5.1For most criminal matters, each new item of work should have its own UFN. However, where a matters progresses from the Police Station (ie INVC claim) to the Magistrates court (ie PROK claim), the same UFN should be used to claim for the work done at each stage. If Associated Civil work relating to this matter is undertaken, it should also use the same UFN.

5.2It is crucial that the rules for reporting UFNs are followed or you risk having your claims rejected by CWA.

5.3The UFN is compiled of the case start date and a 3 digit case ID in the format DDMMYY/NNN. For the Case ID you should record the first case opened on a particular day as 001 and then all subsequent cases opened that day should increase this number (ie 002 / 003 and upwards). The following day you should restart the numbering again at 001. Therefore when this number is compiled with the case start date you will ensure that the UFN is unique. The following explain some practical examples of how to record the UFN correctly and where you should reuse it:

5.4A provider reports an INVC matter with the UFN 250909/001 under office account number 1A111A. The following month they report another INVC claim with the same UFN (250909/001) under the same office account number (1A111A). When the second claim is submitted, it will be identified as a duplicate and the entire monthly submission will be rejected by CWA.

5.5A provider reports an INVC matter with the UFN 250909/001 under office account number 1A111A. The following month they report another INVC claim with the UFN 250909/001 under a different office account number (2A222A). The second claim is valid and will be accepted by CWA.

5.6A provider reports an INVC matter with the UFN 250909/001 under account number 1A111A. The following month, they report PROP claim with the same UFN (250909/001) under the same office account number (1A111A). The second claim is valid and will be accepted by CWA.