Lodgment Program Review Working Group key messages 14 December 2021

Welcome

The meeting was opened with welcomes and a recap of the previous meeting.

Topics discussed

The group revisited discussions and action items from the previous meeting.

Timeline for review

A timeline for the review was presented to the group, which will be used to inform future meetings and milestones for the group to achieve. The group are also in the process of gaining input from industry members and colleagues regarding lodgment pressure points, which will also be incorporated and help to guide further discussions.

Draft intent statement

The draft intent statement was reviewed and there was positive feedback regarding the statement overall, with a little more consideration to just the wording of the three key elements needed.

Understanding the environment and constraints

A presentation on Understanding the environment and constraints was given to the group. The presentation outlined the dependencies and impacts of the lodgment program on other government agencies and clients.

Design thinking process

The group went through a design thinking process to identify what is working, what is not working and possible opportunities. Some common themes identified included:

• Being able to self-serve deferrals is appreciated by agents. However, the overall deferrals request process (system, communication, and responsiveness) is clunky and needs improvement. Agents would appreciate additional clarity in relation to criteria for approving deferral requests.
• Having benchmarks, targets, hurdles to meet is important and provides incentives to stay on track with lodgments. However, we need to consider the other pressures in the environment and other agent responsibilities when setting the due dates.
• The impacts of delaying lodgments because of payment due dates and the calculation of instalments. This has potential impacts on 'progressive' lodgment which is incorporated into the foundation of the Lodgment Program design.