You’ll get a letter explaining the outcome through your myGov Inbox or delivered to your postal address.
Your CCS balancing outcome will be one of the following:
- a top up, where we owe you money
- an outstanding debt, where you may need to pay money back
- no change, where you got the right amount of CCS.
Top ups
We may not have paid you enough CCS during the year. If this happens, you may get any outstanding amounts when we balance your payments. This includes any CCS withholdings. We call this a top up.
If you have any existing Child Care Benefit (CCB), Child Care Rebate (CCR) or CCS debts, your top up can be used to pay these back first. Any remaining amount will be paid directly to your nominated bank account.
Find out more about where your payments are sent.
Outstanding debts
If we paid you too much CCS during the year or you have an outstanding debt with us, we may recover it from either your:
- CCS top up and arrears payments
- tax refund.
We can recover your debt from these payments even if you’ve entered into a repayment arrangement with us.
If your CCS is current we’ll start withholding 20% of your payments to repay the debt. This will occur even if you have another repayment plan in place.
Find out more about how we recover debts at tax time.
If you need to pay back money you owe
You can check your Centrelink debts online. Select Money You Owe from either your:
You can change or pause your debt repayments, if you’re affected by a current disaster event in your state or territory.
If you disagree with a decision we’ve made, you have the right to ask us to review it. Find out more about explanations and formal reviews.
It’s important you talk to us if you’re experiencing financial hardship or worried about paying back a debt. We can work with you to set up a repayment plan you can afford.
Find out more about Centrelink debts and overpayments.
The best way to avoid an overpayment or unexpected outcome is to check your details are right. Find out more about getting the right outcome at tax time.