Raising debts associated with civil and criminal action 107-04130010
Expand allThis document outlines information about raising debts associated with civil and criminal action. Customers sometimes incur additional debts from costs associated with debts under the Social Security or other Administered Acts.
Debts resulting from additional costs
A debt resulting from additional costs under the following Acts:
- the Social Security Act, or
- other Administered Acts
Some examples of additional costs are:
- court costs
- court fees
- associated legal costs awarded to the Commonwealth. This occurs if a customer appeals a debt to the Federal Court or higher and is unsuccessful. The debtor can be ordered to pay the Commonwealth's legal costs as well as their own
- Judgement Interest:
- from December 2007, Judgement Interest debts are raised as separate Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA) debts
- before December 2007, Judgement Interest debts were added manually to the original debt
- fines for criminal offences
Debts relating to criminal or civil legal action are not debts under the Social Security or other Administered Acts. They are debts under the PGPA Act and are only recoverable under the provisions of that Act.
Court issued orders
A court may issue one of 3 orders again, a:
- reparation order
- forfeiture order
- pecuniary order
The Resources page contains a link to the Accountable Authority Instructions (AAIs) and Instrument of Financial Delegation listings and a table of debt types for legal costs/fees.
Related links
Civil procedures to recover Centrelink debts
Recovery from non complying garnishee debtors
Create a new debt record manually on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)