Reissue a payment returned from a financial institution 103-04040020

If a payment has been returned to Services Australia by a financial institution, a MFU activity titled 'unsolicited refund' will show on the Activity List (AL) screen stating: 'Unsolicited direct credit return. Investigate. When correct direct credit destination obtained, reissue if entitled. Pay date DD/MM/YYYY.'

A replacement payment may be actioned from a MFU activity or a customer request.

Does an MFU activity appear on the AL screen?

• Yes:
• for an unsolicited return, go to Step 3
• for Q092 28-day review, go to Step 10
• No, go to Step 2

If the customer advises that they have not received their direct credit, New Payments Platform (NPP) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payment, check if the financial institution has returned the payment.

• Child Care Subsidy (CCS), Farm Household Allowance (FHA) and Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) payments:
• show on the Payment List in Workspace
• can take up to 2 business days to show as returned on the Payment List
• returned payments will have a Return Reason in the Text: field
• All other payments:
• can be checked via the Payment Summary (PS) screen in Customer First
• returned payments show RTN (returned) in the Type: field

Any unsuccessful payments delivered via the NPP will be returned immediately.

If a payment delivered via direct credit or RTGS has been automatically returned from the financial institution it can take up to 2 working days from the date the payment was returned, before the payment shows as returned.

If a payment has been returned by bank cheque, the coding of the return may take longer.

• Yes, investigate the customer's record for any reason why the customer may not be entitled to the payment
• If the customer is entitled to have the payment fully or partially reissued, go to Step 4
• If the customer is not entitled to have the payment reissued, go to Table 2, Step 1
• No, see Reissue a payment at a customer's request

The following Income Management payments cannot be reissued from the PS screen:

• Customer reimbursement (disbursement of funds when Income Management ends)
• Unrestricted Cash Payment
• Restricted Direct Payment

Was the returned payment one of the above Income Management payments directed to the customer?

• Yes, go to Step 13
• No, go to Step 5

Note: some payments can be split between customers and third parties. Confirm the status of 3rd party payments by:

• ‘S’electing the payment in PS
• [Enter] through the Payment Details (PD) screen
• Reviewing payment status on the Third Party Payment Details (PDD) screen

Was the returned payment to an ABSTUDY or AIC third party?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, go to Step 7

ABSTUDY and AIC payments can be made to either customers or Third Parties (for example, educational institutions, secondary boarding schools or hostels). Payment destination details are not always coded on the Payment Destination Summary (PAS) screen.

Select from the below options.

Transfer customer to the relevant team for investigation:

• Record requests to reissue ABSTUDY payments in an open Fast Note – select Auto text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Update > ABSTUDY Action request and place the MFU on hold for 14 days
• Record requests to reissue AIC payments in an open Fast Note – select Auto text, use Students, ABSTUDY and Apprentices > AIC > AIC rejected/returned payment and place the MFU on hold for 14 days

Before reissuing the payment, ensure payment destination has been updated per the relevant process:

• Payments to third parties and institutions for ABSTUDY
• Payments to third parties and institutions for Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC)

When the payment destination has been updated:

• Go to the PS screen, identify the payment that has been returned and needs to be reissued
• Select the payment that has been returned by typing 'S' next to the payment line and press [Enter]. The Payment Details (PD) screen will show
• Press [Enter] again, the Third Party Payment Details (PDD) screen will show
• Type 'R' into the top line and press [Enter], the Re-Deliver Rejected Payment (RDRP) screen will show
• On the RDRP screen, complete the following fields:
• Reissue All (Y/N): 'Y'
• Notes: The reason for reissuing the payment
• Source and DOR fields
• Press [Enter]. The RDRP screen will refresh, showing the amount to be reissued
• Finished (Y/Q/N) - 'Y'
• Note: if more than five lines of components are listed, select 'next page' to see the full screen and to complete the activity
• Press [Enter] to complete the activity
• Record the details on a DOC

Once reissued, cancel the Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity. The Resources page contains information on how to find the activity

Procedure ends here.

Was the returned payment a Paid Parental Leave payment delivered by an employer?

• No, go to Step 8
• Yes:
• The Paid Parental Leave Employer Processing Team (PPLEPT) is responsible for re-issuing Parental Leave Pay (PPL) returned payments where PPL delivery is via the employer See Delivery of Parental Leave Pay (PPL)
• Procedure ends here

The customer must provide an account they have legal access to (either solely or jointly).

If the customer is not present, 2 genuine attempts should be made to contact the customer by phone to obtain their correct bank account details.

Note: customers not wishing to provide bank account details over the phone can update via Self Service channels.

If the returned payment is a quarterly supplement payment for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) customer, check if the customer wishes to receive the quarterly supplement. Code suppression if requested.

Has the customer provided new payment destination details? The customer may have already updated their payment destination using self-service options.

• Yes, go to Step 11
• No, and:
• customer has advised the payment destination is correct, go to Step 12
• payment destination details not provided, go to Step 9

• Send a Request for payment destination details (Q092) to the customer. This letter must include the paragraph regarding suspension of payment if no contact is made
• Record the details on a DOC in the customer's record noting details of the returned payment/s, the action taken to contact the customer and the action that is to be taken when the customer makes contact. DOC should be closed
• In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 28 days from today's date
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'Check on response to Q092 issued DD/MM/YYYY. Return to OB 103-04040020 for action.'
  Keywords: REJPYMT
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
  The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• Complete the original MFU

If the customer does not wish to supply new account details and does not want the payment reissued, record conversation in a DOC and cancel the MFU.

Has the Q092 been returned by the customer, or has the customer opted to update their payment destination via self-service?

• Yes, go to Step 11
• No:
• Suspend payment using reason code ‘FRC’ (failed to reply to correspondence)
• If unable to suspend payment, cancel still using ‘FRC’ where possible. This will ensure the automated advice is issued to the customer
• Where ‘FRC’ is not available, suspend or cancel using reason ‘OTH’ (other)
  Note: automated advice letters will not generate for reason ‘OTH’ and a free text Q999 letter must be sent to the customer advising of the suspension/cancellation and the reason. See Resources for Q999 letter text
• Annotate DOC with details of suspension/cancellation action
• In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 3 months from today's date
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'No response to Q092 issued DD/MM/YYYY. Check contact from customer since suspension of payment. Return to OB 103-04040020 to cancel payment if appropriate.'
  Keywords: REJPYMT
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
  The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• If customer does not contact, cancel the suspended payment when the review comes due
• Make sure the Cancellation advice is issued to customer
• Procedure ends here until customer makes contact

If the customer does not wish to supply new account details and does not want the payment reissued, record conversation in a DOC and cancel the MFU.

Payment destination must be updated before the returned payments can be reissued. The customer may have already updated their payment destination using self service options.

Update bank details. See Changing payment destination.

Once payment destination has been updated, see Table 2, Step 3.

If a customer contacts about the non-receipt of a payment and advises that their payment destination has not changed and is still correct:

• confirm with the customer that the account is still open, and
• they still have access to the account

The system will not allow a reissue of a payment unless a change of payment destination is completed.

Run the Change Payment Destination workflow, updating the account title by adding a full stop after the name. For example, 'Mr Customer.'.

Repeat the process by running the Change Payment Destination workflow again, deleting the full stop after the name. For example, 'Mr Customer'.

When the payment destination has been updated, see Table 2, Step 3.

When the payment is returned from a financial institution, the funds are automatically re-credited to the customer's Income Management account. A new payment will need to be issued to the customer from their Income Management account, after changing payment destination details or service reason GPY, depending on the payment type issued.

Staff not trained in Income Management are to transfer the customer to the Income Management queue. The Resources page contains a link to the National Transfer numbers. Procedure ends here.

Service Officers not trained in Income Management should seek assistance from:

• a specialised Service Officer (if available) or Service Support Officer, or
• the Technical Support Line (select Income Management option 7). Specialised staff will assist Service Officers to complete the customer's enquiry or update

Procedure ends here.

Service centres/Service Officers trained in Income Management:

If the funds returned by a financial institution have not been automatically re-credited to the customer's Income Management account (that is, the payment shows as RTN on the PS screen, but there is no corresponding credit to the customer's Income Management account), a manual adjustment will be required.

Following payment destination updates, Service Officers should send details to the Income Management Helpdesk via webform requesting an Account Adjustment be made. The Resources page contains a link to the Income Management helpdesk webform.

Was the Income Management payment a customer reimbursement due to Income Management ending?

• Yes, go to Step 14
• No, re-issue the payment as appropriate:
• Unrestricted Cash Payments (UCPs)
• Restricted Direct Payments (RDPs)
• Procedure ends here

Where the Income Management payment to be re-issued is a customer reimbursement due to Income Management ending, Service Officers are to investigate to determine if the funds have previously been issued and returned from a financial institution.

Is this the first time the customer's reimbursement has been returned from a financial institution and updated payment destination details are available (that is, can be updated to align with the payment destination for their most recent payment type)?

• Yes:
• Update the customer's payment destination for Service Reason GPY
• Re-issue funds via the Disbursements workflow
• Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 15

Make 2 genuine attempts to contact the customer to obtain new payment destination details.

Select from the below options.

• Update payment destination details for Service Reason GPY
• Re-issue funds via the Disbursements workflow

• Issue Q092 if this has not been issued within the last 28 days
• In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 28 days from today's date
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'Check on response to Q092 issued DD/MM/YYYY. Return to OB 103-04040020 for action on Income Management funds.'
  Keywords: REJPYMT
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
  The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• Create a DOA DOC detailing:
• funds owed to customer
• payment destination details to be requested from customer at next contact, and
• instructing Service Officer to re-issue payment from Income Management account once payment destination for Service Reason GPY has been updated
• When a customer provides new payment destination details, Service Officers are to update the payment destination for Service Reason GPY and re-run the Disbursement workflow to enable funds to be re-disbursed to the customer
• If the customer does not contact and funds have been unable to be issued to the customer when the review matures, the funds can be transferred to a General Ledger Account

Procedure ends here.

Investigate the customer's record for any reason as to why the customer may not be entitled to the payment.

Is the customer entitled to the payment?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, the payment must be blocked to prevent it from being reissued. Go to Step 2

DOC record

Create a DOC on the customer's record explaining why they are not entitled to a reissue of the payment. The Centrelink Payment Support Team (CPST) needs this DOC for audit purposes.

It must include the following details:

• Title: Block payment – not entitled to reissue
• Payment type/delivery date/payment amount
• The reason the payment is not to be reissued
  Note: recording 'customer not entitled' is not sufficient. The DOC must fully explain why the customer is not entitled

If the payment is FTB, the payment must be excluded from the reconciliation result. See Returned payments and their effect on family assistance reconciliation.

Escalate to CPST

Once the DOC has been completed, escalate to CPST via mySupport.

The Resources page contains a link to mySupport

• For Child Care Subsidy (CCS):
• Use the ‘Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child Care Subsidy Issues’ form
• Enter ‘BLOCK PAYMENT’ under the title and 'What function is being attempted when the issue occurred?’ fields
• For Farm Household Allowance (FHA):
• Use the ‘Farm Household Allowance (FHA) Issues form
• Select 'Block Payment' option under 'What is the issue?'
• For Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS):
• Use the ‘Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) Issues form
• Select ‘Block Payment’ option under ‘What is the issue being reported?’
• For all other payment types:
• use the ‘Stop Customer Payment’ form

Note: blocking payments and stopping payments are different processes. Ensure all references in the DOC and mySupport correctly reference blocking the payment.

Annotate the DOC to include the relevant Service Desk (SD) number.

Cancel the MFU activity.

Procedure ends here.

• If customer is deceased, see Replacing payment made to a deceased customer where payment was returned from financial institution
• If reissuing a part of a family assistance payment due to customer no longer being entitled to entire amount, or reissuing a partial payment that has been returned from the financial institution, see Returned payments and their effect on family assistance reconciliation
• If reissuing a family assistance payment and customer may be overseas, go to Step 4
• If reissuing a family assistance payment and customer is in Australia, go to Step 6
• For all other payments, see Table 3, Step 1

Note: Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) and ABSTUDY payments can only be reissued by AIC and ABSTUDY smart centre staff.

See:

• Payments to third parties and institutions for Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC)
• Payments to third parties and institutions for ABSTUDY

Check if there is any indication that the customer is overseas:

• Portability script DOC
• Immigration data match DOC, or
• Change of address

Is the customer overseas?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 6

Family assistance payments (for example, FTB) can only be deposited into an Australian bank account every 2 weeks no matter which payment method the customer chooses.

If a former family assistance customer is entitled to arrears, (for example, when reconciliation occurs), but has moved overseas and closed their Australian bank account, International Services (CIS) staff can issue a one-off cheque payment to an overseas address by one-off payment.

A one-off payment can also be used to issue payments to overseas estates and for certain other payments where no alternative option is available. See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers while outside Australia.

Is there an overseas address recorded or can it be obtained by contacting the customer overseas or a nominee?

• Yes, see Issuing a one-off payment or arrears to a Centrelink beneficiary outside Australia
• No, payment cannot be reissued. Record the returned payment information on a DOC and detail why the payment cannot be reissued (for example, customer has closed account, is overseas and overseas contact details are unknown). Procedure ends here

Before reissuing returned family assistance payments, check the Payments Details (PD) screen to ensure both FTB Part A and Part B have been returned.

To confirm:

• In the reissue activity, select reissue all and answer ‘Y’
• If the entire payment has been returned, the message ‘This payment has been returned on ....DD MM YYYY’ will show
• If the payment has only been partially returned the message will confirm the returned amount (for example,‘$180.00 has been returned on DD MM YYYY’)

Families queue - The following MFU can be actioned and cancelled when actioning other changes relating to contact with a customer:

• SYS FAO/ACT MFU/KEYWORD RETURN/ CSO *PY
• Description of MFU: Payment has been returned from financial institution. Account details need to be checked
• Confirm correct/new account details with customer and reissue payment that was returned to new account. Once the reissue is complete, cancel the MFU

See the Resources page for information on locating the MFU.

Continue to Table 3.

Child Care Subsidy (CCS), Farm Household Allowance (FHA), or Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) payments will automatically reissue once the payment destination has been updated.

Note: Child Care Subsidy payments cannot be reissued via immediate payment methods.

• If an FHA/SRSS customer requires the funds immediately, see Immediate payment by payment method RTGS for more information. Procedure ends here
• For all other payment types
• If the payment has been partially returned, go to Step 2
• If the payment has been fully returned go to Step 3

Where the original payment has not been fully returned to the agency, the system will automatically limit reissue to the recovered amount.

If the customer requests the full amount be reissued, the customer must be advised that, as the original payment was not fully recovered:

• by reissuing the payment, the customer may be paid twice for the same period
• If the remaining funds have not been returned within 28 days, a Duplicate Instalment debt will be raised and recovered
• Note: if a request for refund has not been completed for the original payment, this must occur before going any further

Income managed customers requesting that their Income Management (GPY) payment be reissued must also be advised that as the payment has not been fully returned to the agency, they may receive the payment twice. If the funds are not returned within 28 days, an Income Management debt may be raised and recovered.

If the customer received or benefited from the original payment, they will be liable for the debt.

If someone other than the customer (for example, incorrect recipient) received or benefited from the original payment, then any debt raised may be against them, if the funds are not returned.

Customers concerned at potential debts can opt to wait until the original payment has been returned before it is reissued.

Does the customer wish to have the payment reissue in full?

• Yes, the payment must be reissued via the PYAJ screen. See Using the Payment Adjustment (PYAJ) screen for more information. Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 3

Before attempting to reissue the payment, make sure the correct payment system is selected (for example, Age Pension payments can only be reissued in the PEN system).

For payments in the ISS system, the correct subsystem must also be selected. For details on how to access the ISS subsystem, see Customer First navigation, common screens and functions.

• Go to the PS screen, identify the payment that has been returned and needs to be reissued
• Select the payment that has been returned by typing 'R' next to the payment line and press [Enter], the Issue Payment Select (IPPRE) screen will show
• The system will automatically 'S'elect the Re-deliver Returned Payment field and the Destination Type field will automatically default to ‘Direct Credit’
• Press [Enter] and the Re-Deliver Payment (RDP) or Re-Deliver Component (RDC) screen will show
• The RDP screen will show for Income Support Payment
• The RDC screen will show for FTB payments

For FTB payments, go to Step 4.

For all other payments, go to Step 5.

• On the RDC screen, code the following fields:
• Select the components of the payment to be reissued, or Reissue All if all components are to be reissued
• Selected Amt: This will populate with the total of the payment components to be reissued
• Reason: 'DNR'
• Finished (Y/Q/N): 'Y'
• Notes: The reason for the reissue of the payment
• Source: and DOR:
• Press [Enter] to complete the activity
• If the activity has been selected by Quality On Line (QOL), checking the future activity may not generate immediately. In these cases:
• note the Customer Reference Number (CRN), and
• check the FAL screen the next day
  Note: QOL checking will not apply to payments delivered via the NPP
• record details in a DOC

Note: when reissuing family assistance payments that have not been received, choose:

• either Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A or Part B, or
• both, by selecting 'reissue all' and answer 'Y

Due to the number of FTB components, the 'reissue all' option and the ability to finalise may show on the second page.

FTB payments cannot be issued as an Urgent Payment. Procedure ends here.

• On the RDP or RDC screen, complete the following fields:
• Issue Amt - the amount of the payment that was returned
• Reason - 'RTN'
• Finished (Y/Q/N) - 'Y'
• The reason for the return of the payment in the Notes field
• Source and DOR fields
• Note: if more than five lines of components are listed, click 'next page' to see the full screen and to complete the activity
• Press [Enter] to complete the activity
• Record the details on a DOC

Once reissued, cancel the Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity. The Resources page contains information on how to find the activity.

Does the customer require the funds immediately?

• Yes, reissue the new payment via New Payments Platform (NPP). Procedure ends here
• No, procedure ends here