The Department of Human Services (DHS) has published a message to the recipients of Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, setting out its policy of ‘balancing’ payments at the end of the financial year and how it might affect them.
The policy is likely to impact on more than a million families.
Explaining its policy, DSS said ‘balancing’ was the annual process whereby the Department checked if people had received the right amount of family assistance.
“If you get Child Care Subsidy, or Family Tax Benefit as fortnightly payments, these are paid throughout the year based on your family income estimate,” DSS said.
“This means, after each financial year ends, your payments need to be balanced to check you were paid the right amount.”
It said families who weren’t paid enough during the financial year might receive a top up; those who were paid too much would have to repay the extra.
“Your payments can only be balanced once the Department has the full details of your family income and circumstances for the financial year,” the message said.
“To confirm income details, most families need to either lodge a tax return for the 2018-19 financial year, or advise us if you don’t need to lodge one.
“Once we have the information we need, we can start balancing your Family Tax Benefit from early July. Child Care Subsidy balancing can start from late July.”
Full details about the Department’s balancing procedures can be accessed at this PS News link.
