How to repay money you owe to Centrelink

You can repay money for a Centrelink debt in full or set up a payment arrangement. We may recover money in other ways as well.

Flexible debt repayment choices are available if you are affected by natural disaster events.

Read more about pausing your debt repayments.

If you owe us money, we want to help you repay it in a way that best suits your situation. That’s why there are options available to you.

Your Centrelink debts won’t affect your credit rating. However, we may take action if you haven’t started repaying the money by the due date.

Your options

There are 2 main ways to repay money you owe. They are:

  • in full by the due date
  • over time, by setting up a payment arrangement or having deductions taken from your regular payment.

Watch our video for instructions on repaying money you owe.

Most people pay the money they owe over time.

The right option for you depends on your situation. When deciding how to repay the money, you’ll need to think of things like:

We have examples to help you work out a repayment option that suits you.

Your repayments

How you repay money will either depend on:

At times we may recover money in other ways and for other agencies.

You can manage your repayments using the Money you owe service in either:

Pausing your debt repayments

If you’ve been impacted by a disaster or hardship event, you may be able to pause or change your debt repayments. Read more about the flexible choices available for when you need to pause your debt repayments.

Page last updated: 19 December 2022.