Change of circumstances

What to tell us

You must tell us if any of the following happens:

• you change or correct your name
• your address changes
• your income or assets change
• your partner’s income or assets change
• you stop living with your partner
• your partner dies
• you marry or start living with your partner
• you're leaving the country temporarily or to live somewhere else.

You have 14 days to tell us about the changes. If you don’t do this, we may pay you too much and you’ll probably have to pay the money back.

If you deliberately don’t tell us about changes, we could charge you with fraud.

How to tell us

You can tell us about a change to your circumstances using one of these self service options:

• your Centrelink online account through myGov
• the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app
• Centrelink phone self service.

Read more about what you can do using self service.

If you don’t have access to a self service option please call the older Australians line.

Changing or correcting your name

It’s important to tell us if you change your legal name.

To change or correct your legal name, we’ll need:

• an original document issued by a state or territory Births, Deaths and Marriages registry
• your consent to verify the document.

You need to bring your document to a service centre so we can update our records.

You can find your state or territory Births, deaths and marriage registry on the Australia.gov.au website.