When the case worker has gathered evidence for the father's Lone Parent Benefit case, the father asks how much benefit he is likely to receive. The case worker requests a manual determination based on the in-edit evidence gathered (the evidence has not yet been approved).
The system actively calculates a determination result that:
At this point, no dependencies are stored by the Dependency Manager because the case has not yet been activated.
The case worker activates the evidence, which results in items being written to a precedent change set, and a deferred process being created. Because no dependencies yet exist for the case, no recalculation occurs when the deferred process is executed.
The case worker then submits the case for approval. The system creates a snapshot of the determination result (recalculated above) for audit purposes, and routes the case to a supervisor. The supervisor reviews the case and approves it, and the system creates another snapshot of the determination result, and links it to the record of the case approval. The case is activated and the system creates the initial assessment determination result. The dependencies that were identified during the calculation of the determination result are stored.
On 1st March 2003, the father remarries, and thus stops being a lone parent. The father is somewhat lax with regard to informing the agency, and only gets around to telling a case worker about his new marriage three months after it occurred. The case worker records the change in the father's personal circumstances and activates the change in evidence. An item is written to a precedent change set, and because the case is dependent upon the evidence in the case, CER recalculates a new determination for the case. The determination shows that the father's eligibility stopped three months previously (on 1st March 2003, his date of marriage) and that he has been overpaid in the meantime. The system initiates overpayment processing to recover the amount overpaid. The case worker can see from the latest determination that the reason that eligibility ended was due to the father no longer satisfying the "lone" condition of the product's business rules.
On 1st May 2008, the father's wife dies, and the father notifies the agency that he is again a lone parent. The change in his personal circumstances again results in an item being written to a precedent change set, and the case once again being recalculated. It transpires that over the last few years, increases in the father's income have pushed him out of the low-income bracket, and so despite now being "lone", he is ineligible for the Lone Parent Benefit due to his income level. The determination viewed by the case worker shows that when his wife died, the father continued to be ineligible for benefit, but the reason for ineligibility changed (prior to his wife's death, the reason was that he was not "lone", after her death the reason was that his means test failed due to his income level). The determination continues to show that when his daughter finally reaches the age of majority (which is still in the future), he will continue to be ineligible, but for a different reason again (namely that the father has no minor dependent). The determination also continues to show all the historical changes in eligibility, entitlement and explanation since the start of the case.
On 14th December 2010, the daughter becomes an adult. A case worker, who periodically reviews cases, notices that the case has been inactive for some time and closes the case, recording an end date. The open-ended determination result is replaced with a closed-period determination result.
Throughout the evolving history for the case, each determination shows key decision factors such as the date that the daughter was born, the date that the daughter became an adult, and changes in the household's total income. For any constant period of explanation, there are different categories of explanation, one showing a summary of which eligibility criteria have been met, and another showing how the means test was applied during that period.