Calculating Open Ended Financial Component Cover Periods

If a product supports open ended cases, it means that the last decision on a case may be open ended. When the last decision is eligible, then it results in the creation of a recurring, open-ended financial component. This means that a ramp-down financial component is not required.

For example, an eligible, open ended decision has been created starting on Wednesday 6th of July 2011 which applies until further notice. For a case with one nominee component assignment and one nominee delivery pattern which has the delivery frequency Weekly by Check on Monday, one open ended virtual component will be created. Using the frequency of the nominee delivery pattern to split up the open ended virtual component means that a separate financial component is generated to cover each of the periods listed below:

1. From Wednesday 6th July 2011 to Sunday 10th July 2011. This financial component covers the interval from the start of virtual component to the start of the first complete delivery cycle, i.e. Monday 11th July.
2. From Monday 11th July 2011 until further notice. This financial component covers the period of the virtual component that contains complete delivery frequency cycles.

At some point in the future, an end date will be added to the case. This might be because of a change of circumstance or because the case is being closed. When this occurs, the case will be reassessed and the previous open ended decision will be replaced by one which has an end date. At that point the open ended financial component will be replaced by a bounded financial component which applies until the case end date.