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You’ll get a letter explaining the outcome either through your myGov Inbox or delivered to your postal address.
Your CCS balancing outcome will be one of the following:
- a top up, where we owe you money
- an outstanding debt, where you may need to pay money back
- no change, you got the right amount of CCS.
Top ups
We may not have paid you enough CCS during the year. If this happens, you may get any outstanding amounts when we balance your payments. This includes any CCS withholdings. We call this a top up.
If you have any existing child care or CCS debts, your top up can be used to pay these back first. Any remaining amount will be paid directly to your nominated bank account.
Read about where your payments are sent.
Outstanding debts
If we paid you too much CCS during the year or you have an outstanding debt with us, we may recover it from either:
- your CCS top up and arrears payments
- your tax refunds.
We can recover your debt from these payments even if you’ve entered into a repayment arrangement with us.
If your CCS is current we’ll automatically start withholding 20% of your payments to repay the debt. This will occur even if you have another repayment plan in place.
Read more about how we recover debts at tax time.
If you need to pay back money you owe
You can check your Centrelink debts online. Select Money You Owe from either:
- your Centrelink online account through myGov
- your Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
You can change or pause your debt repayments, if you’re affected by a current disaster event in your state or territory.
If you disagree with a decision we’ve made, you have the right to ask us to review it. Read more about explanations and formal reviews.
It’s important you talk to us if you’re experiencing financial hardship or worried about paying back a debt. We can work with you to set up a repayment plan you can afford.
Read more about Centrelink debts and overpayments.
Setting yourself up for next financial year
The best way to avoid an overpayment or an unexpected outcome is to check if you need to do any of the following:
- update your family income estimate if things have changed
- tell us about any changes to your activity test
- update your CCS withholdings to reduce your risk of getting a debt
- update any changes to your families circumstances.
If your circumstances change, you may need to update your details again throughout the financial year.