DATE OF ISSUE:  23 NOVEMBER 1995

ENHANCEMENTS TO CLAIMS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OVERPAYMENT NETWORK

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Departmental Instruction (DI) is to provide information about changes made to the overpayment network on the Claims Management System (CMS).

BACKGROUND

2.The changes were identified in the report, released in January 1995, of the Benchmarking Review of the Debt Control function in Income Support.

3.Currently a dual system is used for managing debt.  Registration of an overpayment investigation is done on the stage-monitoring system CMS, whereas registration of a debt to be recovered uses the PC-based accounting system WinPORS.  This dual system remains in place, but some enhancements have been made to the CMS system.

CHANGES

4.The following enhancements to the CMS overpayment network will be effective from 24 November 1995:

• the attributes extended to permit attribution of method of detection, person and outcome and some other management information currently recorded on WinPORS;

• some attributes made mandatory; and

• the addition of two stages:

-  Debt Raised; and

-  Agreed Recovery

Attributes

5.The attributes enable extraction of management information, facilitate case control and reflect the following needs:

• debt type, ie the type of payment suspected of being overpaid;

• the method of detection of the suspected overpayment;

• person attributes to determine whether the overpayment is for the veteran, spouse, joint, dependant, de-facto;

• outcome attributes, ie if there is a debt, no debt or a debt less than $200; and

• miscellaneous attributes, eg overseas case.

6.Attributes on the overpayment network are set out below:

Debt Type Service Pension Disability Pension Carers ISS Other payments	Method of Detection DIR (I or A) DIR Selective Target ID Matching Inc Matching Pay Matching Denunciation DIA PIR Other detection method
Person Attributes Veteran Spouse Joint Dependant Defacto	Outcome Attributes Debt Non-debt Debt < $200
Miscellaneous Attributes (some state-specific) Client overseas Non-overseas case General Purpose 1 General Purpose 2 General Purpose 3 North Qld. Qld. Branch Qld. Special Client deceased

Note:Cause of Overpayment attributes are not included on the CMS overpayment network as they already exist on WinPORS.  A screen print showing the layout of the new attributes is at Attachment A.

7.As attributes cannot be linked to particular stages, the following warning message appears on the CM.SC, CM.UA and the CM.IH screens:

• "Ensure correct attributes are set"

Mandatory attributes

8.The Method of Detection attributes (indicated by DET on the screen) are a mandatory group, ie an attribute must be selected before proceeding to the next stage.  Remaining attribute groups are non-mandatory.

9.The Queensland-specific attributes are also mandatory, but appear only in Queensland State Office and not other State Offices.

Additional stages

10.The previous stages on the CMS overpayment network allowed tracking of time taken during the investigation of the suspected overpayment and during the determination of the case, but provided no indication as to the outcome of a case.

11.The following two stages appear before case finalisation:

• Debt Raised; and

• Agreed Recovery.

12.These stages provide a clear indication that a debt exists and has yet to be recovered.  For example, if pension arrears are owing, it can easily be established that a debt exists and the arrears can then be withheld for possible offset against the debt.

13.Debt Raised and Agreed Recovery stages allow the production of a CMS case report listing all cases which have moved to the recovery stage within a given period.  This can then be used as a control against WinPORS.  Cases finalised without passing through the recovery stage (ie no debt) will not appear in the report.

14.Stages can be by-passed if they are not relevant to a particular case.  For example, it is possible to stage-complete from Decision stage to Case Finalised if no debt exists OR from Decision stage to Recovery stage if a debt exists.

15.Cases will remain in Debt Raised or Agreed Recovery stages until either full recovery, write off or waiver is effected.

CONTACT OFFICER

16.The contact officer for this project is Liz Lambart who can be contacted on telephone (06) 289 6405 or E-mail C-C-PWP-7.

R J HAY

BRANCH HEAD

INCOME SUPPORT