Recording private maintenance income on Centrelink systems 277-51030010

To record maintenance income received by a person who is not the natural or adoptive parent of the child, move the child from a non-biological child group to an active entitlement group and then update the Maintenance Action Test (MAT) code for the child to 'NBP'. See How to group children.

Use the Maintenance Action workflow to record the maintenance income for a child or an entitlement group.

Correcting/deleting previous details needs to be done manually but only if those details were incorrectly coded when they were recorded. Details can only be corrected or deleted from the same screen on which the details were originally recorded. That is, on the child level screen or the group level screen.

To view Child Support assessment:

• In Process Direct:
• Go to the MNGS screen
• Select the expand icon on the Maintenance Groups table for the relevant maintenance group
• In Customer First:
• Go to the MNGS screen
• Select the group or child to go to the Mtce Entitlement Group Detl (MNGD) or Mtce Child Details Summary (MNCD) screen

If the customer advises of these circumstances, follow the relevant procedure:

• They wish to claim child support arrears for a private collect period when changing collection methods, see Centrelink action when a Child Support collection customer is owed or receives child support arrears.
  Procedure ends here
• They cannot privately collect the full amount of the child support assessment and would like to apply for an exemption (full or partial), see Family Tax Benefit customer not receiving full child support entitlement privately.
  Procedure ends here
• They received more than the child support assessment and the additional amount does not relate to arrears owed for a period before 1 July 2012, the actual amount received does not need to be recorded.
  Procedure ends here

If other circumstances exist, assess and record as follows:

• Voluntary maintenance/child support - a payment/benefit received by a person who does not have a child support case for the relevant children.
  For example:
• received for a child before Child Support completes a child support assessment and transfers entitlement details to the FAO system, or
• if a partial exemption has been granted as the customer is unable to apply for child support and a full exemption would have been appropriate however the customer is able to collect some support (cash/non-cash) from the other parent, or
• the payee is receiving an overseas court ordered amount of maintenance directly from the payer and the order is not registered with Child Support
• Go to Step 2
• Actual private maintenance:
• collected if a child support entitlement exists and a partial maintenance exemption has been granted, or
• where the customer receives additional amounts for arrears owed from a private collect period before 1 July 2012
• Go to Step 4
• Privately collected maintenance where the customer has a backdated full maintenance exemption, go to Step 5
• Discharged arrears, go to Step 7
• Child Support collected arrears after case has ended, go to Step 8

To end date actual private maintenance, go to Step 6.

Voluntary maintenance is a payment/benefit received by a person who does not have a child support case for the relevant children.

Voluntary maintenance does not need to be coded if the customer has accepted the base rate for the children, as the FTB for the child/ren is restricted to the base rate. If the customer contacts to advise of any voluntary maintenance in this circumstance, the discussion should be recorded in a Note/DOC.

Maintenance income is affected when entitlement details are transferred from Child Support.

Voluntary maintenance is included in annual maintenance income.

Voluntary maintenance received during a DMA (Deciding Maintenance Action) period before a child support assessment has been completed will be included in the Maintenance Income Test (MIT) from the date that the voluntary maintenance started.

In Process Direct:

• Voluntary maintenance can only be recorded within an existing FTB new claim activity. Do standalone updates in Customer First
• Within the FTB new claim activity, after Assess go to the MNGS screen
• At the group level, select the expand icon on the Maintenance Groups table for the relevant maintenance group to go to the Actual Maintenance Collected Group - MNAG table
• At the child level, select the expand icon for the child under the Maintenance Child table to go to the Actual Maintenance Collect Child - MNAC table
• Record new details by coding the following fields:
• Event Date: the date the payment was received
• Start Date: start date of the period the payment was for
• Amt $.cc: amount received - if the customer receives child support from overseas, convert the amount into Australian dollars before coding (see below)
• Payment Type Code: 'VOL' (voluntary)
• Frequency Code: code the frequency of the payments. The frequency must be the same for each child

In Customer First:

• At the group level, 's'elect the group and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen
• At the child level, 's'elect the child and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Child (MNAC) screen

Record new details by coding the following fields:

• Event Date: the date the payment was received
• Start Date: start date of the period the payment was for
• Amt $.cc: amount received - if the customer receives child support from overseas, convert the amount into Australian dollars before coding (see below)
• Type: 'VOL' (voluntary)
• Frq: code the frequency of the payments (question mark the field to see available options). The frequency must be the same for each child
• Source: and DOR:
• Action: will update automatically

Conversion of foreign currency amounts received directly from payer (overseas maintenance order cases)

If a customer is privately collecting an overseas court ordered amount from an overseas payer and the court order refers to the amount in a foreign currency, convert the amount into Australian dollars before coding. See Foreign exchange rate processing for exchange rate conversion information.

If a court order does not stipulate a dollar amount, but includes a percentage of the payer's ongoing income, customers need to provide evidence of the actual amount received, for example bank statements. The exchange conversion should then be applied to the start date of the period the payment relates to.

Note: there is no automatic process to review the exchange rate for these cases. Therefore a manual 'exchange rate' (Q888) Free Text letter needs to be issued in Customer First to notify the customer that the rate may be reviewed on request if the exchange rate used by Services Australia, differs by more than 5% from the current commercial rate. Also, where the amount of maintenance collected changes, they must notify the agency.

The Resources page contains text details for the (Q888) Free Text letter.

Record details on a Note/DOC and when satisfied with the outcome finalise activity.

Voluntary maintenance received during a DMA period

If a customer has a child in a DMA period and that child has voluntary maintenance coded, the maintenance income in respect of the child is assessed in the MIT from the date the voluntary maintenance started and not from the start of the DMA period (unless the voluntary maintenance is recorded for the same date).

The Resources page contains examples.

Procedure ends here.

Record actual private maintenance income received in relation to arrears that were accrued in a private collection period before 1 July 2012 or income where the customer has a partial maintenance exemption.

Note: before 1 July 2012, if the customer had a private arrangement to receive less than their full child support entitlement, they would fail the MAT unless they applied for collection by Child Support or were granted an exemption by a social worker. For example, due to family and domestic violence.

From 1 July 2012, if the customer has a private arrangement to receive less than their full child support entitlement, they will no longer fail the MAT. Instead, the customer is deemed to receive their full child support entitlement for the purpose of the Maintenance Income Test if it is reasonable for the payee to take action to privately collect their full entitlement. The customer may be able to apply for a partial exemption from the MAT. See Family Tax Benefit customer not receiving full child support entitlement privately.

In Process Direct:

• Actual private maintenance can only be recorded within an existing FTB new claim activity. Do standalone updates in Customer First
• Within the FTB new claim activity, after Assess go to the MNGS screen
• At the group level, select the expand icon on the Maintenance Groups table on the MNGS screen for the relevant maintenance group to go to the Actual Maintenance Collected Group - MNAG table
• At the child level, select the expand icon for the child under the Maintenance Child table to go to the Actual Maintenance Collect Child - MNAC table
• Record new details by coding the following fields:
• Event Date: field, code the date of advice if the amount is more than the child support entitlement amount, the date of the payment if it is lower
• Start Date: the date the customer started to receive the amount
• Amt $.cc: the amount received
• Payment Type Code: 'ACT'
• Frequency Code: This cannot be one-off, it must be a regular amount such as '2WE' (two weekly) or 'ANN' (annually). It must be the same for each child for this event date

In Customer First:

• At the group level, 'S'elect the group from the MNGS screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen
• At the child level, 'S'elect the child from the MNGS screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Child (MNAC) screen
• Record new details by coding the following fields:
• Event Date: field, code the date of advice if the amount is more than the child support entitlement amount, the date of the payment if it is lower
• Start Date: the date the customer started to receive the amount
• Amt $.cc: the amount received
• Type: 'ACT'
• Frq: This cannot be one-off, it must be a regular amount such as '2WE' (two weekly) or 'ANN' (annually). It must be the same for each child for this event date
• Source: and DOR:
• Action: will update automatically

Record details, use Fast Note. Select Auto Text use Families > Updates > MTCE received DOV. When satisfied with the outcome finalise activity.

The amount recorded should be the total amount privately received, that is all components need to be added together, not just the amount received above the entitlement amount. Remind the customer to tell Centrelink if the amount received changes because the amount will be maintained until the customer advises otherwise.

If a partial exemption is backdated before 1 July of the current financial year, the Maintenance Income Override (MNOI) screen may need to be coded for the previous financial year/s to make sure that only those amounts actually collected by the customer are assessed for MIT purposes. See Amending maintenance income details on the Maintenance Income Override (MNOI) screen for more details.

Is there actual private maintenance income to be end dated?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, procedure ends here

Recording actual amounts of privately collected maintenance where the customer has been granted a backdated full maintenance exemption. For example, family and domestic violence cases and a private collect child support assessment exists for that period.

If a customer has a private collect child support case and there are family and domestic violence circumstances present, it may be appropriate for a Social Worker to backdate an exemption.

The backdating of the exemption is to offset the effect of child support that the customer was deemed to have received, but may not have received due to the family and domestic violence circumstances. This allows Centrelink to re-assess their FTB entitlement based on the actual amount of child support they received during this period.

Customers can no longer ask Child Support to backdate the case end to align with the exemption start date. This means that where the customer is granted a full exemption from a date in the past, additional coding is needed by Centrelink to remove the uncollected child support from the Maintenance Income Test (MIT).

Code the customer's record in Customer First:

• Go to the BA screen to start a reassessment activity. Update the following fields
• Svc Rsn field: FTB
• Action field: FSH
• Effect Date field, put 1 July of the relevant income year
• Record the Source and DOR, select continue
• Go to the MNGS screen
• 'S'elect the group which to go to the MNGD screen
• In the MNGD screen, ‘S’ the Actual Maintenance Amount field, to go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen
• Record new details by coding the following fields:
• Event Date: field, the date the child support payments changed (the date of the exemption if it is after 1 July of the current financial year if the exemption is not backdated before that, or, if the exemption is backdated, 1 July of the financial year in which the exemption starts)
• Start Date: as per 'Event Date' above
• Amt $.cc: the amount received, that is the lesser amount or $0 if the customer did not receive any child support during the exemption period. The amount recorded should be the total amount privately collected
• Type: 'ACT'
• Frq: This cannot be one-off, it must be a regular amount such as '2WE' (two weekly) or 'ANN' (annually)
• Action: will update automatically
• Record details on a DOC. Check the details on the Assessment Results (AR) screen before finalising the activity.

Where the exemption is backdated before 1 July of the current financial year, the Maintenance Income Override (MNOI) screen may need to be coded for the previous financial year/s to make sure that only those amounts actually collected by the customer are assessed for MIT purposes. See Amending maintenance income details on the Maintenance Income Override (MNOI) screen for more details.

Note: the amount recorded should be the total amount privately collected.

The actual private maintenance income should be end dated from the date the case is actually ended by Child Support.

Has Child Support ended the case?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, once the case is ended by Child Support the actual maintenance income will be end dated by the entitlement load data from Child Support. Procedure ends here

For a group, 'S'elect the group from the MNGS screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen

For 1 or more children, 'S'elect the child from the MNGS screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Child (MNAC) screen

Record details by coding the following fields:

• Event Date: field, code the date of advice
• Start Date: the date the actual amount stopped being received
• Amt $.cc: '0' (nil)
• Type: relevant 'type' to be input
• Frq: field is left blank
• Source: and DOR:
• Action: will update automatically

Record details on a DOC and finalise activity on the Assessment Results (AR) screen.

Procedure ends here.

If the customer advises they are discharging child support arrears, the discharged amount is not advised electronically via the data exchange and therefore needs to be manually recorded.

Transfer details to CSU using Fast Note - select Auto text, use Families > Updates > Child support arrears discharged.

For Child Support Unit (CSU) Smart Centre Processing only.

Check that the discharged child support arrears relate to current FTB children. Discharged arrears that relate to a child who is no longer an FTB child should Not be included in the MIT. This is because it is not for the maintenance of an FTB child. In the case where there are other remaining FTB children only the portion of the discharged arrears that relates to the current FTB children should be included in the MIT.

• Check what the annual child support assessment amount was at the time the child support arrears were discharged
• Divide the annual assessment amount by 365 to get the daily rate of the child support assessment amount
• Add the daily amount of the assessment to the discharged child support arrears amount to get a total amount
• 'S'elect the group or child from the Maintenance Entitlement Group Summary (MNGS) screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen:
• in Event Date: field, code the date of advice
• in Start Date: field, code the date the customer discharged the amount
• in Amt $.cc: field, code the total amount
• in Type: field, code 'ACT'
• in Frq: field, code 'DLY' (not 'ANN')
• On a new line on the MNAG screen:
• in Event Date: field, code the date as the day after the date the customer discharged the amount
• in Start Date: field, code the date as the day after the date the customer discharged the amount
• in Amt $.cc: field, code amount as $0
• in Type: field, code 'ACT'
• in Frq: field leave blank

Resources contains an example of coding discharged child support arrears.

Record details on a DOC and finalise activity on the Assessment results (AR) screen.

For Child Support Unit (CSU) Smart Centre Processing only.

If a Child Support collect customer elects to end their case and asks Child Support to collect arrears still owing, details about any arrears collected by Child Support after the case end date:

• will not be received by Centrelink, and
• must be manually recorded

Any amounts received by the customer after the case end date need to be manually recorded as voluntary.

From the Maintenance Entitlement Group (MNGS) screen, if updating:

• for the group, ‘S’elect the group > Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen, or
• for each child, 'S’elect the child > Actual Maintenance Collect - Child (MNAC) screen

Follow this process in either the MNAG or MNAC screen:

• in Event Date: field, code the date the payment was disbursed
• in Start Date: field, code the date the payment was disbursed
• in Amt $.cc: field, code the total amount of the disbursement
• in Type: field, type ‘VOL’
• in Frq: field, type 'ONE'
• record details on a DOC
• check and finalise the activity on the Assessment results (AR) screen
  Note: if the disbursement is not taken in to account in the MIT as expected, cancel the activity. Refer to Level 2 policy helpdesk for assistance and application of a workaround. See Resources page for a link
• in Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
• Service Reason: CSS
• Review Reason: REV (Manual Review)
• Due Date: 3 months from today's date
• Source: INT
• Date of Receipt: today's date
• Notes: 'Child Support case end date xx/xx/xxxx. Check Cuba for any further disbursements. Return to OB 277-50130010 to action.'
• Keywords: CSUREV
• Workgroup: leave blank
• Position: leave blank
• Transfer to Region: leave blank
• the review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action
• reviews will be needed every 3 months until the balance of child support owing is zero

Disbursements received in the previous financial year must be coded on the MNOI screen. See Amending maintenance income details on the Override Maintenance Income (MNOI) screen.

If the spousal maintenance is received from a person that is not paying child support, there is nowhere to code this information.
Record all details in a DOC.
Procedure ends here.

If the customer has registered an Agreement or Court Order with Child Support, and the Agreement or Court Order includes spousal maintenance, Child Support will advise Centrelink of the full entitlement amount (the child support amount plus the spousal maintenance amount). There is no need to record privately collected spousal maintenance as a separate amount.
Procedure ends here.

If the customer has not registered an Agreement or Court Order that includes spousal maintenance with Child Support or they receive voluntary spousal maintenance payments separate to their Child Support case, the child support assessed amount reported to the FAO system will not include the spousal maintenance. Therefore, it must be coded manually. For the manual process, go to Step 2.

In Process Direct:

• Spousal maintenance can only be recorded within an existing FTB new claim activity. Do standalone updates in Customer First
• Within the FTB new claim activity, after Assess go to the MNGS screen
• Select the expand icon on the Maintenance Groups table for the relevant maintenance group to go to the Actual Maintenance Collected Group - MNAG table
• Record new details by coding the following fields:
• Event Date: field is the date of advice
• Start Date: field, is the date the customer started to receive the amount
• Amt $.cc: field, the total amount received. Spousal maintenance plus child support payments - that is if the customer collects spousal maintenance privately and Child Support collects the child support payments, or the customer collects both their spousal and child support privately, the total combined amount collected needs to be recorded as an annual amount
• Payment Type Code field 'ACT'
• Frequency Code field, code the frequency of the payments

In Customer First:

'S'elect the group from the MNGS screen and go to the Actual Maintenance Collected - Group (MNAG) screen:

• in Event Date: field, code the date of advice
• in Start Date: field, code the date the customer started to receive the amount
• in Amt $.cc: field, code the total amount received. Spousal maintenance plus child support payments - that is if the customer collects spousal maintenance privately and Child Support collects the child support payments, or the customer collects both their spousal and child support privately, the total combined amount collected needs to be recorded as an annual amount
• in Type: field, code 'ACT'
• in the Frequency: field, code the frequency of the payments

Record details on a Note/DOC (including the spousal maintenance amount, frequency, assessment method, and the period the amount paid is for) and when satisfied with the outcome finalise the activity.

For customers who collect their spousal maintenance and child support privately, procedure ends here.

If the customer is Child Support collect, but receives spousal maintenance privately, are they currently assessed under the disbursement method?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

Explain to the customer that they may incur a reconciliation debt due to not having their spousal maintenance taken into account during the financial year.

If the customer:

• still elects to be assessed under the disbursement method:
• record the customer's decision on their file
• refer the case to the Manual Intervention Team (MIV) to flag for manual intervention as the maintenance income will have to be manually assessed at reconciliation.
  Go to Step 5
• advises they wish to have the spousal maintenance assessed during the financial year to stop them incurring a reconciliation debt due to spousal maintenance not being taken into account, go to Step 4

A MEM override is needed if the customer collects their child support payments through Child Support but collects their spousal maintenance privately. The MEM override makes sure the customer's maintenance is assessed under the entitlement method and stops the customer incurring a reconciliation debt due to spousal maintenance not being taken into account during the financial year.

• Send a request to CSU to code MEM override using Fast Note - select Auto text, use Families > Updates > MEM Override Required. The CSU will code the MEM override
• Refer the record for manual intervention at reconciliation to make sure all maintenance income received is included in the customer's reconciliation result

Go to Step 5

Transfer to the MIV using Fast Note - select Auto text, use Families > Reconciliation > MIV-FFMI Coding Required to request a flag of manual intervention for reconciliation:

• MIV, go to Step 6
• Otherwise, procedure ends here

Flag a manual intervention for reconciliation of the customer's FTB entitlement via the FTB Forced Manual Intervention (FFMI) screen.

At Reconciliation, code the Override Maintenance Income (MNOI) screen to include all disbursements and spousal maintenance income received.

See Amending maintenance income details on the Override Maintenance Income (MNOI) screen for further details.

If the customer will continue to receive spousal maintenance income past the current financial year, recode the FFMI screen to flag manual intervention for the next reconciliation year.