Advance payment for non-pension customers 103-05040010

This procedure only relates to customers receiving:

• ABSTUDY
• Austudy
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP)
• Parenting Payment Partnered (PPP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Youth Allowance (YA)

This procedure does not apply to:

• Customers receiving Age Pension, Carer Payment (CP) or Disability Support Pension (DSP). Advance payment for pension customers has the relevant details for these customers
• Home Equity Access Scheme advance payments
• Advance payments for Home Equity Access Scheme loans
• Advance payments of Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
• Advance payments of Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Lump sum advance payments of Mobility Allowance (MOB)
• Special Employment Advance (SEA), or
• Answering calls in Centrelink

Eligible customers can ask for an advance payment of part of their future entitlement as a lump sum. There is no requirement for a customer to tell Services Australia how they intend to use the advance payment.

To qualify for an advance payment, a non-pension customer must:

• be currently receiving one of:
• ABSTUDY
• Austudy
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP)
• Parenting Payment Partnered (PPP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Youth Allowance (YA)
• be in Australia when the application is lodged
• not have an outstanding debt to the Commonwealth
• not have received an advance payment in the previous 12 months
• not have an existing advance payment - this does not include other types of advance payments such as Pharmaceutical Allowance (PhA), Family Tax Benefit (FTB), or Mobility Allowance (MOB)
• be eligible for an advance payment of at least $250 (this is the legislated minimum advance amount payable)
• be able to repay the advance payment without suffering financial hardship
• have been receiving a social security entitlement payment for a continuous period of 3 months immediately before the customer's application for the advance payment. There are payments that may count towards the three months in receipt of an income support payment for an advance payment. Exception: ABSTUDY or Austudy customers, and YA customers undertaking or about to undertake an approved course of education or study, do not need to have received income support for more than 3 months

Note: customers receiving Special Benefit (SpB) are not eligible to apply for an advance payment, but periods on this payment may contribute towards the 3 month continuous period. Customers who transitioned to JSP will be eligible to apply for an advance payment from 20 March 2020, if they meet all other eligibility requirements.

See Advances for information on:

• Advance payments for income managed customers
• 'At Risk' customers
• Weekly payment customers
• Customers with nominee arrangements

Strongly encourage customers to use digital channels unless they are ineligible. Digital services available include Online Services, Express Plus mobile app or Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR).

Customers ineligible to use digital services to apply for an advance are:

• Customers who have a nominee arrangement in place
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers who are under 18. They can claim by telephone or a service centre. They need to have a discussion either over the phone or in person before applying to make sure consideration has been taken regarding the impacts/risks or an advance payment
• Weekly payment customers. They can apply via telephone or at a service centre
• Independent customers under 18 years of age. They are considered 'at risk' customers and must have a face-to-face interview when applying for an advance (except if rural and/or remote). 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 who face physical or intellectual barriers to accessing digital options. They can apply over the telephone or in person
• Customers applying for Pharmaceutical Allowance Advance, Farm Household Allowance Advance and/or Special Employment Advance (SEA)

Note: if the customer states self-service options are unavailable, check NNU, Newsflash and Bulletins to confirm this before processing the Advance manually.

Customers must be advised of how often they can be paid an advance, so they have a chance to change the amount before any advance being finalised.

Non-pension customers can receive one advance payment in any 12 month period regardless of the amount granted. Exception: Parenting Payment Single (PPS) customers who apply for an advance payment within 28 days of becoming single may receive an advance payment regardless of when they last received an advance payment. They must meet all other qualification requirements.

A customer who receives an advance payment of any amount between $250 and $500 will not be eligible for another standard advance payment for a full 12 months. The customer must be advised of this before the advance is finalised, so they have the option to increase the amount taken, if they wish. However, the customer may be eligible for another type of advance, for example:

• Family Tax Benefit Advance
• Special Employment Advance
• Mobility Allowance Advance
• Pharmaceutical Allowance Advance

For non-pension customers, the minimum advance payment payable is $250. This is the minimum amount set by legislation. If a customer applies for less than $250 or they are not entitled to receive more than $250, the application for the advance payment will be rejected.

The maximum advance payment payable is the smaller of:

• the amount requested by the customer (up to $500), or
• the percentage of the customer's annual rate of payment worked out below (up to $500):
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS) customers - 6% of their annual payment rate
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP), YA, PP partnered, ABSTUDY and Austudy customers - 7% of their fortnightly payment rate x 26

The fortnightly payment rate used in calculating advance payment entitlement is 14 x the daily rate paid to the customer on their last Entitlement Period End Date (EPED) before they applied for the advance payment.

• If the amount the person was paid on their last payday was nil (this can include having a benefit status of CZR - current at zero rate), the customer will not qualify for the advance payment
• If the amount of their payment is reduced because of income, the amount they may be eligible for will be less than $500

If this occurs, the customer may decide to withdraw their application and reapply after they receive their next payment, which will be paid at a higher daily rate. The fortnightly rate amount includes:

• Rent Assistance (RA)
• Pharmaceutical Allowance (PhA)
• Energy Supplement payable
• the application of income and parental means tests

Remote Area Allowance (RAA) is not included in the rate.

Before an amount is determined, the agency must also make sure the customer is able to meet the repayments without being placed in financial hardship. See Amount of advance payment based on affordability, below.

An advance payment can only be granted if the customer can afford to repay the advance without being placed in financial hardship. For this reason, the agency will only offer an amount the customer can afford. This is determined by the amount the customer states they can afford to repay each fortnight.

For example, if a customer states they have $30 left over each fortnight they will only be offered an amount equal to 13 times this amount even though they may have otherwise been eligible for a higher amount.

If a reduced or suspended repayment arrangement is in place for an existing advance (for example, FTB), this should be reviewed before any new advance is assessed. If the repayments on the existing advance cannot be returned to the standard rate without causing financial hardship, then a further advance should not be granted.

When the advance is applied for, the customer agrees that the advance will be repaid by deductions from their Income Support Payment over the next 13 fortnights. The amount the customer is paid is divided by 13 to determine the repayment amount.

The customer can also make lump sum repayments of the outstanding balance using the Advance Payment - Make a payment service in the Centrelink Online Account or Express Plus Centrelink App.

The Advance Payments workflow provides the following information about entitlement to future advances on the overview page:

• If an advance is able to be paid now, today's date will show
• If a date in the future can be determined, the date will show. The customer should be advised that the next possible advance date is only a guide. If there is any change to their rate, the date they may be able to have an advance may also change. The information is not a guarantee of the date they will be eligible. The customer should not rely on this information as a basis to enter into financial obligations or incur expenses

The 'next possible advance date' will also be available via online and phone self service channels.

Note: the date is calculated from the information currently held on the record, and it may change if the customer's circumstances change. The only accurate assessment is on the day of application.

Dependent Youth Allowance (YA) customers under 18 years of age who have their regular YA payments directed to their parents may qualify for an advance payment, but the payment must be directed to the parents or payment nominee, unless the parent directs otherwise. A parent cannot claim an advance payment on behalf of their dependent YA child unless the parent is a correspondence nominee.

Advance payments are not available to ABSTUDY secondary school boarding students when payments are made via ABSTUDY boarding instalment to a boarding school or hostel, or to students with an outstanding debt.

Dependent ABSTUDY students aged under 18 years must have parental approval to receive an advance payment. A parent cannot claim an advance payment on behalf of their dependent ABSTUDY child. Dependent ABSTUDY customers aged under 18 who have their regular ABSTUDY payments directed to their parent(s), will also have any advance payment directed to the parent's account.

Dependent ABSTUDY students aged under 18 may apply for an advance payment by phone or in person, with parental approval confirmed via a statement from the parent or by telephone.

Centrepay is a free bill-paying service offered to customers receiving Centrelink payments. Through Centrepay, they choose to pay bills by having a regular amount deducted from their payments and transferred electronically to an approved organisation.