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

A partner or third party (who is not a correspondence nominee), although they might have permission to enquire, cannot claim an advance payment on behalf of the customer.

Direct customers to their online account, Express Plus Centrelink mobile app or the phone self-service to:

• check eligibility and apply for an FTB advance payment
• determine when they are next eligible to apply for an advance payment
• receive details of previous advances including any outstanding balance

Customers may be unable to use digital channels due to one of the following reasons:

• are 'at Risk'
• have a nominee
• have a physical or intellectual barrier to using self-managed services
• self-service channels are currently unavailable (confirmed by NNU, Newsflash and Bulletins)
• are on a manual rate

While customers are strongly encouraged to use digital options, some customers may have other barriers that prevent this and should be helped to claim an advance payment.

Is the customer unable to use digital channels for these reasons?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 2

• Advance Payment online - see Advance payment options online. Note: The Services Australia website has an online tutorial for customers wishing to apply for an advance payment using their Centrelink online account
• Express Plus mobile app - see Services available via Express Plus Centrelink mobile apps
• Phone self-service options - see Accessing and using Centrelink self service

The Resources page contains online tutorials to assist customers with claiming an Advance using digital channels, including Online services and Express Plus mobile apps.

Procedure ends here.

Where the customer is unable to use self-service options, use the Advance Payments workflow in Process Direct.

If the customer wants to:

• apply for an FTB advance payment and their rate is automatically calculated, go to Step 4
• apply for an FTB advance payment but are on a manual rate, if customer is otherwise eligible, refer to ICT Service Desk via mySupport. Use the form 'Support when assisting families'. Ensure all relevant information is recorded on the customer record. Procedure ends here
• cease their regular FTB advance payment arrangement, see Table 3

This procedure does not apply where the customer requests to:

• vary or suspend the repayment arrangement of an existing FTB advance, see Changes to the repayment rate of an advance payment
• make a lump sum repayment to an existing FTB advance payment, see Lump sum repayment of advance payment

Options are Regular or One-off FTB advance payment types:

• Are paid to the customer as a single lump sum
• The amount is negotiated with the customer, based on their financial circumstances (affordability) and eligibility
• Customers may have one or more one-off advances in place at any one time (including at the same time as a regular FTB advance payment)

• Are automatically paid to the customer and are set at the minimum FTB advance payment amount
• Customers can only have one regular FTB advance in place at any one time. A rejection message will show when a customer applies for a regular advance and already has a regular advance in place
• Once the advance payment period of 26 weeks has passed and the advance is paid in full another is automatically paid to the customer if they remain eligible
• Automatic payment of regular FTB advance payments will continue until the customer cancels the arrangement or entitlement is lost
• Customers can nominate a date up to 26 weeks (182 days) in the future as their first regular advance assessment day. A future regular advance will show as Pending Approval
• If the assessment day for a subsequent regular advance falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the assessment day will become the next available working day

To be eligible for a FTB Part A advance payment the customer must:

• receive FTB Part A for an FTB child via instalments (this includes FTB instalment customers who elect to defer part or all of their FTB Part A entitlement)
• not have an outstanding debt to the Commonwealth on the day they apply for the advance payment that can be recovered from their FTB payments (this can be checked on the Debt List (OPDL) screen)
• have an ongoing entitlement equivalent to at least the base FTB Part A rate payable for one child under 18 years of age
• have repaid in full (or have a balance less than $0.05) any previous FTB advance payments received more than 12 months ago (the Advance Payments Summary (AVCS) screen will show if previous advance payment details exist)
• have the minimum advance amount available

Note: there is no limit to the number of FTB advance payments that can be in place at any time.

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

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, see Table 2

Identify the type and then select the appropriate option.

The Service Officer must first identify whether the arrangement is voluntary or involuntary:

• Select nominee arrangement from Nominee Link Summary (NOLS) screen
• The Basis: field should be VOL (voluntary) or INV (involuntary)
• The Nominee Relationship Summary (NORS) screen also shows the Reason for arrangement:
• for voluntary arrangements, this may be Voluntary, Voluntary Power of Attorney or Centrelink Appointed
• for involuntary arrangements, this may be Court Appointed or Involuntary Power of Attorney

• If a correspondence nominee or involuntary nominee has applied, process the claim. Annotate the DOC to indicate that the applicant was the nominee including the name of the person and the organisation if an involuntary nominee. See Table 2
• If a voluntary payment nominee only or a third party who only has Person Permitted to Enquire (PPE) has applied, tell them that only correspondence nominees can apply on behalf of the customer. See Obligations of nominees for more details. Procedure ends here
• If the person applying on the customer's behalf is both a voluntary correspondence and payment nominee, treat them as a correspondence nominee

If the customer has applied and they have a:

• Voluntary correspondence or voluntary correspondence and payment nominee arrangement, if the Service Officer has concerns about the customer's capacity to understand what an advance payment is and their ability to make regular fortnightly repayments at the set rate, contact the nominee before processing the advance payment request. Details of contact must be recorded in a DOC
• Voluntary payment nominee only arrangement, contact with the nominee is not required
• Involuntary arrangement (usually will be with a State Trustee organisation), contact must be made with the organisation. The advance payment can only be approved with the nominee's permission. Details of the organisation and person contacted must be recorded in the DOC. In most cases, the Trustee organisation will not approve an advance payment for the customer
• See Table 2

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

In Process Direct:

• Key START into the Super Key
• Select the Advance Payments workflow from the Task Selector
• On Advance Payments overview:
• Select the Advance payment type: field, select Family Tax Benefit Advance
• Select Next
• Family Tax Benefit Advance will show

Does a warning show?

• Yes, and the warning message shows:
• income managed, go to Step 2
• automatic rejection, go to Step 3
• nominee, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 10

When an income managed customer applies for an advance payment, the following message will show:

'This customer’s payment is subject to Income Management (IM).'

Tell the customer:

• any advance payment is 100% income managed (except for Special Employment Advance which is not subject to IM)
• the total amount of the advance will be paid to their Income Management account and not their nominated bank account
• payment of expenses or transfers to BasicsCard can be made once the advance payment has been credited to the customer’s Income Management account
• their fortnightly income managed funds will be reduced due to the compulsory advance repayments. This may cause an over allocation of funds resulting in undelivered expenses

If the customer wants to:

• continue with the application, and Work Item 'I064Q1-More than 100% of the Income Management fund is allocated' generates because of this activity, refer the customer to either:
• an IM trained staff member
• the Enhanced Income Management line
• withdraw the application, reject the claim by selecting Claim Withdrawn

See the Resources page for a link to Welfare Quarantining Programme Management Team.

Procedure ends here.

A warning message shows advising the customer's circumstances to have been checked and automatic rejection reasons have been identified.

A rejection can only be overridden for the following rejection reason and circumstances.

• Rejection reason: POD - Person has an overpayment/debt

Can be overridden when:

• the debt has been repaid and is not yet updated on the system (and there is evidence the payment has been made such as an official receipt)
• the debt is less than 5 cents, or
• there is no debt

In Override rejection? select Yes or No

If:

• Yes, is selected, complete the following fields:
• Override rejection reason: select the appropriate option
• Go to Step 5
• No is selected, complete the following fields:
• Reject/Withdraw claim? select the appropriate option
• Select Next
• Advance payment application result will show
• Tell the customer the outcome of the advance
• Select Next
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess again, then select Finish
• Add additional notes if required
• Select Finalise
• Go to Step 4

If:

• Yes, go to Step 16
• No, procedure ends here

If the customer has a nominee, a warning message and details of the nominee arrangement will show.

Does the customer have a nominee?

• Yes, and the arrangement is for:
• an Involuntary Nominee, go to Step 6
• a Voluntary Nominee, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 10

The nominee must be contacted and give approval before any advance being granted. See Table 2 in Advances

Has the nominee been contacted and approved the advance?

• Yes:
• To whom did you speak? enter the details
• Go to Step 10
• No:
• A warning message will show advising the customer is unable to apply for advance
• Reject/Withdraw claim? Automatically defaults to Claim Withdrawn
• Select Next
• The Advance payment application result page will show
• Tell the customer the outcome of the advance
• Select Next
• Select Assess and address any warnings or errors on the Errors (SWE) screen by ticking the relevant box. The error message should link to the applicable screen. For help, see Using Digital Assistant Roxy in Process Direct
• Select Assess
• Review the Entitlement (ELD) screen for correct entitlement
• Select Finish
• Review the pre-filled DOC and add any more details, such as any conversations
• Select Finalise to complete the transaction
• Procedure ends here

Customers who have voluntary nominee arrangements are not prevented from applying for an advance payment but if the staff member considers the customer does not understand how having an advance will reduce their fortnightly payment, then contact nominee (if possible) before granting the advance. See Table 2 in Advances.

Does this customer understand the impact on their payment of having the advance?

• Yes, go to Step 10
• No, go to Step 8

A warning message will show prompting Service Officers to consider contacting the nominee.

Has the nominee been contacted and approved the advance?

• Yes, complete the question set to continue with the Advance Payments workflow. Go to Step 10
• No, a warning message will show advising the customer is unable to apply for advance:
• Reject/Withdraw claim? Automatically defaults to Claim Withdrawn
• Select Next
• The Advance payment application result screen will show. Tell the customer the outcome of the advance
• Select Next
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess again, then select Finish
• Record details of the update
• Select Finalise
• Go to Step 9

If:

• Yes, go to Step 16
• No, procedure ends here

The Family Tax Benefit Advance will show.

Update the following fields:

• Date of processing: the date will pre-populate with date of contact
• Payment type: pre-populated based on the advance type selected on the previous screen
• Via which contact channel is the customer requesting the Advance? select from the options
• Please choose payment frequency of Family Tax Benefit Advance: select either:
• One Off advance, then go to Step 11
• Regular Advance, then go to Step 13

The first assessment question determines if the customer can afford to repay the advance payment without being placed in financial hardship.

Ask the customer to think about their current fortnightly expenses to determine how much they can afford to repay for the next 26 weeks (13 fortnights).

If the customer cannot afford to repay the minimum amount the claim will be rejected.

The amount the customer may apply for will change depending on the fortnightly repayment amount entered.

Use the Hardship explanation table to help the customer work out their regular expenses and how much they can afford to repay each fortnight. See What should be included when the customer is working out their available funds? for details of what are regular expenses.

Update the following fields on the Family Tax Benefit Advance screen:

Thinking about your current fortnightly income and expenses; how much do you have left to repay your advance at the end of every fortnight? enter the amount in the text field

• If the customer advises of an amount that would not allow repayments for the minimum advance amount, the following pop-up will show:
• Based on your current circumstances, you are not eligible for the minimum advance allowed, therefore the Advance will be rejected
• The Reject/Withdraw claim? field will show Cannot afford repayments as the rejection reason
• Tell the customer they are not eligible for an advance payment as they cannot afford to meet the repayments
• Go to Step 15
• If the customer advised of an amount that would meet at least the minimum repayment amount the following pop up will show:
• ‘Based on your current circumstances, you may apply for between $xxx. xx and $xxx. xx’
• How much do you want to apply for? enter the advance payment amount the customer wants to apply for
• Go to Step 12

Read the customer the following and confirm they understand:

• Your future payment will be reduced for the next 13 fortnights by:
• the system will calculate and pre-populate this field
• This will be on-going until the advance amount is fully repaid:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood
• If your payment stops before you have repaid the Advance, you will have to repay the amount still owing:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood
• If your payment stops before you have repaid the Advance, you will have to repay the amount still owing:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood

Go to Step 15.

The first assessment determines if the customer can afford to repay the advance payment without being placed in financial hardship.

Ask the customer to think about their current fortnightly expenses to determine how much they can afford to repay for the next 26 weeks (13 fortnights).

If the customer cannot afford to repay the minimum amount the claim will be rejected.

The amount the customer may apply for will change depending on the fortnightly repayment amount entered.

Use the Hardship Explanation table to help the customer work out their regular expenses and how much they can afford to repay each fortnight. See What should be included when the customer is working out their available funds? for details of what are regular expenses.

Update the following fields on the Family Tax Benefit Advance screen:

Thinking about your current fortnightly income and expenses; how much do you have left to repay your advance at the end of every fortnight? enter the amount in the text field

• If the customer advises of an amount that would not allow repayments for the minimum advance amount, the following pop-up will show:
• Based on your current circumstances, you are not eligible for the minimum advance allowed, therefore the Advance will be rejected
• The Reject/Withdraw claim? field will show Cannot afford repayments as the rejection reason
• Tell the customer they are not eligible for an advance payment as they cannot afford to meet the repayments
• Go to Step 15
• If the customer advised of an amount that would meet at least the minimum repayment amount the following pop up will show:
• ‘Based on your current circumstances, you may apply for between $xxx. xx and $xxx. xx’
• How much do you want to apply for? enter the advance payment amount the customer wants to apply for
• Ask the customer the date they wish the FTB regular advance to be paid on and update the Regular advance start date field
• Go to Step 14

Read the customer the following and confirm they understand:

• You can have only one regular advance at any one time. If you remain eligible further regular advances will be paid automatically 26 weeklies. You can stop this arrangement at any time:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood
• Your future payment will be reduced for the next 13 fortnights by:
• the system calculates and pre-populates this field
• This will be on-going until the advance amount is fully repaid:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood
• If your payment stops before you have repaid the Advance, you will have to repay the amount still owing:
• select the box to confirm the customer Understood

Go to Step 15.

Complete the following:

• Reject/Withdraw Claim? (leave blank if not rejecting the claim)
• Select Next to continue
• The Advance payment application result page will show
• The advance amount
• If the advance is in instalments
• The date the advance will be repaid
• The repayment amount
• Tell the customer the outcome of the Advance
• Select Next to continue
• The Errors (SWE) screen will show. Address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess
• The Entitlement (ELD) screen will show
• Go to the Payment Summary (PS) screen. This will show:
• For a one-off advance, the advance will show the expected delivery date
• For a regular advance, the details will only show if the payment is granted today
• Select Execute to view and confirm the advance payment will be paid
• Select Finish. Add additional notes if required
• Select Finalise to complete the workflow

Procedure ends here.

Refer the customer to financial management support services if the FTB advance payment has been rejected due to:

• affordability (HAR)
• less than minimum advance amount available (LMA)
• reduced or suspended recovery in place for any advance payment (RSR)
• the customer is repaying an FTB advance payment granted more than 1 year prior (ROA), or
• the customer has had 4 or more FTB advance payments granted or rejected within the previous 6-month period

If a customer cannot afford the minimum advance amount the request for advance will be rejected for Hardship (HAR) and an indicator for Commonwealth Financial Counselling (CFC) referral will be displayed:

• If a customer chooses Yes to a CFC referral:
• a message 'please refer to Operational Blueprint 003-11020000 to set up a referral to the Commonwealth Financial Service for this customer' will be displayed. See Helping customers to build their financial capability
• a keyword FINHAR will be included into the DOC by the system
• If a customer chooses No to a CFC referral, no message will be displayed, and no keyword will be included into the DOC by the system

In Process Direct:

• Key START into the Super Key
• Select the Advance Payments workflow from the Task Selector
• Select Next

Advance payments overview will show.

On Current advances:

• Select the most recent regular FTB advance that has been paid from the advance payment types:
• Select Modify

The Modify Advance payment screen will show:

• Indicate if the request is being made by phone, mail or in person
• Under Change Action select Cease Regular Payment
• Do you want to discontinue this advance? Select 'Yes'
• Select Save
• Assess through to the Entitlement (ELD) screen and select Finalise on the Finalise DOC