In November 2019, Gordon Legal filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 6 applicants and other group members against the Commonwealth of Australia. This is also known as the Income Compliance class action. The class action is about the Centrelink debts raised under the Income Compliance Program between July 2015 and November 2019.
In November 2020, the Commonwealth and Gordon Legal agreed on a proposed settlement. The Federal Court approved the settlement on 11 June 2021.
Eligible, registered group members will get settlement payments by 30 September 2022.
Settlement payments are not the same as a refund.
Most refunds referred to in the settlement have already been paid. We reduced eligible debts raised under the Income Compliance Program to zero if no repayments had been made. Only debts raised after 1 July 2015, using averaged Australian Taxation Office (ATO) income information, are eligible to be refunded or reduced to zero.
We know community groups play a big role in helping people do business with us. This is why we’ve created resources to help you help your community members. These explain who may be eligible for a class action settlement payment or a refund of their Income Compliance debt repayments.
Income Compliance class action
You can use our class action settlement fact sheet when talking to your community members who are eligible group members of the class action. The fact sheet explains:
- how settlement payments were calculated
- where to get a settlement statement explaining their individual calculation
- how to ask for a review of their settlement payment.
You can download our fact sheet:
We have translated Robodebt class action products available for community members who speak another language.
Income Compliance Program refunds
You can use our Income Compliance Program refunds eKit to explain the refunding process for eligible debt repayments.
Download the Income Compliance Program refunds eKit
By using the eKit, you agree to reproduce content in the exact form provided by us. Please don’t change the designs in any way.