[Matthew Saunders]

Hi Tracey,

Penrith City Council has moved to verbal applications which we use for over the phone and over the counter applications. We do not use the online application form. We did not involve Human Services as we were acting under the direction from the Office of Local Government that only the online form needed Centrelink review.

I have looked at the Procedural Guide issued by Centrelink under the general contract we are now all under and it mentions that in relation to customer consent we are responsible for:

“…• confirming the identity of the customer before getting consent as per CCeS policy clause 13.2 (j)”

I have checked 13.2(j) of that Policy (from March 2016) which basically mentions the same thing:

“13.2 (j). confirm the identity of the Customer prior to obtaining consent”

We use the same way to identify a pensioner as we do for other Council enquiries so I am happy that we are properly identifying them as best as we can with the limited information we are given by the NSW Land Registry Services (name and postal address). I am also happy that our record of the consent complies with their requirements in relation to who, what when & how etc.

Our intention with our verbal forms was to wait until our first audit from Centrelink for them to tell us whether they were happy with our consent and auditing procedures.

I will wait to hear from you as to what they come back with about the verbal consent, otherwise I will carry on in blissful ignorance.

Kind regards,

Matthew.