Refunding debt repayments 107-05140030

Refund a debt repayment to the customer if the:

• debt is over recovered and Debt Staff have confirmed the amount is not transferable to another debt
• repayment was not correctly applied to the debt, due to an administrative error
• there has been a review of the recovery decision under the authority of a secretary initiated review and the recovery decision was found to be incorrect

Only 2 activities can be processed on the Debt Transfer Details (OPRTD) screen, before the PYAJ screen needs to be coded.

Note: a refund of FTB instalment arrears, reconciliation or lump sum amounts used to offset a debt must be approved by the National Families and Child Care Level 2 Policy Helpdesk. See Step 7 in Table 2 of Offsetting of FTB reconciliation top-ups, supplements and lump sum claim amounts.

For more information, see Investigating debt repayments.

Minimum dollar limits apply when issuing a refund. If the customer:

• contacts, over recovered amounts are payable if they are over $1
• does not contact within 28 days, amounts below $10 will auto-transfer to the agency's Trust Fund. This only occurs if the repayment was receipted via ESSentials (received from external agencies)

System arrears limits apply when issuing a refund. Payments issued that exceed the relevant maximum dollar limit are rejected by the system, and require reissuing via instalments.

If a refund is incorrectly paid, it is possible to submit a Stop Customer Payment webform via mySupport and the Centrelink Payments Support Team (CPST) will complete the request. This request must be submitted on the same day that the refund was paid. It is not a guarantee and should be rarely used. Consult an APS5 or above for guidance and approval. See Table 3 on the DMIS tab.

From October 2020, over recovered CCS debts will be automatically refunded to the customer. See the Process page to:

• stop an auto refund
• process a manual refund

On occasion, amounts are incorrectly refunded to the customer or a third party and it is too late to stop the payment.

If an amount is:

• incorrectly refunded to the customer's bank account, the related debt will increase. Recovery of this amount can continue as normal and no further action in required
• refunded to a third party in error, and the funds are not returned to Services Australia, a debt may result for the third party. See Actioning third party debts

If a customer has an over recovered FHA debt, determine if the refund has already been actioned. Check the:

• Payment List (Financial Customer Care) in Customer First, and
• Document List (DL) screen