Reporting requirements for students and Australian Apprentices 010-10000000

A customers reporting frequency is determined depending on a customer's and/or their partner's (where applicable) employment status or income:

• Students are not required to report if they or their partner are not employed, or their employment has ceased and they reported their income for their final reporting period
• Students are required to report 2 weekly if they or their partner have employment income in order to receive their correct payment
• Australian Apprentices are required to report 2 weekly as part of their notification obligations

All customers must advise any change in status or income within their notification period.

Note: ABSTUDY students receiving term-in-advance payments, who start receiving employment income, cannot be placed onto 2 weekly reporting.

If the customer is a student and:

• has contacted to advise a change in their, or their partner's, employment status, go to Step 4
• has requested to be taken off 2 weekly reporting, go to Step 2
• has been granted Unreasonable to Live at Home and has no earnings, go to Step 2
• needs to be placed on reporting, go to Step 5

If the customer is an Australian apprentice and has:

• reported nil income or working hours, go to Table 2, Step 7
• has requested to be taken off 2 weekly reporting, advise the customer they must report fortnightly as per their notification obligations. Procedure ends here

Before taking a customer off 2 weekly reporting, check if the customer has a history of not advising employment income, or not advising before their entitlement period end date (EPED).

If the customer has a history of not advising income on time, they should remain on 2 weekly reporting.

The following customers will automatically be taken off reporting:

• YA and Austudy students under 55 years of age who have reported no income for 20 consecutive weeks
• Austudy students age 55 and over who have reported no income for 24 consecutive weeks, and
• ABSTUDY students who have had less than 3 occurrences of employment income within a 12 weeks period

Service Profiler will automatically place homeless customers on 2 weekly reporting. If these customers receive YA (Student) and have no personal or partner earnings, reporting requirements should be removed.

Can the customer be taken off 2 weekly reporting?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, record the decision in a DOC. Procedure ends here

If the customer is not required to be on 2 weekly reporting, remove them from reporting requirements by:

• running the Reporting Summary workflow in Customer First, or if the workflow is not available
• updating the Reporting Regime Details (RPRD) screen in Customer First, or
• for new claims, the Reporting Regime (RPRD/RPRS) table in Process Direct. See Reporting screens

Advise the customer that they will need to notify any change of circumstances as per notification obligations, or any employment income paid each fortnight before their Centrelink payday. This is extremely important because even though their employment income might not immediately affect their payment, it will have an effect on their Student Income Bank.

Students are able to advise they have commenced employment via their online services. Once they commence reporting online, they will automatically be placed onto 2 weekly reporting to declare their employment income. If a customer is currently a notification reporter, they can add their and/or their partner’s employment details by selecting Report employment income under the heading 'Income and assets'.

If a customer contacts about the commencement of employment, or due to a change in their or their partner's (where applicable), employment, they must be referred to self-service to complete the update unless:

• self-service channels are currently unavailable (confirmed by NNU)
• the Service Officer determines the transaction is not appropriate by self-managed services in this instance, or
• the customer lives in a remote area and cannot reasonably access online services

Where a customer cannot use self-service, complete the customer report on the Earning and reporting workflow tool. If the tool is not available, code the report results on the relevant Reporting Cluster screens and manually update the customer's report.

Is the customer unable to report online?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, procedure ends here

If the customer or their partner has had a change in their employment income status, or indicates they are employed in their claim (including providing documents to suggest regular work, or there is a DOC/Notes that advises the customer is employed), place the customer on 2 weekly reporting:

For current customers: update via the Reporting Summary workflow in Customer First:

• launch the Reporting summary workflow from Customer First Workspace
• select the 'Place onto EAN Reporting' link
• complete the following fields and then select Continue:

Contact made by

Contact made via

Contact made on

• the workflow will automatically choose the Reporting Frequency as 2 Weekly (2WE)
• the system will automatically populate the Select the reason for placing the customer onto EAN reporting field with High Expected Earnings (ECH)
• do not complete any other fields
• select Continue
• finalise the activity via the Assessment Results (AR) screen

If the Reporting Summary workflow is not available, update the reporting regime manually via the Reporting Regime Details (RPRD) screen in Customer First:

• in the Next field in Customer First, enter RPRD and press Enter
• if the system has gone to the Reporting Regime Summary (RPRS) screen, press Continue to add a new page
• in the Report Type field, select Employment Income Report (EAN)
• in the Stimulus Code field, select Stimulus Required On Due Date
• in the Frequency field, enter 2WE (2 weekly)
• in the Reason for Requirement field, select ECH
• in the Allowable Channels fields, select the following:

Personal

Call Centre

Internet

Ph Self Serv

Postal or Fax

• in the Assisted Reporter field, determine if the customer is an Assisted Reporter and answer appropriately
• enter the Source and the Receipt Date
• in the Action field, select Ins
• select Continue
• finalise the activity via the Assessment Results (AR) screen

For new claims: update the reporting regime in the Reporting Regime Details (RPRD/RPRS) screen:

• go to the Reporting Regime (RPRD/RPRS) table
• if a reporting regime row is not already added, select the '+' sign
• the Start Date field should automatically populate. Otherwise record start date of claim
• in the Report Type field, enter EAN
• in the Stimulus Code field, select STM – Stimulus required on due date
• the Manual Reason Expiry fields should be left blank
• in Frequency field, select 2WE – Two Weekly
• in the Reason for Requirement field, enter ECH
• in the Assisted Reporter field, determine if the customer is an Assisted Reporter and answer appropriately
• in the Allowable Channel List, select PER – Personal
• select Save
• ensure that payments are pending stimulus (PND) prior to finalising the claim

When placing the customer on 2 weekly reporting:

• ensure the customer understands they will not be paid each fortnight until they have reported
• advise the customer they may report their income each fortnight via online reporting options
• if the customer has requested to report fortnightly, they can report their employment income:
• via one of the self service options, including online, phone self service or Express Plus apps (available for download from App Store or Google Play)
• by fax and mail using the Earnings Worksheet (SU505)
• record details of the decision and advice given to the customer on a DOC

For more information, see Reporting screens.

Note: the most appropriate Reason for Requirement should be ECH. Do not use the manual override code DIS or CLR to place students on reporting.

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, go to Step 5

Did the customer apply for ABSTUDY Incidentals Allowance only?

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

If the customer applied for Incidentals Allowance only, they will:

• only receive Incidentals Allowance regardless of their income unless they complete a full claim for ABSTUDY Living Allowance
• be profiled as a notification reporter. See Reporting overview

Procedure ends here.

If the customer:

• applied for ABSTUDY Living Allowance but was granted a nil rate due to their employment income, they will be profiled as a 2 weekly statement reporter
• applied for ABSTUDY Living Allowance and is now receiving a nil rate due to the income test, they will remain profiled as a 2 weekly statement reporter for 6 consecutive fortnights. If, at the end of the 6 fortnight period, there is still no entitlement to Living Allowance, the customer will be:
• re-profiled as a notification reporter, and
• Living Allowance payments will cease
• is receiving Living Allowance, they will be profiled as a 2 weekly statement reporter

Note: when an ABSTUDY Living Allowance customer is now receiving a nil rate due to an income test, the Entitlement Period will not display on the Payment Summary (PS) screen.

Is the customer a 2 weekly statement reporter?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, procedure ends here

Australian Apprentices must be profiled as a 2 statement weekly reporter. If they fail to report by their Entitlement Period End Date (EPED), they will not be paid.

If the customer has contacted to report employment income (REI), they must complete the transaction via self-service:

• Centrelink online account reporting option
• Express Plus Centrelink mobile app - customers with an active online account can download and use the app on their smart device to report their employment income. The free app is available from the App store or Google Play
• Phone self service- after obtaining a Personal Identification Number (PIN), customers may call the reporting line and follow the prompts. See the Resources page for contact details

Genuine attempts must be made to transition customers to report via self-service options before assisted reporting is completed, unless an Exception applies. See Calling a customer or returning a customer's call for more information on making outbound calls to customers.

For more information on how to code a student or Australian Apprentice's income, see Recording and correcting employment income details.

If customers have not reported by the EPED + 14 days, their payment will be cancelled Failed to Report (FRP). Note: an exception to this exists following the grant of payment to an Australian Apprentice. Payment will not cancel automatically until the customer has had 22 days to report, this is regardless of the report due date.

Payment can be restored, if the customer contacts within 13 weeks of the cancellation to seek a review of the decision and they remain qualified during the whole period. The customer must still report their income details for the missed EPED.

If payment is restored, and the next EPED is less than 7 days in future, the customer will be treated as a notification reporter up to this entitlement period end date. They will then be automatically re-profiled as a 2 weekly reporter.

When an Australian Apprentice reports nil income and hours for their primary employer via the Report Employment Income service, the report will display an update error. The error advises the customer to contact Services Australia.

If the customer:

• is changing employers, go to Step 8
• has no income, go to Step 9
• otherwise go to Step 10

A customer may continue to qualify for payment as an apprentice where they:

• have, or will cease employment with their Australian Apprentice employer
• will, or expect to commence employment with another employer within 28 days to continue their full time Australian Apprenticeship
• have a current Commonwealth Registration Number recorded on the NAPD screen

A customer no longer meets the definition of an Australian Apprentice, if:

• more than 28 days have lapsed since employment ceased, and
• they have not commenced with another apprentice employer

For further information and examples for:

• Youth Allowance, see Youth Allowance (YA) qualifications for students and Australian Apprentices
• Austudy, see Eligibility for Austudy
• ABSTUDY, see Existing customer starts an Australian Apprenticeship

Go to Step 10.

There may be circumstances where an Australian Apprentice has no income to report, and still remains entitled to their income support payment or ABSTUDY. For example, a customer who is on unpaid leave as they have no remaining leave entitlement, is still considered to be an Australian Apprentice.

Discuss the reason the customer is reporting a zero income. Determine if they were actively employed during the periods of reporting zero income.

The customer is required to notify within 14 days of a change in circumstances. For example cessation/transfer of apprenticeship.

Advise the customer that there may be overpayments if the customer is no longer considered an Australian Apprentice. If the customer has no intention to complete their apprenticeship, discuss transferring to another payment.

• Yes:
• complete the customer report on the Earning and reporting workflow tool
• record a DOC with reasons for nil income declared
• procedure ends here
• No, see Customer no longer an Australian Apprentice