Advance payments of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 103-05040040

An FTB advance payment is a lump sum payment repaid by deductions from the customer's future FTB Part A instalment payments, generally over a period of 26 weeks. Eligible customers can request an FTB advance payment at any time. Eligibility criteria must be met. Customers may have one regular advance as well as one or more one-off advances in place as long as the total amount of the advance payments does not exceed their maximum FTB advance payment amount.

The maximum FTB advance payment amount is subject to the FTB advance payment ceiling. This is a set amount that is the same for all customers.

A customer's maximum FTB advance payment amount is based on their circumstances, so not all customers will qualify for the FTB advance payment ceiling amount.

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

Customers may choose to:

• receive an FTB advance as a one-off payment or as a regular payment (previously known as continuous advance payments)
• have a one-off advance at the same time as a regular advance, each with their own repayment schedule

Note: a customer may be granted a one-off and a regular FTB advance on the same day, but only a single one-off advance can be granted per day.

To be eligible for an FTB advance payment, a customer must:

• receive FTB Part A for at least one FTB A child via instalments. This includes FTB instalment customers who elect to defer part or all of their FTB Part A entitlement
• be legislatively entitled to at least the base rate of FTB Part A for a child under 18. For the base rate of FTB Part A, see Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A - rates (pf). For information on how education requirements and the age of FTB children can affect the rate of an advance payment, see Rate of Advance Payment below
• not have an outstanding debt to the Commonwealth
• have fully repaid any advance payments of FTB that were granted more than 12 months ago (excluding where the balance is less than $0.05)
• not suffer financial hardship due to the payment deduction amount required per fortnight to recover the advance
• not have reduced or suspended recovery in place for a current advance of any type
• have the minimum advance amount available to them

Note: for a regular advance payment to automatically pay each 182 days, the preceding regular advance must be fully recovered within 182 days.

Approved Care Organisations are not eligible for an FTB advance payment.

FTB advance payments are not available to customers subject to Prohibition of FTB Instalment Payments (PIP). If PIP is applied and a customer is already repaying an advance payment, an advance debt will not be raised as the customer retains their entitlement to FTB Part A. An advance debt will be raised if the customer subsequently loses their entitlement to FTB Part A during the advance recovery period.

Regular FTB advance payments are automatically paid to the customer and are set at the minimum FTB advance payment amount. Once the advance payment period of 182 days has passed, another regular FTB advance is automatically paid to the customer, pending ongoing eligibility. This will continue until the customer:

• requests cancellation of the arrangement or
• loses entitlement to the advance

Customers can nominate a date up to 26 weeks (182 days) in the future as their first regular advance assessment day. If the assessment day for a regular advance falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the assessment day will become the next available working day.

A regular advance payment arrangement automatically cancels if the customer fails to meet all eligibility conditions. This includes, where the customer has a current advance with either reduced or suspended recovery arrangement in place. A check is undertaken to determine payment of an ongoing regular advance. Once cancelled, a customer must reapply to commence receiving a regular advance payment.

Customers can only have one regular FTB advance in place at any time.

One-off FTB advance payments are paid to the customer as a single lump sum.

The amount depends on the customer's entitlement to FTB Part A and is negotiated with the customer according to affordability (the customer must have the available funds to make the required repayment and not be placed into financial hardship).

Subject to eligibility criteria, customers can have multiple one-off FTB advance payments in place at any time. After a one-off FTB advance payment has been repaid, it does not have any continuing impact on the payability of future FTB advances.

The customer can test eligibility for a new one-off advance:

• as soon as any previous one-off advance is fully repaid or
• if the customer has more than the minimum amount available

The one advance every 182 day period only applies to regular advances.

If a customer has repaid their regular advance and is subsequently issued a one-off advance at the maximum amount, this will cancel any future regular advances being granted. The customer will not be eligible for a regular or one-off advance until this maximum rate advance has been fully repaid.

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
• FTB customers who are under 18. They are required to have a discussion either over the phone or in person before applying to ensure consideration has been taken regarding the impacts/risks of 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 prior to processing the Advance manually.

The Advance Payments staff facing tools in both Process Direct and Customer First provides the following information about entitlement to future advances on the overview page:

• If an advance can be paid now, today's date will show
• If a date in the future can be determined, this 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' is also 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.

Regular FTB advance payments are set at the minimum FTB advance payment amount.

The amount of a one-off FTB advance payment must be between the minimum FTB advance payment amount and the lesser of:

• the amount requested by the customer
• the maximum FTB advance payment amount
• the maximum FTB advance payment amount available to the customer on the day the request is assessed

If the customer has any outstanding FTB advance payments, the maximum FTB advance payment amount is reduced by the original amount of each outstanding FTB advance. Note: if the outstanding balance is less than 5 cents, the full advance amount is disregarded when calculating the maximum available advance amount. The remaining balance (of between 1 and 4 cents) will be recovered from the customer's next FTB Part A payment.

Note: the maximum FTB advance payment amount is subject to the FTB advance payment ceiling.

An FTB advance payment can only be granted if the customer can afford the repayments without being placed in financial hardship.

If the customer will lose entitlement to FTB Part A within 26 weeks from when they apply for the advance, the advance payment period and the amount of the advance will be reduced.

Example

The youngest child turns 19 years of age and is studying Year 12 and the advance application is lodged on 1 November. As the FTB Part A would cease at the end of the calendar year in which the child turned 19, the advance period would only be from 1 November to 31 December.

If an FTB customer is paid via a manual rate, the system cannot calculate an advance payment as the rate of payment has been determined by a Service Officer and not the system. If a manual rate customer applies for an advance payment, refer the case to the ICT Service Desk via mySupport using the form 'Support when assisting families'.

Offer a referral to Financial Management support services, including Commonwealth Financial Counselling (CFC) where it is considered the customer may benefit from the referral. Referrals are also offered via self service channels.

The service is voluntary, confidential and free.

Indicators that a customer may benefit from financial counselling include:

• repeated requests for an FTB advance payment
• rejections due to affordability
• reduced or suspended advance payment recovery

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

The basic rate of repayment is the amount of the FTB advance payment divided by the number of days in the advance payment period (generally 182 days). A shorter advance period may apply if the customer will lose FTB Part A entitlement before this time.

If a customer is repaying two or more FTB advance payments at any time, each one will have its own deduction amount, and these will make up the total amount deducted from the fortnightly FTB payment.

Customers can also request changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment.

A debt will be raised for any advance amount that has not been recovered where a customer has received an FTB advance, and:

• they subsequently lose their entitlement to FTB Part A, including when Part A is zero rate - income too high (CZR-ITH) or
• their rate of FTB Part A is reduced to zero due to an FTB Part A rate reduction, Note: these debts will be raised after 21 days, or
• their rate of FTB Part A reduces and it will take an unreasonable amount of time to repay the FTB advance. If the repayment period increases to between 1 to 2 years, a number of factors must be considered before manually raising an advance debt