FAO peak time coming up

[briggsy's girl]

both of these can occur when an estimate is changed and continuous adjustment takes effect on the file

continuous adjustment basically reduces the ftb or ccb drastically to try and stop an overpayment at the end of the year. ftb reduction is mandatory, ccb is up to the customer. it should be discussed as it happens if the customer is involved in the processs

sometimes though, customers will have this happen without their express knowledge (this is rare) - essentially if they have an estimate in place that is less than what their actual income is from the previous year (so last year dad earned 100k, this year his estimate is 50k), the information received from the ATO triggers a warning letter to the customer to contact and revisit their estimate to ensure it is reasonable. if they don't get in touch with FAO within the set time frame, their estimate will be automatically lifted from what it is currently, to last years income PLUS 5% (ish). at that time, the mandatory adjustment of FTB occurs (which may restrict the customer to a zero payment) and whatever option they currently have in place for CCB (it defaults to continuous adjustment) also comes into play.

another "possible" for the centrepay customer would be if they have a debt for FTB (or another payment) that they have to start repaying - the debt will always come out before any centrepay deductions (after reductions based on earnings etc - debts are number 1 priority)

[Floweryfields]

ATO triggers a warning letter to the customer

So they will always get a letter advising any changes? Because more often than not they tell me they've received nothing (which I don't necessarily trust to be the entire truth!).

[briggsy's girl]

So they will always get a letter advising any changes? Because more often than not they tell me they've received nothing (which I don't necessarily trust to be the entire truth!).

letters go out for every change in payment rate or child care percentage - but a lot of people admit they don't read their mail cos they get a lot of mail from FAO until we make them locate it and read it with us

Kylz - you will only get a payment summary if you've received a taxable payment. FTB is not included. like all payment summaries, it should be issued to you by July 20. you will not be able to print via online services as it contains your tax file number so cannot be accessed that way for privacy reasons. if you received a taxable payment from c'link during the financial year, it is sent to ATO for the autofill process so it should be available a bit earlier but i'd not guarantee anything until july 15 or after

[~me~]

Good one BG..online is definitely the way to go.

Another thing you can do is go into a Medicare office..they have staff trained in FAO and access to most of the processing screens as well and if they can't help you they will be able to get an answer for you quickly.

[briggsy's girl]

medicare have limits to what they can access though. they do a lot of collection and passing on to processing sites. there are different access "tiers" for medicare sites and most will collect and forward either to families processing sites or the higher tier medicare sites as their access is very limited. they can see some stuff, and they can put on the file "xyz received, forwarded to site abc" and that's about it. they don't do estimates and things like that. the average person who has maximum self service access can see and do more than most medicare sites

[Floweryfields]

letters go out for every change in payment rate or child care percentage - but a lot of people admit they don't read their mail cos they get a lot of mail from FAO until we make them locate it and read it with us

Yep, that's what I thought most likely happens, kind of sux when they get mad at me because I've changed their fees on them (which of course I have no control over) yet they've not bothered to read their mail.

[briggsy's girl]

yeah and then they ring and abuse us and we make them find their letter (or if they can't, read direct from our copy of it) and then say "remember when you did this on such and such a date, you changed from this to that" and most of them calm down, but they rarely apologise for their attitude. i've come to a point where i'm surprised by nice and or/polite people now. kinda a sad state of affairs when people being courteous is the exception instead of the rule

[Floweryfields]

Yep, so very true!