Recovery of Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA) overpayments 107-05090100

The PGPA Act replaced the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (FMA) from 1 July 2014.

Commonwealth agencies and departments must recover overpayments under Rule 11 of the PGPA Rules 2014 when:

• they have not been legally written off
• they are legally recoverable, and
• it is economical to seek recovery

Debts caused by:

• normal departmental operations, such as those owed by staff and vendors, are departmental debts. Finance teams raise and recover them
• payments to the public under schemes controlled by the agency or department are called Administered PGPA overpayments

These include:

• voluntary withholdings from:
• Social Security
• Family Assistance, or
• Student Assistance Act payments
• compulsory withholdings from Social Security Act payments for Financial Case Management and Income Management overpayments
• cash (including direct debit)
• legal recovery action for customers who do not enter into a voluntary arrangement

It is possible to permanently write off Income Management customer overpayments if:

• they are less than $50, and
• recovery has not and will not start

The following recovery options are not able to be used for PGPA Act debts:

• garnishee
• tax garnishee
• Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Benefit reconciliation debt offset
• discounts
• third party withholdings
• Departure Prohibition Order

SRSS Operations (SRO) do all recovery action for Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) debts. Normal debt recovery provisions do not apply to these debts.

Waiver decisions under section 63 of the PGPA Act are decided by:

• the Finance Minister and Parliamentary Secretary, or
• delegates within Department of Finance

Services Australia staff do not have delegation for these waivers.

Request for waivers from the Department of Finance are referred to the Legal Branch of Services Australia (the agency). If the waiver is appropriate:

• Legal Branch sends the case to the Payment Assurance Operations (PAO)
• PAO:
• decides if it supports the waiver
• responds to the Department of Finance

A PAO Director has the access to record the waiver on the Debt Management Information System (DMIS)

Families Assistance, Student Assistance, and Social Security law appeal provisions do not apply to PGPA debts. PGPA overpayments cannot be appealed to the Administrative Review Tribunal.

If the customer does not agree with the decision a Subject Matter Expert will check the decision was correct. A customer who still doesn't agree can contact the Ombudsman.

For further information, see Reviews of JET Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA) decisions and Raising emergency payment debts and grant/ex-gratia overpayments.

A decision to apply withholdings under Section 1228 (3) to Financial Case Management overpayments can be appealed.

Customers must pursue appeals against reparations orders through the court system. The agency is bound by court orders and reparation orders.

PGPA overpayments attract an interest change. However, there is no option to add penalty interest via the Debt Management Information System.

There is provision in legislation to apply interest and an administrative charge. However current policy is not to apply these charges.