Reissue a payment or cheque at a customer's request 103-04040010

The Student Assistance Act 1973 now gives the agency the power to request the recovery from financial institutions of incorrect ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme payments and those for deceased customers.

• Dependent Youth Allowance (YA) or ABSTUDY customers under 18 years of age, who have their regular payments directed to their parents, may qualify for a payment reissue. The payment must be made to the parent unless the parent directs otherwise
• A parent cannot request a payment to be reissued on behalf of their dependent child, unless the parent is the customer's correspondence nominee. A parent is not entitled to be issued or collect an EBT card

If the customer advises payment has not been received, and the system advises that the financial institution has returned the payment, follow the process in Reissue a payment returned from a financial institution – includes deceased customers.

Note: payments do not appear on the Payment Summary (PS) screen for the following customers:

• Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
• Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
• Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS)

See Viewing payment details for native Customer First payments for more details.

A payment can be reissued before it is returned, if the customer:

• can verify they do not have legal access to the account, or
• will be placed in severe financial hardship due to the delay

The customer must be advised they will have a debt if they receive the original payment, and it is not returned to the agency by the financial institution.

If the payment destination details were correct, but the payment has not been received, refer the customer to the financial institution to have the matter resolved.

• If a nominee arrangement is in place, the customer has the right to interact with Services Australia about their payment, however the existence of a nominee arrangement is an indicator that care must be taken when assessing the customer's request. Contact the nominee before deciding about the request to make sure all care and consideration is given to the welfare of the customer
• A correspondence nominee may request a payment to be reissued on the customer's behalf, but the payment must be made to the customer
• A payment nominee cannot request a payment to be reissued on the customer's behalf. The customer must make the request
• If the customer requests the payment to be reissued, the payment must be reissued to the same person the regular payment is made to. Therefore, if a payment nominee exists, the payment must be reissued to the nominee unless the nominee agrees for the payment to be made to the customer or a third party.
  Note: a nominee is not entitled to be issued or collect an EBT card. However, an EBT can be issued to the customer if the nominee consents to this arrangement
• If a guardianship order is in place with the Protective Office/ Guardianship Authority (or other state based authority, for example, Public Trustee), the customer is legally unable to handle their own affairs. For this reason, contact the guardianship authority about the request for a payment to be reissued. This type of nominee arrangement displays on the Nominee Relationship Summary (NORS) screen on the nominee's record as INV - involuntary (CRT or PAI)
• A third party who only has Permission to Enquire (PPE) cannot request a payment to be reissued on the customer's behalf

When dealing with customers who are the victims of unauthorised access to online accounts, and their payment destinations have been altered without their consent or knowledge, the:

• suspected fraud must be reported via the 'Report a Suspected Fraud' tool
• customer's online account must be suspended pending investigation of the security breach

For more details, see Centrelink self service - access status, locking and unlocking.

Aspects of the record should also be checked to make sure that the record has not been intertwined with another customer record. If it is determined that intertwining has occurred an Intertwined Referral Form must be completed.

Where a payment has been delivered to a joint account that the customer had requested payments be delivered to, and the other signatory withdraws the payment, the customer would not be entitled to have a payment reissued. As the customer had legal access to the account, the agency has met its payment obligations.

Cheque payments as a payment option for Centrelink payments ceased from 1 January 2016 (except for international customers). Customers will only have had cheque payments made before this date.

Cheques that have already been cancelled and are returned to Services Australia by a customer must be disposed of securely by shredding or placing in a secure disposal bin.

A stale cheque is a cheque that has not been presented, and it has been more than 15 months since its issue date. Stale cheques must be presented at a Service Centre.

All cheques issued via ISIS are now stale. Due to the time passed, it cannot be confirmed if any of these cheques have/haven’t been presented.

Some cheques are still issued via the SAP system for reasons ‘ad hoc’ and ‘no other payment avenue’.

Cheques issued via ESS are the only ones that can be processed for payment via a Notice to prepare a Refund Account (SF030).

Tell the executor that they must provide the following verification to the financial institution for the cheque to be cashed:

• Identification document showing the executor's full name
• Evidence of their executor status that authorises them to act on behalf of the late customer

If required, contact the Treasury Helpdesk.

For customers whose payments are income managed, payments not yet returned from a financial institution can only be issued where the customer is in financial hardship and subject to approval by the Income Management policy helpdesk.

Before reissuing the payment to the customer, the Service Officer must:

• check if a delay in processing and crediting the customer's account has occurred at the Financial Institution for all payment methods except payments delivered via the New Payments Platform (NPP)
• check the customer has legal access to bank account (is the account in the customer’s name?)
• update the customer's payment destination details, and
• check that the customer is entitled to the payment