Reissuing a rejected payment 103-04040090

Rejected payments refers to those payments, or part thereof, that have not successfully been delivered. Certain components of a payment may be rejected by the system. In these cases, it is not necessary to reissue the entire amount, only the rejected components should be reissued.

While rejected and returned payments both show as 'RTN' in Customer First, they are separate processes.

This file does not cover rejected Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) or New Payments Platform (NPP) payments. See:

• Immediate payment by payment method Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)
• Immediate payment by payment method New Payments Platform (NPP)

A rejected payment is different from a returned payment. A returned payment refers to when a customer, financial institution or third party has received a payment in error, and they wish to return it to Services Australia. If a returned payment is received, process the returned payment.

To re-issue a returned payment to an updated payment destination, see Reissue a payment returned from a financial institution.

Note: Service Officers must determine whether the customer is entitled to the payment before re-issuing.

Arrears

When granting/restoring a customer's payment with a backdated start date, there is a limit on the amount of money that can be reissued in a single payment. If the payment is over the system arrears limit, the payment will be rejected. The system arrears limit is the amount that can be issued in one payment per day minus $500 (to allow for any regular payment that may also issue). When the amount is over the limit, when payment is reissued, the system should establish the daily limit minus $500 and issue the payments over the required number of days.

Group Payment Schedule

If the customer is being paid via a group payment schedule, an immediate payment (for example, an Advance Payment, a reissued payment) will automatically reject if it was issued on any code other than Entitlement Period End Day (EPED) code B. Payment can be reissued but will not be received by the organisation until the next group schedule payday.

Overseas Bank Accounts (Family assistance payments)

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

If a former family assistance customer is entitled to arrears (for example, from FAO reconciliation) but has moved overseas and closed their Australian bank account these payments will reject. Centrelink International Services (CIS) staff can issue a one-off payment to an overseas address. A one-off payment can also be used to issue payments to overseas estates and for certain other payments if no alternative option is available.

Nominees

Where the customer has a nominee acting on their behalf the payment should be made to the account the regular payment is usually delivered to (that is, if a payment nominee exists, the rejected payment should be reissued to the nominee's bank account).

Age Pension and Pension Bonus Scheme (PBS) payments

If Age Pension and PBS payments are granted on the same day and the combined payment exceeds the system limitation amount of $80,000, the payment will reject. A manual grant letter (Q999) should be sent once all the payments have been reissued.

Parental Leave Pay (PPL) delivered by an employer

The Paid Parental Leave Employer Processing Team (PPLEPT) is responsible for re-issuing PPL returned payments where PPL delivery is via the employer.