Thanks to government decisions made in November 2025, we’ve made changes to how we manage Centrelink debts. These changes reflect our commitment to providing better outcomes and supporting people when life becomes difficult.
We’ve increased the small debt waiver amount. We now waive a debt if the amount is under $250. This amount will be indexed each year against the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to keep pace with changes in living costs.
This means people won’t need to repay it. We’ll do this automatically, so people don’t have to do anything.
This only applies to debt decisions from 20 March 2026 onwards. Debts that were raised before this date still need to be repaid.
We understand that sometimes people make difficult choices when they feel afraid, controlled or overwhelmed. That’s why we’ve also expanded how we use special circumstances waivers.
When considering a waiver, we’ll look at a person’s whole situation and consider if they gave us the wrong information because of the difficulty they were facing.
We can now waive a debt if someone gave us the wrong information for reasons such as:
- family and domestic violence
- homelessness
- mental health difficulties
- natural disasters
- serious addictions
- other major life pressures.
These changes ensure we take these situations into account when considering a debt.
This change also applies to old debts people have already repaid. If we waive a debt someone’s already repaid, we’ll either refund it to them or apply it to another debt if they have one.
Find out more about how we support customers with Centrelink debts.