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Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

About FaHCSIA

Budget 2007-08 > What's New What's Different

Fraud and compliance - preventing carer payment debt

What's New?

The Australian Government will strengthen the effectiveness of Carer Allowance (CA) and Carer Payment (CP) reviews with greater focus on preventing future debt.

Reviews will focus on customers in high risk categories. Those identified customers will receive timely advice and be educated to ensure they understand their obligations and entitlements so they do not accrue preventable debt. The review programme will be more efficient by targeting customers at risk of incorrect payment and avoiding unnecessary reviews.

Background

The 2006-07 Budget measure Detecting Incorrect Carer Payments introduced a data exchange programme between the Department of Health and Ageing and Centrelink to identify cases where carers, or care receivers, are living in residential care facilities on an ongoing basis, and therefore no longer qualify for CA or CP. This measure further enhanced the effectiveness of debt prevention for CA and CP recipients.

Implementation:

The measure will commence on 1 January 2008.

Total Government Funding:

This measure is expected to lead to a net saving of $40.2 million over four years.