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Raising ISP debts for customers granted PPL and DAP 107-18040300

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This document provides information on raising income support payment (ISP) debts resulting from payment of Parental Leave Pay (PPL) and Dad and Partner Pay (DAP).

ISP debts for customers granted PPL or DAP

PPL and DAP are treated as ordinary income for determining eligibility and calculating the rate of ISP for the customer or their partner.

Customers (and/or partners) may incur a debt if they receive PPL or DAP in the same period as receiving an ISP. Customers can minimise the amount of the overpayment by:

  • starting their PPL period from a future date
  • starting their DAP period from a future date
  • claiming Flexible PPL days for dates in the future

Note: when paid for children born or adopted before 1 October 2016, PPL and DAP are not treated as ordinary income.

Offsetting of PPL arrears

PPL arrears and an ISP overpayment can occur in the same activity. When this happens, the system will offset the PPL arrears with the ISP overpayment. This is so the agency does not issue a payment and raise a debt on the same day. PPL arrears can only be used to offset ISP overpayments that are as a result of getting PPL for the same period. For more information about PPL offsetting, see Parental Leave Pay (PPL) debt raising, debt offsetting and recovery.

If the PPL arrears amount is less than the overpaid amount, the remaining outstanding amount will be raised as a debt.

The Resources page contains a list of Debt Benefit Types.

Investigating Centrelink debts

Using ADEX to explain a system generated debt