Addressing income apportionment

The government is taking steps to address the historical use of income apportionment.

The steps are:

• passing legislation validating the use of income apportionment to calculate entitlements
• establishing a Resolution Scheme with a payment of up to $600 to go to people with eligible debts impacted by income apportionment for debt periods between September 2003 and December 2020.

You’ll need to apply to receive a resolution payment. Applications for the Scheme will open from 30 January 2026.

More information about next steps and eligibility for the Resolution Scheme will be available soon.

Restarting paused debt activities

We paused different activities for debts potentially impacted by income apportionment.

This included:

• debt repayments
• explanations of decision
• formal reviews.

Now that legislation has passed validating the past use of income apportionment, we’ll restart this work.

If you have a debt that was paused, there’s nothing you need to do now.

We expect that debt repayments will start in early 2026. We’ll contact you before your debt repayments restart.

While these debts are still paused, they may not appear in the Money you owe service in your Centrelink online account. However, they will appear in your Statement of Debt. We have information to help you get a statement of debt.

If you have asked for a formal review or an explanation of decision, there is no need to call us to check on the progress. We will contact you to discuss your request before making a decision.

If you need to discuss your debt, you can call our Income apportionment line.

We have information to help you repay money you owe.