Money you owe option online 133-04110000

The service only shows debts from the last 2 years, regardless of whether the customer is current on payments. This includes:

• outstanding debts
• debts which are temporarily written off, or
• debts recovered in the last 2 years

The service will not include debts where they have a:

• status code other than:
• Civil Arrangement (DCA)
• Determined (DET), or
• Determined Pending Recovery (DWO)
• reason code:
• Compensation charge (compensation payer) (CMM)
• Failed to comply with Comp Preliminary Notice (CMB)
• Internal Transfer (ITR)

It will show debts with temporary write off codes but will not allow repayment arrangements to be set up for the following reason codes:

• Debt Agreement Current (DAC)
• Bankruptcy Pending (BRP)
• Bankruptcy possible future recovery (BRT)
• Bankruptcy discharged - no fraud (BRD)

The service has improved debt explanations for the following reason codes:

• Assets over limit (ASS)
• Insufficient workload (AUN)
• Discontinued study (DIS)
• Income from investment (self) (INV)
• Non-lodger (NLD)
• Rent incorrectly declared/coded (RAE)
• Employment income not declared or coded (IES)
• Employment income declared or coded incorrectly (ISI)
• Your income: not from employment or investment (OIS)

These include tips to:

• prevent the debt from reoccurring (ASS/AUN/DIS/INV/RAE/IES/ISI/OIS)
• resolve the debt (NLD)

Help online

Digital Assistant help text is available for customers using this service.

Information for this service comes from the customer's:

• Debt List (OPDL) screen
• Arrangements List (OPAL) screen

No activities or DOCs will create on the customer's record when a customer:

• selects the service, or
• views the summary

Details for this service come from the customer's:

• Modify Debt (OPMA) screen
• Debt Advice (OPAOD) screen
• Repayment History (OPRH) screen

The Make a payment option allows customers to make a payment outside of their regular repayment arrangement. This arrangement will show on the Arrangement List (OPAL) screen.

The customer selects the payment method:

• Credit or debit card (Visa or Mastercard only), or
• BPay or Post Billpay

The customer needs to select:

• Pay the total amount, or
• Pay other amount

If they select Pay other amount to make a part payment, they need to enter how much they are paying.

Card details

Customers must enter the following details:

• Card number
• Cardholder's name
• Expiry date (month/year)
• Card verification code (CVC)

When all details are correct, they can select Continue.

The Additional details page will appear and show the following message:

'For security purposes your card issuer, or financial institution, needs additional details to process the payment. The information you provide here will not be stored by Services Australia or applied to your Centrelink record. If you do not wish to provide additional details, you will not be able to make a repayment using a credit or debit card.'

Customers need to select one of the following options, then enter the details:

• Email
• Mobile phone
• Home phone
• Work phone

When entering a phone number, customers must include the international country code at the start of the number. For example, if the phone number is an Australian:

• mobile number of 0412 345 678, enter it as +61412345678
• home or work number of 07 1234 5678, enter it as +61712345678

After entering an email address or phone number, customers select Continue.

Note: this information may vary from what is recorded on the customer's Centrelink record. Customers can contact their financial institution to discuss security features associated with their credit or debit card.

Customers may get the following message and prompt for an additional step to authorise the payment:

'Your card issuer or financial institution requires additional action from you to process the payment.

Please follow the instructions below to continue with the payment. Please do not sign out of your Centrelink online account or close your browser window. We will provide you with a receipt to confirm if the payment is successful.'

Customers will need to complete the authentication step before they are given a receipt.

Payment successful

The Receipt page will show:

• Receipt ID
• the amount paid and payment date
• the payment option used
• partially masked details of the credit or debit card used

Payment unsuccessful

The Receipt page will show:

• Receipt ID
• Error message

Note: if the payment is unsuccessful, staff should encourage customers to check with their bank or financial institution before trying again to prevent duplicate payments.

All repayments will show on the Repayment History (OPRH) screen. Payments may take up to 48 hours to appear.

The Set up payment arrangement option allows the customer to set up a new payment arrangement. They can choose one of the following options to make their repayments:

• deduction from their regular fortnightly Centrelink payment
• direct debit from their financial institution
• make regular payments themselves weekly, fortnightly or monthly with credit or debit card, BPAY® or Post Billpay

If accepted, the repayment arrangement will be applied to the customer's record. This occurs when the customer agrees to enter into an acceptable payment arrangement. This arrangement is available on the Arrangement List (OPAL) screen.

If the customer owes $10,000 or more, the system will notify Payment Assurance Operations. Payment Assurance Operations will determine if there is a need for further recovery action.

Note: DMN/RCV activities containing provisional data (with a status of STA/HLD/DUE on AL Screen), will prevent customers from setting up a payment arrangement online.

The Edit payment arrangement option allows the customer to modify their existing:

• Centrelink payment deductions
• regular payments made on a set schedule
• direct debit arrangement(s)

The customer can make a change up to 3 times (including setting up the arrangement) before a repayment must be made. They can choose to change:

• the Centrelink payment that their repayment is deducted from (if the customer receives more than one Centrelink payment)
• the amount
• bank account details for direct debit repayments if the next payment is not due within 5 business days

If accepted, the change will be applied to the customer's record. Changes to the amount will be available on the Arrangement List (OPAL) screen. Changes to the bank account details will be available on the Direct Debit (OPVD) screen.

Customers with existing payment arrangements, made by a Centrelink payment deduction or direct debit arrangement are unable to use this service to:

• change the repayment frequency
• switch to making regular payments by credit or debit card, BPAY® or Post Billpay

The Action overdue payment option allows a customer with an overdue payment to miss the payment without breaking the arrangement. In a rolling 12 month period, a customer can miss:

• up to 4 payments if on a weekly payment arrangement
• up to 2 payments if on a fortnightly payment arrangement
• up to one payment if on a monthly or 4 weekly payment arrangement

Service Officers can view missed payments on the Repayment Schedule (OPRS) screen.

The Cease payment arrangement option will show to customers when they have:

• only one current or pending repayment arrangement that is a:
• Regular Cash (CSH) arrangement
• Voluntary Direct Debit (VOL) arrangement, or
• Withholdings (WHS) arrangement
• a temporary write-off code of Disaster (DIS), or
• Prison (PRI) applied to their debt, and
• a debt balance greater than zero

Customers can choose to cease the payment arrangement for those debts; however they will still be required to repay those debts in the future when the write-off codes are removed.

Ceased arrangements will show a CAN status on the Arrangement List (OPAL) screen.

Customers residing in disaster or emergency affected locations will have the following options:

• Make a payment
• Set up payment arrangement
• Edit payment arrangement. This option allows disaster or emergency affected customers to access minimum acceptable payment amounts of as low as $10 per fortnight for periods of 1, 2 or 3 months
• Stop payment arrangement. This option allows customers with a current or pending payment arrangement to cease their payment arrangement for all outstanding debts for a period of 1, 2 or 3 months
• Delay payment arrangement. This option allows customers with no current or pending payment arrangement to delay their payment arrangement for all outstanding debts for a period of 1, 2 or 3 months

Customers can access the Stop payment arrangement or Delay payment arrangement service twice in a rolling 12 month period, however they will still be required to repay those debts in the future when the write-off codes are removed. If customers try to access the service after stopping their payment arrangement more than twice during the 12 month period, they will need to call the agency for assistance.

These functions will also be available to customers who have been granted and/or paid a disaster related/hardship payment in the last 14 days. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Crisis Payment
• Disaster Recovery Allowance
• Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment

Customers can pay with their credit or debit card (Visa or Mastercard only) in the Money you owe service in their Centrelink online account and the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. The payments will go to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The system will recognise credit and debit card payments made through Centrelink online account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. This includes repayments for an outstanding advance or debt. This allows eligible customers with no outstanding debt balance to apply for an advance.

There is no minimum repayment amount for debt repayments made by credit or debit card.

Payments made via credit or debit card may take up to 48 hours to process and reduce the total debt balance displayed on the customer's record. Payments may take up to 5 working days to allocate to a debt and reduce their individual debt balance.

Customers can pay through direct debit from their financial institution in the Money you owe service in their Centrelink online account and the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. The payments will go to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

There is no minimum repayment amount for debt repayments made by direct debit.

Changes to the bank account details in a direct debit arrangement can be made in the Money you owe service if the next payment is not due within 5 business days.

If a direct debit falls on a non-business day, the deduction will be made on the next business day.

Customers are given the details to pay via BPAY® directly from their Australian financial institution.

Payments made via BPAY® may take up to 5 working days to update debt balances on a customer's record.

Customers can pay through Australia Post's Post Billpay service.

To make a payment, customers will be given the Billpay code and Reference number to pay:

• in-store at Australia Post with cash, cheque or from their financial institution account
• they must use the barcode provided on their receipt page and not take a screenshot, as this may not scan correctly
• online or by phone
• through the Australia Post mobile app. They can enter the Billpay code and Reference number, or scan the barcode provided on their online account receipt page

Payments made through Post Billpay may take up to 5 working days to update debt balances on a customer's record.

A minimum repayment amount of $5.00 applies to Centrelink debt repayments made over the counter at Australia Post locations.

This includes payments made by:

• cash
• cheque
• credit card, and
• EFTPOS

See General Centrelink debt recovery information.