If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
20 December 2016
Our reference: LEX 24679
HW
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx Dear HW
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the
FOI Act). I have taken your request to be for:
'internal correspondence or memos received by DHS from the relevant minister
directing, either actively or by procedural means, the department to slow the
processing of Youth Allowance claims'.
Your request was received by the department on 15 December 2016 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. Due to
the department's reduced activity period over December and January, we are seeking your
permission to extend the processing time by an extra
15 days to allow us to process your
request. This means the date you can expect to receive a decision from us is no later than
30 January 2017.
Unless we hear otherwise from you, we propose to treat this as an extension of time by
agreement under the FOI Act (s15AA). If however you have any concerns with that
timeframe, please contact by emailing us.
The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your request and the
amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No charge is payable for providing a
person with their own personal information.
Your Address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send notices to. You
have advised your email is
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx. We will send all
notices and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible if you
wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address changes. If you do not
advise us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices will continue to be sent to
the address specified above.
Disclosure Log
Please note that information released under FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on
the department's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, however it is
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subject to certain exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional
or commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of junior department employee details
The department is working towards ensuring that all employees have a choice about whether
they provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and direct contact details in response
to public enquiries. Where such details are included in the scope of a request, this may add
to processing time and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us otherwise, we will
assume that these details are out of scope of your request and they will be redacted under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please ema
il xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely
Authorised Decision Maker
FOI Legal Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
