Circumstance Change Monitor (CCM) 133-02160000

CCM reduces the need for customers to contact Services Australia. It gives information about the progress of their online claim.

CCM:

• shows an online tracker to show a claim's progress
• shows the Estimated Completion Date Range (ECDR) of a claim (excludes Mobility Allowance and Special Benefit)
• gives online messages about a claim's progress after it is submitted
• sends SMS and email messages to customers about a claim's progress after it is submitted
• if required, sends requests for more information through SMS and email after a claim is submitted

Claims using CCM allow customers to use their Centrelink online account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app to:

• give all required information before submitting their claim
• submit or cancel their online claims
• view and action tasks relating to their claim
• withdraw a submitted claim
• book their new claim or Unreasonable To Live At Home (UTLAH) appointment
• submit claims without all supporting documents when they meet the exception criteria

Customers must complete all online claim steps and Required tasks unless an exception applies. This will allow the customer to submit their claim.

Customers will get online messaging telling them to submit their claim as soon as possible. This will make sure payments start from the earliest possible date.

Customers have 13 weeks from the claim start date to submit it. If the customer does not submit their claim during this time, it will expire. The Process page contains more details about claims that expire.

The following claims (submitted online or through Assisted Customer Claim) use CCM:

• ABSTUDY Apprentices (Living Allowance and Incidentals)
• ABSTUDY Tertiary (Living Allowance and Incidentals)
• Aged Care Calculation of your cost of care and Aged Care Calculation of your cost of care combined partner
• Age Pension and Age Pension combined partner
• Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP)
• Austudy (Students and Australian Apprentices)
• Carer Payment (CP) and/or Carer Allowance (CA)
• Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)
• Crisis Payment (Extreme Circumstances Family and Domestic Violence, Humanitarian Entrants Release, Other Extreme Circumstances and Release from Prison and Psychiatric Confinement claim types only)
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA)
• Ex-Carer Allowance (Child) (EHC) Health Care Card
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Farm Household Allowance and Farm Household Allowance combined partner (claim submission exceptions apply)
• Foster Child (FST) Health Care Card
• Home Equity Access Scheme
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP)
• Low Income Health Care Card (LIC)
• New Zealand Disaster Recovery Allowance (NZ DRA)
• New Zealand Disaster Recovery Payment (NZ DRP)
• Parental Leave Pay
• Parenting Payment (PP)
• Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)
• Pension Bonus Scheme
• Special Benefit (SpB)
• Tertiary Access Payment
• Youth Allowance (Job seeker)
• Youth Allowance (students and Australian Apprentices)

Note: claims may create as Social Application (SOA) shells:

• for reassessments of rejected claims
• for partner claims
• because of a customer initiated review of decision, or
• automatically upon paper claim submission

Claims created manually via a Social Application (SOA) shell and/or for paper claims have no link to an online claim. This means they are not subject to the CCM process.

Services with CCM allow customers to use their Centrelink online account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app to:

• give all required information before submitting their update
• submit their update
• view and action tasks relating to their update
• submit updates without all supporting documents when they meet the exception criteria

Customers must complete all online service steps and Required tasks unless an exception applies. This will allow the customer to submit their update. The Process page contains the exception criteria for each service type.

The following service uses CCM:

• Add newborn child service

For the Add newborn child service, customers can only access and submit their update if they have an assessed early claim. If the early claim has been determined as 'Not Effective' because proof of birth (or entry into care) was not supplied within the required timeframe, the customer will not be able to access the service and any started updates or tasks will expire.

The following CCM functionality is not available for the Add newborn child service:

• claim tracker
• Estimated Completion Date Range (ECDR)
• tailored messaging
• targeted notifications

The Add newborn child service does not use Assisted Customer Claims (ACC).

The staff facing Add newborn workflow is accessed via Customer First > Workspace > Add Newborn.

Customers who are unable or unsuitable to complete the Add newborn child service, should be encouraged to provide requested information by mail or in person. Service Officers can record the return of requested documents using the Add newborn workflow in Customer First.

The Process page contains details about managing tasks in Process Direct and Customer First.

Customers using the app will have similar claim progress information shown.

However, Farm Household Allowance (FHA) combined partner task and the Age Pension or Aged Care combined partner task will only show in the app for a customer, not their partner.

Customers using the app can:

• cancel an incomplete claim
• upload documents to complete Required and Supplementary tasks
• submit their claim when all Required tasks are complete
• confirm the date they submit their claim
• get messages when their claim is On Hold and needs more information
• get advice of their claim outcome

Note: the Add newborn child service in the app does not allow the customer to:

• cancel an incomplete Add Newborn update
• get messages when their Add Newborn is On Hold and needs more information
• receive targeted notifications

Staff can view the Next steps page and claim tracker in ACC.

Note: it is important for Service Officers to ask customers if they have a Centrelink online account before promoting CCM and/or requesting information. Although Claims using CCM submitted by Service Officers in ACC will use CCM, customers will not be able to access all options (including the claim tracker) if they do not have a Centrelink online account.

Customers who are unable or unsuitable to complete an online claim, should be encouraged to provide requested information by mail or in person. Service Officers can record the return of requested documents by either:

• Process Direct by selecting the Tasks icon
• Customer First using the Request and Manage Customer Tasks guided procedure

The Process page contains information about managing tasks in Process Direct and Customer First.

Customers subscribed to Electronic Messaging (EM) will get CCM notifications whether they have a Centrelink online account or not.

Staff can view the SMS and online letters sent to customers, see Viewing or reissuing a letter or electronic message.

In some circumstances, it may not be reasonable for a customer to complete all their Required tasks before they submit their claim. Customers will need to meet certain exception criteria to submit without all required tasks. These include exceptions where:

• certain vulnerabilities exist
• claim submission dates are time critical, or
• where only parental income details are outstanding for Youth Allowance claims

The Process page contains the exception criteria for each claim type.

If an exception applies and the customer submits their claim without providing all required documents:

• the documents will remain on Next steps with a status of Required, and
• they must provide the documents by the due date for their claim to be processed

Customers who submit claims online or via ACC with CCM functionality, can track the progress of their claim using their Centrelink online account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Claim tracker status includes:

• Submitted
• In Progress/On Hold
• Outcome/Completed

The Process page contains more details about the claim tracker.

Customers are automatically subscribed to Electronic Messaging (EM) and letters online when they first link their Centrelink online account. If the customer unsubscribes, they will not get notifications throughout the claim process. After making a claim a customer will need to resubscribe to Electronic Messaging (EM) through the My profile service in order to get notifications about their claim.

Notification timeframes are calculated using calendar days.

The Process page contains a list of EM notifications a customer may get during the progress of their claim.

Customers must inform the agency if their contact details change.

CCM does not support these claims:

• Mobility Allowance (MOB)
• Essential Medical Equipment Payment (EMEP)
• Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP)
• paper claims
• claims created through the 'SOA shell' function in Process Direct