Mandatory Review for Emergency Maintenance Allowance

Mandatory Reviews for Emergency Maintenance Allowance only applies to clients whose benefit has an expiry date of more than 52 weeks, or whose Emergency Maintenance Allowance has no expiry date.

MSD must review a client's Emergency Maintenance Allowance within 52-weeks of when their benefit commenced, or 52-weeks from when the client's last Mandatory Review was completed.

Clients must respond to the Mandatory Review before their review date, or their payments will suspend.

The purpose of a Mandatory Review for Emergency Maintenance Allowance is to:

• check for any changes to a client's circumstances
• determine if the client still meets the qualifications for Emergency Maintenance Allowance and
• review the rate of Emergency Maintenance Allowance payable.

If a client declares a change in circumstances that may affect their conditions of grant, MSD should check if the client continues to meet the conditions of grant for the Emergency Maintenance Allowance.

Note the Review of Annual Income is a separate process to a Mandatory Review.

Clients also getting Accommodation Supplement or Disability Allowance will have these reviewed at the same time as their Mandatory Review for Emergency Maintenance Allowance.

Example: client is getting Emergency Maintenance Allowance and Accommodation Supplement

Eru has been getting Emergency Maintenance Allowance since 24 May 2026. His Accommodation Supplement commenced on 2 April 2027.

Because the initial Mandatory Review date is determined by the Emergency Maintenance Allowance commencement date, the review date for both Accommodation Supplement and Emergency Maintenance Allowance is reset to 52 weeks from 24 May 2026.

Clients are notified at least 20 working days before their Mandatory Review date, unless their Emergency Maintenance Allowance is suspended due to the client being temporarily overseas or in prison. The notice period allows sufficient time for clients to respond to the Mandatory Review.

Note if a client's Emergency Maintenance Allowance is suspended when the Mandatory Review notice is sent, they are not required to respond to their Mandatory Review until their Emergency Maintenance Allowance is to be resumed.

To respond to the Mandatory Review, the client must:

• confirm or provide current information about their circumstances and

• provide updated information to MSD if requested.

Clients must confirm the information MSD holds is correct or provide any new information before their review date.

When a client has responded to the Mandatory Review and MSD has determined that they continue to qualify for Emergency Maintenance Allowance, their next review date is 52 weeks from the date their Mandatory Review was completed.

When a client does not respond to the Mandatory Review before their review date, the Emergency Maintenance Allowance will suspend.

If the client does not respond to the Mandatory Review to confirm their circumstances within 8 weeks after their payments have suspended, the Emergency Maintenance Allowance will be cancelled.

A client can still do their Mandatory Review during those 8 weeks. However, once the Emergency Maintenance Allowance has cancelled, the client will need to make a new application for benefit if they still need financial assistance.

A client's Emergency Maintenance Allowance cannot be resumed before they have responded to their Mandatory Review during the 8-week suspension period.

If a client's Emergency Maintenance Allowance suspends as a result of the client not responding to their Mandatory Review, all of their assistance will also suspend, except for the following payments:

• Child Disability Allowance
• Orphan's Benefit
• Unsupported Child's Benefit
• Childcare Subsidy
• OSCAR (Out of School Care and Recreational Subsidy)
• Guaranteed Childcare Assistance Payment

The Mandatory Review is completed when MSD makes a decision about whether the client continues to qualify for Emergency Maintenance Allowance and the rate of benefit payable.

MSD will either:

• continue paying the benefit at the existing rate
• adjust the rate of benefit so the client is getting the correct rate
• suspend the benefit if there is no rate payable for a period (e.g. client has variable income)
• cancel the benefit if the client no longer qualifies

Clients getting Emergency Maintenance Allowance may have met the exceptional circumstance criteria for having all or part of their cash assets disregarded when they were granted their benefit on the grounds of hardship.

If a client has a Mandatory Review for their Emergency Maintenance Allowance and there has been a change to their assets, MSD may consider if the exceptional circumstances criteria still applies and if the cash assets should still be disregarded.