Centrepay is changing

What’s staying

You can continue to use Centrepay to pay for goods and services from approved businesses. These may include:

accommodation including rent, bond and arrears
Utilities including electricity, gas and water
education and employment including school fees, child-care fees and school nutrition fees
health including medical expenses or payments to a pharmacy, to pay for ambulance travel or a veterinary bill
finance and insurance services including no or low interest or community loans, infringement notices or court fines and home, content or car insurance

You can still set up Centrepay deductions from most Centrelink payments. There are some payments you can’t use Centrepay for.

What’s going

From 3 November 2025 certain service reasons will begin to be phased off Centrepay.

We’re removing the following service reasons, including:

Basic household items, such as the purchase of clothing, footwear, furniture and appliances
Household goods lease and rental, these are payments towards a regulated lease for whitegoods, electrical or furniture under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009
Funeral expenses, such as payments towards funeral plans, funeral bonds, prepaid funerals or actual funeral costs
Employment expenses such as tools of trade, work uniforms, training, protective clothing and footwear
Social and recreational commitments including expenses for sporting activities and equipment, church donations, sponsorships, musical activities and equipment
Savings for deposits made to microfinance savings plans
Motor vehicle registration

To help you adjust to the changes:

if you currently have a deduction set up for one of these service reasons it will continue for up to 12 months. You’ll need to choose a different payment method by 1 November 2026.
if you cancel a deduction for one of these service reasons after 3 November 2025, you won’t be able to re-start it.
if you don’t already have a deduction in place, from 3 November 2025 you won’t be able to start any new deductions.

Alternative payment methods

It’s important to know that while you’ll no longer be able to use Centrepay to pay these businesses in the future you can:

still purchase items and just pay for them using alternative payment methods.
speak directly with the business to arrange an alternate payment method

You can also talk to someone to discuss what these alternatives might be. Talk to a financial counsellor, or contact us to talk about other support services.

What’s changing

We’ve changed the criteria for some categories. Please check with the business you are making a Centrepay deduction to, to see if you can continue using Centrepay for the following service reasons:

Legal and Professional Services
Travel and Transport
Food Provision.

Look at our Goods and services page to see what these changes mean for you.

End dates for service reasons

We have added some mandatory conditions for certain deductions to include an end date for the following service reasons:

Home-care and trade services
School meals program
Child care services
Education expenses
Disability and community services.

Deductions set up before 3 November 2025 will need to have an end date added by 4 May 2026.

If you start a deduction after 3 November 2025, the deduction must include an end-date.

Look at our Goods and services page to see how these changes may affect your deductions.

Target amounts for service reasons

We have added some mandatory conditions for certain deductions to include a target amount for the following service reasons:

Ambulance services
Medical services and equipment
Community group loans
No interest loans
General community housing loans
Special interest loans
Court fines
Court infringements
Legal services
Travel and transport services
Food provisions for remote areas
Veterinary services.

Deductions set up before 3 November 2025 will need to have a target amount added by 4 May 2026.

If you start a deduction after 3 November 2025, the deduction must include a target amount.

Look at our Goods and services page to see how these changes may affect your deductions.

Help from us

You can learn more about how you can get financial help and information.

If you’re going through a hard time financially, you may want to get counselling, help and emotional support. Find out about our social worker services.

You can talk to one of our Financial Information Service (FIS) Officers for free. Our FIS Officers can share tools, resources and information that can help you make more informed financial decisions.

You can also find out more about how to manage your money.

Centrepay complaints and feedback

If you are a customer and having trouble working out a Centrepay issue with a business you can contact Centrepay complaints and feedback.