Advances 103-05040000

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Question

1

Can a partner apply for an advance payment on behalf of the customer?

Answer: No, unless they are the customer's nominee. A partner, although they may have permission to enquire, is not allowed to claim an advance payment on behalf of the customer.

2

Can income managed customers apply for an advance payment?

Answer: Yes, customers whose payments are income managed can apply for an advance payment. However, 100% of the funds will be income managed so will not be paid into the customer's nominated bank account. The funds will be available the next day in the customer's Income Management account and can be accessed by the customer through their BasicsCard or Third Party Organisation allocations.

Note: there is no one day or two day delivery based on the payment type the customer is receiving. Funds are credited with the nightly payment strip and available in the Income Management account the next day. This means customers who are granted an advance on a Friday can access these funds on the weekend using self service options to transfer funds to their BasicsCard.

3

How can 'at risk' customers and customers with a nominee arrangement in place apply for an advance payment?

Answer: For Social Security Entitlement advances 'At risk' customers are customers who are independent Youth Allowance (YA) or independent ABSTUDY recipients and are aged under 18 years or independent customers under 18 years of age on other payment.

'At risk' customers applying for a Social Security Entitlement advance must have a face-to-face interview when applying (except if rural and/or remote). A thorough assessment of the customer's individual circumstances is required before the advance is assessed.

Customers must be made fully aware of the impacts of taking the offer of an advance payment.

Rurally isolated customers are those who live in rural or remote areas who live more than 90 minutes from a service centre and have no access to a service centre.

Customers with a nominee are not able to use self service channels to apply for an advance payment and must contact a Service Officer at either a service centre or smart centre.

For Family Tax Benefit (FTB) advance payment applications customers under the age of 18 are considered to be 'at risk' and are required to discuss their application with a Service Officer prior to receiving an FTB advance payment, this contact may be completed by the smart centre.

This ensures customers access advance payments only after a thorough assessment of their individual circumstances and are aware of the impacts of taking up the offer of an advance payment.

If, during the interview, it is determined that the customer is in the care of a government authority, such as Child Services, it may be appropriate to contact their case worker to discuss the customer's application for advance payment.

4

How can weekly payment customers apply for an advance payment?

Answer: Weekly payment customers can apply for an advance payment via either smart centre or service centre. Weekly payment customers cannot use self service channels.

These customers also require a thorough investigation of their circumstances and ability to repay without placing themselves in financial hardship before an advance being granted. If a customer has a gambling, alcohol, other addiction or financial issues, consider other options such as:

• referring the recipient to a social worker
• suggesting the customer apply for a smaller advance, or
• after thoroughly assessing the customer's expenses, a rejection under hardship may be appropriate

Customers must be made fully aware of the impacts of taking the offer of an advance payment.

Under no circumstances should repayments be reduced immediately following the grant of an advance payment.

Before any advance is granted staff should take into consideration:

• The customer's living arrangement. (Do they have stable accommodation? If not, any additional expense may impact on their ability to secure this)
• Any expenses they already have that will be reducing their fortnightly available funds
• Is the amount the customer has declared to have left each fortnight after expenses reasonable? As weekly payments are used to help customers with their budgeting needs, if the customer is declaring a large excess each fortnight, this may not be realistic and careful investigation of their financial situation may be required

Note: the information currently displayed in the advance payment workflow in relation to weekly payment customers requiring a face-to-face contact to request an advance payment is incorrect.

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Question

1

What is the tax status of an advance payment?

Answer: For tax purposes, advance payments are treated as a 'loan of money'. This applies irrespective of when the advance payment was paid during the financial year. Advance payments do not attract any additional tax liability as they are not an extra payment but a lump sum payment of the customer's ongoing entitlement.

2

Can the advance be paid as a lump sum or instalments?

Answer: All advances can be paid as a lump sum into their normal bank account. Social Security Entitlement advance payments can also be paid in 2 instalments.

The customer must nominate the instalment amounts and the date they require the second instalment to be automatically paid. Staff must code this date in line with current payment processing times. For a pension customer, the instalment date is coded as 2 working days prior to the date the funds are required by the customer. For a non-pension customer, the instalment date is coded as one working day prior to the date the funds are required by the customer.

The second instalment must be paid within 6 months of grant of the advance.

When a customer elects to have instalments, the recovery rate is calculated on the full amount to be advanced.

3

If an advance has been processed in 2 instalments in error, can this be undone?

Answer: No, it cannot be undone, but the date of delivery of the second instalment can be changed to still deliver the advance in 2 instalments, but over consecutive days. Use the Modify function within the Manage Advances action in Process Direct to alter the delivery date of the second instalment.

4

If an advance has been processed in error, can this be undone?

Answer: If the advance has been processed due to a fraudulent claim or has been granted on an incorrect record, the advance can be removed by ICT. See, Deletion of advance granted on incorrect record or fraudulently claimed.

5

If a customer calls to request an advance payment (and it has been processed), can the customer contact Services Australia later that same day to advise they no longer wish to receive the advance and request it be cancelled?

Answer: No. Once the advance has been processed, the decision has been made under legislation to meet the customer's request. The customer should be advised the advance will be paid as it has been processed.

6

What do I do if a customer has been granted an advance payment on a multiple record?

Answer: If a multiple record has been identified, see Centrelink customer has multiple Customer Reference Numbers (CRN) and Initial remediation on a multiple or intertwined Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN) for details on the action to take to have the record corrected.

If the customer has been granted an advance payment on the incorrect record and the balance is still outstanding, a mySupport request needs to be raised to request the advance payment be moved to the correct CRN. If the advance cannot be moved, then a debt will need to be raised for the outstanding balance.

If the advance is fully repaid, the advance information cannot be moved to the correct record.

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Question

1

Is a customer entitled to an advance payment if they have a temporarily written off overpayment?

Answer: For Social Security advance payments: no. Only the recovery of the overpayment has been temporarily written off, therefore the customer still has a recoverable debt owing to the Commonwealth Government. This includes those with non-lodger debts temporarily written off under the separated couples rule.

For Family Tax Benefit (FTB), generally, if the customer has an overpayment temporarily written off, they still have a recoverable debt owed to the Commonwealth and they will not be entitled to an advance payment, except if the debt is temporarily written off due to an ex-partner non-lodger debt or bankruptcy debt - these debts will not affect their eligibility for an advance payment.

Mobility Allowance Advance payments, however, are not affected by existing debts.

2

Is a customer entitled to an advance payment if they have a permanently written off overpayment?

Answer: If the overpayment has been permanently written off, while the customer still owes the amount to the Commonwealth Government, it is no longer recoverable by means of deductions. This means the customer is eligible for an advance payment. The Service Officer still has a duty of care to ensure the customer will not be placed in financial hardship and may reject the application for this reason.

If the Service Officer is satisfied the customer will not be placed in financial hardship, they can grant the advance payment.

3

Should a Service Officer grant a customer an advance when they apply with an outstanding debt balance of less than 5 cents?

Answer: This procedure will not work for Special Employment Advance (SEA) or Pharmaceutical Allowance (PhA) Advance. When a customer pays the outstanding balance of a debt, but a rounding amount remains outstanding, any advance payment application processed will automatically reject. Service Officers are allowed in these instances to override the rejection using the Manage Advances action in Process Direct where the customer has an outstanding debt balance of less than 5 cents. This is so the customer is not disadvantaged by the administrative process which occurs as the remaining rounding amount will not clear until after the customer's next pay day.

Example: Customer has a debt for $234.67, they attend a Post Office or service centre to pay $234.67 but due to rounding only pay $234.65. The 0.02 cents outstanding will not clear until the customer's next pay. A Service Officer can manually override the application rejection and process the next advance if the customer meets all other qualification criteria.

4

If a customer has a Compensation Insurer debt that has not been repaid, can they receive an advance payment?

Answer: This type of debt does not meet the disqualification requirements and should not prevent the customer from receiving an advance. The debt is owed to the Commonwealth by the insurer, not the customer.

As the system is unable to identify this type of debt from other debts, the workflow will automatically reject the application. In these cases, the rejection should be overridden. Note: there is no override feature for Special Employment Advance (SEA) or Pharmaceutical Advance (PhA).

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Question

1

How are repayments calculated?

Answer: The system will generate a repayment amount spread over the next 13 fortnights.

If the amount of repayment requested by the customer is equal to or greater than the system generated amount, this amount is accepted and updated on the customer's record when the advance payment is being granted.

If the amount of repayment requested by the customer is less than the system generated amount, the customer's advance payment will be rejected as the customer is unable to afford the repayments.

For some pension, non-pension and Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers who may have more than one advance payment in place at a time, each advance payment is recovered separately. If the customer is granted a second or third advance payment while still repaying an earlier one (for non-pension customers, this would be their SSE advance and any FTB advances), the amount deducted from their fortnightly payment will increase.

2

Can a customer make extra advance repayments outside of their regular fortnightly repayments?

Answer: A customer may elect to repay an amount/s of an outstanding advance payment at any time. Customers can repay their advance amount using their debit or credit card via the self-service channels, or with staff assistance over the phone or in a service centre.

Where the repayment is made via Centrelink online account, Express Plus Centrelink mobile app or Australia Post Billpay, the repayment will be recognised immediately as 'paid' and the customer may apply for a new advance as long as all other eligibility criteria is met. This does not apply if the customer makes payment at Australia Post by cheque. In this situation, the cheque must be cleared (can be up to 7 days) before the advance can be granted.

If the customer is repaying the outstanding amount/s in order to immediately qualify (pending all other criteria) for another advance payment, see Lump sum repayment of advance payment.

Note: customers cannot repay an amount that is greater than the outstanding balance.

Exception: customers in receipt of an advance payment of Mobility Allowance (MOB) cannot return a MOB advance payment unless that advance payment was initially paid to them in error.

3

Can a customer repay an outstanding debt in cash to qualify for an advance payment?

Answer: Yes, customers can repay their debts in cash at a service centre however this should only be in exceptional circumstances where neither the online channels including the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app or Australia Post Billpay cannot be used.

Where the repayment is made via Centrelink online account or Express Plus Centrelink mobile app using their debit or credit card, the repayment will be recognised immediately as 'paid' and the customer may apply for a new advance.

Customers may also use Australia Post BillPay, direct debit and BPAY® to repay their debt.

4

Customer has transferred to another payment. Why have their repayments ceased?

Answer: Where a customer transfers between Social Security Entitlement payments, for example from Carer Payment to Youth Allowance, a Manual Follow-up (MFU) will trigger the recovery of their outstanding advance payment after 3 weeks. The repayment rate cannot be modified prior to this review maturing.

If a person is no longer entitled to a Social Security Entitlement and there is a balance of an outstanding advance, the balance becomes a debt to the Commonwealth. After 21 days a debt will automatically create on the customers record and the advance will be finalised. For more details, see Raising Debts of advance payments.

5

Can a customer have their rate of repayment increased?

Answer: Yes. Customers may request their rate of repayment be increased.

The repayment can only be increased if the customer will not suffer financial hardship due to the new repayment amount.

There is no restriction on the amount a staff member can increase the repayment amount to, as long as the customer has the capacity to meet the repayment amount without being placed in hardship.

The repayment amount cannot be increased for MOB advance payments.

For further information, see Changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment.

6

Can a customer increase their rate of repayment via online services?

Answer: Yes. Customers can request to increase their rate of repayment. The preferred channel is to use Centrelink online account or the Express Plus mobile app. This request will be approved only if the customer will not suffer severe financial hardship.

The increased amount must be less than or equal to twice the legislated repayment amount which is determined by dividing the advance amount by 13. For example, a $500 advance equals repayments of $38.50 per fortnight, therefore the increase should not exceed $77 per fortnight.

The repayment amount cannot be increased for MOB advance payments.

For further information, see Changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment.

7

Can the customer have their rate of repayment decreased?

Answer: Decreasing the rate of repayment or stopping the repayments should only be considered for the standard advance, FTB advance (except the one-off transitional FTB advance payment) or SEA if:

• the customer has special and unusual circumstances, and
• they would suffer severe financial hardship if the repayment rate was not reduced

Note: future applications for an FTB advance payment will reject if an outstanding advance of any type has a reduced recovery arrangement in place.

Repayments are not to be decreased on the same day as the advance is granted as the customer must have capacity to make repayments at the standard rate for the advance to be granted.

Repayments can only be decreased or ceased for up to 3 months and then the recipient's circumstances must be reviewed.

The repayment amount cannot be reduced for MOB advance payments.

For further information, see Changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment.

8

Can the customer use online services to have their rate of repayment decreased?

Answer: A customer may decrease their advance repayment amount using the online channels only if they are currently on an increased repayment rate and the decreased amount is greater than or equal to the prior legislated repayment amount. This is determined by dividing the advance amount by 13. For example, a $500 advance equals repayments of $38.50 per fortnight.

The repayment amount cannot be reduced for MOB advance payments.

For further information, see Changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment.