Centrelink Confirmation eServices for businesses

You can use the Customer Confirmation function to confirm a customer's Centrelink entitlement to concessions and services. It helps concession providers protect the distribution of their concessional revenue. You can make two types of enquiries:

• Centrelink payment enquiry - used to confirm a customer’s entitlement to receive a concession
• Department of Veterans' Affairs enquiry - used to check a customer's concession eligibility.

You can use the income confirmation function to get customer income and payment details. By using income confirmation, you and your customers can both save time, because you won't need to contact us for their information.

If you have customers who receive Centrelink payments, you may need to check their eligibility for your services, or to determine what assistance you can provide. The information you receive may be in the form of an income statements providing customer details, including their:

• Centrelink payments
• assets
• other income.

Administrators and trustees of superannuation funds can use the superannuation-confirmation function to get information about the income-support status of a customer receiving Centrelink payments. This helps you decide whether superannuation can be released early due to financial hardship.

A superannuation-confirmation enquiry confirms the customer's personal details and provides advice about his or her income-support eligibility.

When you are registered to use Centrelink Confirmation eServices, we will provide you with services to support you:

• an online, real-time system that responds immediately
• batch processing for large-volume requests and historical-income statements
• customer assistance from our Service Centres and customer access points across Australia
• comprehensive online help when using the enquiry screens
• detailed explanations of result information
• helpdesk services five days a week by phone or email
• dedicated state- and territory-based staff for information and support in promoting your services to our customers
• information, materials, and user guides for your employees.

Centrelink Confirmation eServices is free to organisations that assist customers receiving Centrelink and/or Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments.

There may be some initial administrative costs associated with system-integration interfaces and testing, if your organisation needs to use this approach.

The Centrelink Confirmation eServices (CCeS) has three different methods to let you get customer information:

• single enquiry service lets you submit a query for one customer receiving Centrelink and/or Department of Veterans' Affairs payments. You will get the results immediately and can print them for your records.
• batch lodgement lets you submit a query about multiple customers by lodging a batch file in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) form. You will receive a response to batch lodgement within 72 hours of making a query.
• system integration lets you get a direct connection between your host ICT system and our mainframe (for the customer-confirmation function only). You will need to set up an interface, which will incur some costs and take extra time. You can get further information on system-integration processes by contacting the CCeS helpdesk.

To use CCeS, you must:

• log on to our secure site
• choose the confirmation service you need
• enter the customer’s details
• read the immediate confirmation results.

eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

XML is a simple but flexible text-format standard used for the exchange of a wide variety of data on the internet. We can provide you with an XML specification document to help you format the file correctly.

CCeS offers a fee-for-service testing arrangement to ensure that the files you create are in the required format. For more information contact the CCeS helpdesk.

You can access Centrelink Confirmation eServices (CCeS) five days a week. CCeS is monitored from 7 a.m. to 8.45 p.m., Monday to Friday.

We also provide helpdesk support. The CCeS helpdesk is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Hours of service are in Australian Eastern Standard Time.

The helpdesk is not available, and the service is not monitored, on national public holidays. If you experience problems when the service is not monitored, please try again when the service is monitored.

If you wish to register your organisation for Centrelink Confirmation eServices and your organisation has an annual turnover of more than $3 million, the application must be approved under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act), Privacy (Privacy Sector) Regulations 2001 (the Regulation).

This process is necessary to satisfy the Privacy Act requirements where the department intends to use a Customer Reference Number (CRN) to disclose details of an individual’s entitlement or, income and asset details to approved organisations.

To access CCeS benefits, a customer provides their CRN to the organisation. This is then given to the department to enable the provision of the information the organisation requires.

Should you wish to register your organisation for CCeS, please be aware that the application process can be lengthy.

Follow these steps to register for Centrelink Confirmation eServices.

Read more about registering

For more information about Centrelink Confirmation eServices (CCeS), contact the CCeS helpdesk:

• Freecall 1800 887 774, or
• fax the helpdesk, on 03 6222 2810.

If you are a concession provider interested in using CCeS, you can email helpdesk.ccs@humanservices.gov.au for more information.