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Handling misdirected correspondence 104-04070040

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This document outlines what staff do when correspondence with personal information is received by the wrong person. Correspondence can be physical (mail or fax) or electronic (email). In this document, the person who received the wrong correspondence is referred to as the unintended individual.

Privacy obligations

Services Australia (including all officials employed by the agency and staff engaged under contract) collects, uses, discloses, and stores significant amounts of personal, sensitive, and protected information. Inappropriate management of this information:

  • may be a breach of privacy law, secrecy provisions or duties of confidentiality, and
  • could have serious consequences for the affected individual

Response to incidents

Agency’s polices outline that staff must:

  • respond quickly to incidents of misdirected correspondence. This includes retrieving any personal information
  • make sure the individuals are told the agency takes its responsibilities seriously

The Resources page contains links to the:

  • Report a Privacy Incident intranet page
  • Privacy and Secrecy and Output Management Intranet pages

Return mail indicator for Medicare claims

Return to sender (RTS) mail for Centrelink

Returned mail for Australian Immunisation Register (AIR)

Updating address details

Updating Child Support customer information