Payment of fines from income managed funds 103-01040040

Fines are generally not priority needs. Fines (including court fines, fines from local government authorities such as councils or police departments (for example, parking fines)) can however be paid from a customer's income managed funds if the Services Australia delegate is satisfied that the person's priority needs have been met now and into the reasonably foreseeable future, and there are income managed funds in excess of priority needs expenses available.

Where a person has an immediate prospect of being imprisoned for non-payment of a fine and does not have any other funds from which the fine can be paid, the test of whether priority needs have been met should be made having regard only to the immediate unmet needs of the person, their partner, their children or their other dependants (rather than current and reasonably foreseeable).

The immediate unmet needs would normally relate to food, housing, School Meals program, clothing and health needs. If these immediate priority needs have been met, then the fine can be paid with the person's income managed funds. Payments in these circumstances would generally be one-off payments. Customers in these circumstances should be referred to the relevant organisation to renegotiate their arrangements (with the assistance of a Services Australia social worker where necessary).

Under Child Protection Income Management (CPIM) and the Cape York Initiative, the relevant authority submits a notification to Services Australia via the Business Hub and may recommend where income managed funds should be directed, however Service Officers are not required to comply with the recommendation.

If a customer has an existing Centrepay arrangement in place to pay for a fine, and it cannot be transferred to an Income Management expense as the customer does not have sufficient funds after basic needs are met or the relevant organisation does not accept Income Management funds, the customer is strongly encouraged to keep the Centrepay arrangement in place. There can be serious consequences for customers that do not maintain an existing payment arrangement including loss of license or even imprisonment.

If a customer requests that an existing payment arrangement cease, the Service Officer should discuss with the customer how they are going to meet their payments in future. The customer should be strongly encouraged to contact the relevant organisation to come to an alternative arrangement.

Agency delegates have a duty of care to ensure that these payments continue where possible. Service Officers must clearly DOC and record via the Priority Needs screen or Expense Notes (as applicable), their reasons for making any adjustments to fine payments and whether these are being made through Centrepay deductions or Income Management funds.