Urgent payment requests using self service 133-18071206

To access the service, customers need to register for phone self service and can phone either:

• 136 240 general phone self service, or
• authenticate via their main business line and ask for 'urgent payment'

Some customers will not have access to the phone self service. The service will advise earlier on that they cannot use it. This includes customers who:

• are Income Managed
• are on weekly payments
• are living overseas
• have a nominee
• have already received 2 urgent payments in the previous 12 months (the system will check the customer’s record for payments that have been issued with payment reason codes of EXC, ECI or URG)
• are not receiving an eligible payment
• already applied on the same day
• are Farm Household Allowance (FHA) customers

The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) will advise the customer:

'Please note that for most cases there is now a maximum of 2 urgent payments in a 12-month period' and asks 'Are you calling to request an urgent payment?' For some types of urgent payments, our staff need to assist you, so please tell me what this payment is for. You can say 'Funeral', 'Late Payment', or 'Other''.

If the customer selects:

• Funeral or Late Payment, they will transfer to a Service Officer
• Other, the service will list reasons the customer can choose from

The IVR will ask the customer for the reason for the urgent payment.

'I need to know your reason for the urgent payment request. I'll go through a list of reasons you can choose from. When you hear the one that seems right for you, just interrupt me and say it. Here are your options:

• Medical
• Job offer
• Household goods
• Accommodation
• Lost wallet
• Utility bills
• Living expenses
• Court costs or fines'

The IVR will confirm the selection made by the customer. Depending on the reason, there may be a follow-up question to determine if the reason is valid. Where the reason does not meet the exceptional and unforeseen criteria, the customer will transfer to a Service Officer.

For customers that meet the exceptional and unforeseen criteria, the IVR will ask them the amount they want to request.

• If the customer nominates an amount above their allowable limit, the service will advise the amount
• If they insist on an amount that exceeds their maximum allowable, the service will transfer the call

The service will confirm the amount requested and their next regular payment.

If the customer confirms, the service will ask 'Do you want to go ahead with that?'

The customer will hear the below message specific to their payment type, and if they would like to receive via direct credit, or priority direct credit. For example, the service will advise Carer Payment (CP) customers that direct credit will arrive in their bank account in 2 working days.

'There are different ways to receive your payment. With Direct Credit, the payment arrives in your bank account the next working day. With priority direct credit, that payment would arrive in your bank account on the same day, however it may take until 9am the next working day. There may be a processing fee from your bank if using priority direct credit.'

If the customer chooses Priority Direct Credit, the system will determine if the payment is issued via New Payments Platform (NPP) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). The system will always default to NPP where the account is NPP reachable

If the customer chooses 'some other method', the call will transfer to a Service Officer. They can also choose to hear more information first about the payment options.

The next message will let the caller know we are now submitting their request

‘Your urgent payment has been approved. Your receipt number is XXXXXX. If the payment is not in your account within 30 minutes, please contact us. This will need to be during business hours. The new amount of your next regular payment will come down to $xxx. That amount could change if you report any income, or if your circumstances change. Once again, your receipt number is XXXXXX.

Urgent payment information will record in 2 places:

• If payment issues, there will be a DOC on the Document List (DL) screen to show the amount paid. (This is a system produced DOC that creates for all urgent payments grants)
• There will also be a Note in Process Direct showing the reason for payment and the amount paid
• In Customer First, there will be a Super Case where urgent payment requests will record (grant, reject or withdrawn). See Customer details and cases on how to access this information

See the Resources page for Grant and Rejection reasons.

To access the service, customers can select the following through their:

• Centrelink online account:
• From the homepage, select MENU > Payment and claims > Manage payments, then Request an urgent payment
• use the search function available
• add the Request an urgent payment service to their Favourite services list
• Express Plus Centrelink mobile app:
• From the home screen, select More > Request an urgent payment
• The app will securely re-direct the customer to their Centrelink online account in their mobile browser to use this service. This will also exit them from their mobile app session

There is help text available on each page that guides the customer to complete their request for an urgent payment. It will also remind them of their obligations.

Some customers will not have access to the online account service. The service will advise earlier on that they cannot use it. This includes customers who:

• are Income Managed
• are on weekly payments
• are living overseas
• have a nominee
• have already received 2 urgent payments in the previous 12 months (the system will check the customer’s record for payments that have been issued using payment reason codes of EXC, ECI or URG)
• are not receiving an eligible payment
• already applied on the same day
• are Farm Household Allowance (FHA) customers

To make sure the customer wants to continue to apply for an urgent payment, the page will show the following content:

'You can apply to get part of your next payment early.

You can make 1 Urgent Payment request each day. Usually, we only approve 2 Urgent Payments in any 12 month period.'

To continue, the customer selects Begin.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'An Urgent Payment can help with an unexpected one-off event that you've only just found out about.'

The service will advise the customer there may be other assistance available. It will provide the option to explore other assistance first.

If the customer selects Explore other assistance, they will be taken to the Payment and Service Finder.

If the customer selects Request an Urgent Payment, they will continue to the next page.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'An Urgent Payment can help when you're in severe financial hardship due to an unexpected one-off event that you've just found out about. Other assistance may help instead of an Urgent Payment.'

The customer has 3 options:

• Funeral expenses
• My payment is late
• Other

If the customer selects either Funeral expenses or My payment is late, they can select Next, followed by Continue. The customer will get the following message:

‘You’re unable to request an urgent payment online.’

They are also advised that they need to contact Centrelink if they need an urgent payment for funeral expenses or their fortnightly payment has been delayed.

If the customer selects Other, then Next, they will be asked 'What is the reason you need an urgent payment?'

The following help text shows to the customer:

'You'll need to contact us if you need help with funeral costs for an immediate family member or if there's a delay with your payment.'

The customer will need to select one of the following reasons:

• Accommodation fees
• Medical emergency or new medical condition
• Home costs
• Other

Each selection will take the customer to a further page to request more details about the reason.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'The medical emergency or new medical condition must be for you or a family member.

Home costs can be bills, food or costs of replacing essential household goods.'

Accommodation fees

If the customer selects the Accommodation fee option, the service will show:

• Emergency accommodation
• Regular accommodation cost
• Other

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Regular accommodation costs are things like rent, rent arrears or mortgage payments.'

Medical emergency or new medical condition

If the customer selects the Medical emergency or new medical condition option, they are asked to enter 'How much money do you need urgently?'

The following help text shows to the customer:

‘There's a limit on how much money you can get as an Urgent Payment. The amount you can get depends on your last payment and the maximum amount shown above.’

Home costs

If the customer selects the Home costs option, the customer will then need to select one of the following options:

• Household bills
• Replacing essential household goods
• Food and living expenses
• Other

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Household bills are things like gas, electricity, telephone and water.'

Other

If the customer selects the Other option, they will then need to select one of the following options:

• I have a job offer and I need money before my next payday
• I lost my wallet or purse and have reported it to the police
• I have costs for going to court or fines
• Other

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Select the option that best describes your situation.'

If the customer selects a reason that meets the exceptional and unforeseen criteria, they will need to select Next to go to the How much money do you need urgently? question. Not all the sub reasons will qualify the customer for a payment.

If the customer is not eligible for an urgent payment, they will be advised why.

Some customers may have more than one eligible payment. If this is the case, the customer will be asked to 'Select the payment you want the urgent payment to come from.'

This question:

• allows the customer to choose the payment
• shows the expected payment and delivery date of that payment

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Please be aware that your expected payment amount may change. This could be due to changes in your income or circumstances.'

The service will advise:

• the amount of the customer's next expected payment and the date the payment is due
• the maximum amount payable is $200

The customer needs to enter the amount they urgently need, and then select Next.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'There's a limit on how much money you can get as an urgent payment. The amount you can get depends on your last payment and the maximum amount shown above.'

The payment options are

• Direct credit. The estimated delivery date is per normal payment delivery rules. That is, 1 business day for NSS system payments and 2 business days for all other payments
• Priority direct credit (this is the New Payments Platform (NPP) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)). The service will show the estimated payment date and advises the customer the bank may charge a processing fee. Note: payments via NPP or RTGS cannot be delivered to the customer's nominated account if it is different to the account where they received their most recent regular payment
• A different payment method - the customer must contact Centrelink

The following help text shows to the customer:

'If your bank account is overdrawn, you may want to select a different payment method. Banks use money paid into your account to repay your bank debt. You then get what's left of your payment. You will need to contact Centrelink if you select this option.'

The customer then needs to select Next, followed by Continue.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'You can change your details before you submit your request.'

The customer will then need to review the information they have provided before submitting the request.

The service will show the following pages:

The Review your answers page

The customer then selects Begin.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Once you submit your request, you won't be able to change it again online.'

The Urgent Payment request page

This is an editable page if the customer wants to make any changes. To make changes, the customer can select Edit next to the information they provided.

The following help text shows to the customer:

‘Please check the details are correct. You can also edit your request.'

The Acknowledgement page

The page will show:
'By submitting this request, I acknowledge:

• I will not be able to make another urgent payment request today
• I will receive $XX expected to be paid on <dd> <Month> 20xx
• My next (payment type) to be paid on <dd> <Month> 20xx is expected to be $XXX.XX'

The customer then selects Next to continue.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'Check the details are correct before you continue.'

The Declaration page

The declaration will show. Customers must read the following information:

• 'I declare that:
• The information I have given is correct
• Giving false or misleading information is a serious offence
• I need to advise Centrelink of any changes to my circumstances as soon as the change occurs
• I have read and understand the privacy statement'

The customer needs to select I accept this declaration, then Next.

The Submit page

The customer needs to select Submit.

The following help text shows to the customer:

'You will not be able to make any changes beyond this point.'

The receipt page will tell the customer that the urgent payment is approved, how much and when they should expect to receive it.

They are also given a date/time stamp and a receipt ID.

They can select any of the following:

• Save your receipt to keep a copy of this page
• Explore other assistance to be taken to the Payment and Service Finder
• Return home to go back their online account homepage

Information about the urgent payment will record in 2 places:

• Where payment issues, there will be a DOC on the Document List (DL) screen to show the amount paid. This is a system produced DOC that creates for all urgent payments grants
• In Customer First, there will be a Super Case where urgent payment requests will record (grant, reject or withdrawn). See Customer details and cases on how to access this information
• In Process Direct, there will be a Note to show if the request was granted or rejected.

The customer is not eligible to use this service. Tell the customer why they are not eligible.

See:

• Troubleshooting Centrelink self service
• Accessing and using Centrelink self service

Customers will not be able to process their urgent payment online if there is an activity on their record, including:

• started (STA)
• registered (REG), or
• submitted (SUB)

The service will advise the customer to contact Centrelink to process their advance.

See Troubleshooting Centrelink self service.

If the customer contacts because they have been approved for an urgent payment online/IVR but the payment is being issued by Direct Credit instead of NPP, see Immediate payment by payment method New Payments Platform (NPP), for information on how to reissue the payment to the customer.

Update the Details in the Urgent Payment DOC to ‘payment granted by self service but incorrect payment method selected.’

The customer has not had their request assessed, as the self service options cannot assess urgent request of these types.

Assess the customer for urgent payment eligibility.

See:

• Urgent payments due to expenses associated with a funeral
• Urgent payments due to Centrelink delay

Details of the online activity

• Date
• Time
• Status/reason code

Can be accessed from either

• Search Online Claims in Customer First (on the workspace page under Claims Online) if the urgent payment request is less than 2 years old
• Advance and Urgent Payments Archive tile in Process Direct (on the home page, select Archive Search Display) if the urgent payment request is more than 2 years old.