Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

(a) Clean Energy Advance payments were not made to known deceased customers. It is possible a payment may have been paid to a deceased customer where the department had not been advised of the death before the determination for payment was made.

(b) Household Assistance legislation does not provide for Clean Energy Advance payments to be paid to individuals that are permanently or temporarily outside of Australia at the time of determining eligibility for payment. For those customers temporarily overseas, the legislation does provide for customers to be assessed for eligibility for the Clean Energy Advance payment upon return to Australia.

The department paid a Clean Energy Advance payment to around 6.5 million customers between May and June 2012. The Department has a suite of robust integrity checks. These checks have detected that around 31 customers were outside of Australia at the time of payment and were not reported as overseas at the time they were paid a Clean Energy Advance. Some of these customers have since returned to Australia and are eligible for payment. The remaining customers will be assessed for eligibility for payment upon their return to Australia and most will be eligible for a payment. The actual payment amount is based on the number of days remaining between the date returned to Australia and the end of the Clean Energy Advance period. Where it is found the customer was not eligible for payment, a debt may be raised in relation to the Clean Energy Advance and other pensions, family payments or income support payments, depending on the circumstances.

(c) Aside from the potential customer cohort identified above in (b), there are no known instances where a customer that has been paid a Clean Energy Advance has subsequently been found not to be eligible.