How to repay money you owe to Centrelink

If you owe us money, we want to help you repay it in a way that best suits your situation. That’s why there are options available to you.

Your Centrelink debts won’t affect your credit rating. However, we may take action if you haven’t started repaying the money by the due date.

Your options

There are 3 main ways to repay money you owe. They are:

• repaying in full by the due date
• setting up a repayment arrangement with us
• having deductions from your regular Centrelink payment over an agreed period of time.

Watch our video for instructions on repaying money you owe.

Most people repay the money they owe over time.

The right repayment option for you depends on your situation. When deciding how to repay the money, you’ll need to think of things like:

• your budget
• upcoming expenses
• any other debts you may have
• how long you want to be repaying the money.

We have examples to help you work out a repayment option that suits you.

If you repay your Centrelink debt using your credit card, you may be charged additional fees by your financial institution. This is because credit cards can charge a high interest rate and cash advance fees.

You’ll need to contact your financial institution for more information about these fees.

If you enter into a repayment arrangement with us to repay your debt over an agreed period of time, we won’t charge you interest if you make your first repayment by the due date and keep to your arrangement.

If you’re experiencing financial hardship, we’d like to help. Please call our debt recovery line.

Your repayments

How you repay money will either depend on:

• if you get a payment from us now including Child Care Subsidy
• if you no longer get a payment from us.

At times we may recover money in other ways and for other agencies. In some situations, we may use your tax refund to reduce the amount you owe. Read more about how we recover debts at tax time.

If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov, you can manage your repayments online. To do this, sign into myGov and select Money you owe.

Sign in to myGov

You can also use the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Pausing your debt repayments

If you’ve been impacted by a disaster or hardship event, you may be able to pause or change the amount of your debt repayments. Read more about the flexible choices available for when you need to pause your debt repayments.