IM or enhanced IM (Note: principals are not eligible to apply for an exemption under NIM or NeIM - DEY or LTWPR)
• the payment nominee relationship ends, and no new payment nominee is appointed

A principal who no longer has a payment nominee may qualify to have their eligible welfare payments quarantined under a measure in their own right. Since 4 September 2023, all new customers who profile or volunteer for welfare quarantining must commence enhanced IM.