Definition
The Eligibility and entitlements capability is used to assess whether individuals, families, businesses or third parties qualify for government services based on specific criteria.
It pertains to something that an individual, business, or third party has the right to possess, receive, or perform according to established rules or criteria. For example, this may include:
- the evaluation of eligibility and entitlements related to child support, family assistance, aged care, and health programs
- determinations concerning wages, leave, superannuation, visa entitlements, duration of stay, or work rights.
Purpose
Accurate eligibility and entitlement assessments are critical to delivering high-quality government services. This capability is essential for the design, development, delivery, coordination, and monitoring of government services and payments related to areas such as social security, child support, students, families, aged care, and health programs.
It enables service delivery agencies to provide payments and services that a person or organisation is rightfully eligible to receive and supports a streamlined and effective service delivery framework.
As a capability, Eligibility and entitlements are realised by:
- ensuring eligibility and entitlements requirements are aligned with relevant policy intent
- evaluating and accessing information provided by users against eligibility conditions
- capturing the correct eligibility and entitlement status of an individual, family, business or third party to receive government benefits or other services
- ensuring eligibility and entitlements decisions are made using relevant, accurate, and trusted data sources
- functioning as part of a suite of capabilities within the Government service delivery domain, integrating with other government systems to provide seamless delivery of service.
Objectives
The objectives of this guidance are to:
- facilitate eligibility and entitlement capabilities within government to support individuals, families, businesses, and third parties
- provide integrated eligibility and entitlement services that meet legislation, and enable customers to understand their service eligibility and entitlement
- provide transparent and auditable interactions to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.
Whole-of-government strategic alignment
Agencies should be aware of the whole-of-government strategies that provide direction and set obligations for the eligibility and entitlements capability.
The Data and digital Government strategy sets a vision for 2030 to deliver simple, secure and connected public services for all people and business, through world class data and digital capabilities. It puts people and business at the centre of its vision ensuring everyone’s experience with the Australian Government is inclusive, accessible and responsive to their needs.
The Eligibility and entitlements capability supports the following Data and digital Government strategy missions:
- Delivering for all people and business: Eligibility and entitlements enable fair and transparent access to all users, helping them to navigate easily across government services according to their eligibility and entitlements status. By pre-filling the forms and using automated checks, users are treated to faster, timely, more accurate services targeted at their own needs.
- Simple and seamless services: Eligibility and entitlements enable simpler, faster and more predictable services, by replicating eligibility and entitlements logic and rules and automating user entries across many government services. This reduces the need for users to duplicate their effort in providing information to different systems and improves the user experience.