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Katie Woolf spoke with Services Australia Chief Financial Information Services Officer Justin Bott · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is Service as
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Australia Financial Information Services Officer Justin bott. Good morning to you, Justin.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me back.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks so much for your time. Can I ask
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  Speaker 1: first about these pandemic leave disaster payments. Few people have
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  Speaker 1: been in contact wondering if Territorians are indeed eligible.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So the pandemic le disaster payment is a
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  Speaker 2: particular payment for people in particular circumstances, and there may
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  Speaker 2: be Territorians who are eligible. But to be able to
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  Speaker 2: get it, you have to be over seventeen Austraining resident,
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  Speaker 2: but particularly you have to have been notified by a
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory health official that you have to isolate or
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  Speaker 2: quarantine because either you've got coronavirus yourself, or you've been
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  Speaker 2: in close contact with a person who has it, or
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  Speaker 2: you're caring for somebody who has this, while at the
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  Speaker 2: same time you can't have any other source of income,
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  Speaker 2: so no leave payment. It's from your employer and you're
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  Speaker 2: not receiving any payments from Services Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So essentially I guess you'd have to be like
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  Speaker 1: a casual worker or somebody who's not not getting any
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  Speaker 1: kind of sick pay or anything while you're on leaves
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  Speaker 1: because of the COVID situation that you're in.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so casual worker is a classic example. Also, people
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  Speaker 2: who might be self employed who aren't able to work
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  Speaker 2: therefore I am able to generate an income and they
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  Speaker 2: don't have any leave of their own. But again it's
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  Speaker 2: not just not working. You have to actually have been
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  Speaker 2: notified by the health official that you have to go
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  Speaker 2: into quarantine in order to qualify. So it's that particular
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  Speaker 2: qualification requirement that makes it different. The other payment that's
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  Speaker 2: going around is the COVID nineteen disaster payment. That's for
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  Speaker 2: people who are in general lockdown, but that you have
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  Speaker 2: to be in lockdown for more than seven days. All
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  Speaker 2: the territory thankfully wasn't in lockdown for that long, so
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  Speaker 2: that payment isn't for those. Again, for anybody who might
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  Speaker 2: be in financial difficulty, you might not qualify. Yeah, always
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  Speaker 2: remember just the standard payments and services Australia provides. So
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  Speaker 2: if you aren't eligible for those, you may qualify for
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  Speaker 2: our job job seeker payment or if you're caring for
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  Speaker 2: somebody to care payment as well. Just the best thing
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  Speaker 2: to do if you're not sure is our website. So
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  Speaker 2: for the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, if you go to
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  Speaker 2: our website, which is Services Australia dot gov dot au,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to find right at the top there the
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  Speaker 2: the yellow vander that says are you affected by COVID nineteen.
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  Speaker 2: If you pick on that, you follow the links to
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  Speaker 2: Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, you'll actually find that there is
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  Speaker 2: a section in there directly related to the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: Just going to that, there does seem to be a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a loophole, I guess you'd say, from
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  Speaker 1: what I can gather from some of ours, and there
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  Speaker 1: seems to be a bit of a loophole in the
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  Speaker 1: sense that we have got some of our workers i e.
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  Speaker 1: Those that work in gyms for example, who aren't able
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  Speaker 1: to go back to work at this point in time
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  Speaker 1: because the Northern Territory government has deemed that that they're
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  Speaker 1: you know, they're not able to reopen. So while the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory might not be in lockdown for fourteen days,
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  Speaker 1: some of those some of those workers, due to the
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  Speaker 1: situation where the gyms can't open, they're not able to
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  Speaker 1: actually go back to work. So I mean, is it
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  Speaker 1: possible for them to access that COVID disaster payment.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the rules for the COVID require as either a
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  Speaker 2: total lockdown by the Northern Territory government, so days at
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  Speaker 2: the determining for that one or that you've had that
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  Speaker 2: COVID nineteen. For people that are in your circumstances, they're
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  Speaker 2: what they want to do is again go to our
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  Speaker 2: website and on the front page they search something called
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  Speaker 2: the Payment and Services Finder because they may qualify for
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  Speaker 2: some other payments. If they aren't able to earn an income,
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  Speaker 2: then there would be those other payments on the job
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  Speaker 2: seeker that I've talked about, right.
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  Speaker 1: So hopefully there is something available to some of those
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  Speaker 1: people who simply aren't able to go back to work
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  Speaker 1: at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what and the Payment and Services Finder is
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  Speaker 2: the best way online to do it. But of course
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  Speaker 2: with that pandemic, ly if you think that you are
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  Speaker 2: potentially eligible for it, if you meet that requirement, then
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  Speaker 2: it's a quip prone number. So it's one eight zero
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  Speaker 2: double two double six. That's how you that's number you're
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  Speaker 2: in to apply one eight zero double two doublezi, not
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  Speaker 2: one eight hundred, which any always go to but one
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  Speaker 2: eight zero double two, double six and you speak to
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  Speaker 2: one of our officers there. They will be able to
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  Speaker 2: take take it on and take that application for you.
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  Speaker 2: If you are in some other sort of help or
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  Speaker 2: you need other support, because of course if there's a
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  Speaker 2: difficult time, not just financially but psychologically emotionally, always remember
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  Speaker 2: that Services Australia has social workers that are there to
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  Speaker 2: help as well. So you just give us a call
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  Speaker 2: on your a normal payment line and you can get
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  Speaker 2: through to one of our social workers who can help
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  Speaker 2: with those other issues that you might be needing, or
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  Speaker 2: can link you to other services in your community to
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  Speaker 2: get the support not just financial but for the other
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  Speaker 2: issues you might be dealing with.
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  Speaker 1: Excellent, Well, I know that there'll be people listening this
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  Speaker 1: morning who will be keen to do that now justin
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  Speaker 1: I also understand that the upcoming balancing of family payments
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  Speaker 1: that is something that people are needing to do at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, is that right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And this is not a new thing. This is
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  Speaker 2: the people that have had family tax benefit in the past.
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  Speaker 2: This is something that we've been doing for the last
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  Speaker 2: twenty years. But obviously with COVID again there may be
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  Speaker 2: new customers or obviously people have just had their first
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  Speaker 2: baby that this will be a new experience. So at
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  Speaker 2: the end of every financial year, people who are receiving
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  Speaker 2: their family tax benefit as an ongoing fortnightly payment had
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  Speaker 2: to give us an estimate of their income for the
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and twenty twenty one financial year. Now that
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  Speaker 2: that year is over, we're going to need to verify
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  Speaker 2: that the income that they thought they were getting or
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  Speaker 2: the income that they actually got, and you do that
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  Speaker 2: through your tax returns. So what we need our customers
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  Speaker 2: to do for getting family tax benefit is to lodge
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  Speaker 2: their tax returms with Australian Taxation Office or let us
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  Speaker 2: know that they don't have to lodge a tax return
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  Speaker 2: with Australian Taxation Office, and then we'll take that information
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  Speaker 2: from the ATO and will prepare what they have actually
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  Speaker 2: earned both on the tactical income with the estimate that
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  Speaker 2: they gave us. And one or three things were going
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  Speaker 2: to happen. Either they ran and they got what they
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  Speaker 2: were entitled to, they overestimated their income and they earned less,
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  Speaker 2: which means that their family tax benefit that they received
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  Speaker 2: was less than they should have gone And they'll get
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  Speaker 2: a top up yep, or they underestimated their income and
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  Speaker 2: they actually earned more than they should have and in
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  Speaker 2: that case they received more Family TEX Benefit than they
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  Speaker 2: should have, then we're going to write to them and
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  Speaker 2: work with them to get that money back.
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  Speaker 1: Well, justin Bosh, I know, there's always plenty happening. Is
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  Speaker 1: there anything else very briefly that our listeners should know
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  Speaker 1: about with the end of financial year and notifying Services
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  Speaker 1: Australia of any changes to their circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the big one is going to be obviously again
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  Speaker 2: for Family Tech Benefit, new financial year, potentially new estimate.
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  Speaker 2: But for customers again who first time on payments from US,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of our payments are technical income. We have
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  Speaker 2: already prepopulated their text returns through my tax Their technical
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  Speaker 2: income from Services Australia has already been given to this
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  Speaker 2: tran Taxation office, so they are then able to look
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  Speaker 2: do their text re terms from now and the services
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  Speaker 2: astray your information is already there, but the ATO I
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  Speaker 2: know generally want people to hold up watching their texture
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  Speaker 2: terms if they can until about August, because from August
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  Speaker 2: then all of the sources of prepopulated information is there,
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  Speaker 2: so their bank interests, their dividends from the shares, the
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  Speaker 2: sources of income from other employees. It's all generally there
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  Speaker 2: by August so that they could do those text terms
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  Speaker 2: not and needy from the beginning of beginning of August.
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  Speaker 1: Well Services Australia Financial Information Services Officer Justin Boss. Good
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  Speaker 1: to speak with you this morning. We appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: No worries, Katie. Thanks so much for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you