What to report

If you get income from employment, it may affect your payment from us. You must report this income to us.

If your partner is getting a payment from us, they’ll need to report your income.

Gross amount of pay

To make sure we’re paying you the right amount, you need to report your and your partner’s gross employment income. This is the total pay that each employer paid you and your partner before tax and other deductions.

Your gross employment income includes all of the following:

• your standard pay
• other pay rates like overtime or penalty hours
• any allowances you get from your employer.

You’ll find the gross amount on your payslip. It’s the amount you get before tax and other deductions. It’s usually not what goes into your bank account.

You need to report your employment income from each job separately. Find out about employment income. You can fill this out on your device or print it and complete by hand.

Keep track of your employment income from different jobs by using a different earnings worksheet form for each employer.

When you report your income, we may pre-fill information for you, this saves you entering all the details yourself. Find out about prefilled information.

If you report employment income and your total income is over the cut off point, you may have a nil rate payment period. Find out about the nil rate payment period.

Don’t forget to keep your payslips. We may ask you to give them to us as proof of your employment income.

Find out about payslips and what your employer should include on payslips, by visiting the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Total hours of work

You may need to tell us the total number of hours you worked even if your pay will come in your next reporting period.

Remember to note your hours each time you work. You can keep track of the hours you work using the earnings worksheet form.

Time period

You need to tell us the time period your payslip covers, this is your pay period.

Sometimes your pay period may be longer than your reporting period. If it is, we’ll ask for the start and end date of your payslip. This tells us which reporting periods your income applies to.

Leave payments

You need to tell us about any leave payments you get including what type of leave you get them for.

If you take leave from work, you need to report how much of your income in the reporting period was:

• paid leave
• hours you worked, including any paid sick leave hours.

You must tell us if your employer pays you a lump sum for leave. This includes leave you built up but didn’t take time off for. Find out about lump sums while on income support.

Parental Leave Pay

Parental Leave Pay counts as income however you don’t need to report it to us. We’ll include it when working out your payment.

Find out about Parental Leave Pay counted as income.

Severance or redundancy payments

You need to tell us if you leave your job and get a severance or redundancy payment. Your Centrelink payment may stop for a period of time. We call this an income maintenance period.

Other things we need to know

You need to tell us if you have other income not advised in your employment income reporting. This includes if:

• you’re self employed
• you have other types of income.

You need to tell us about self-employment separately. You must not combine your self-employment income with your employment income when reporting employment income.

When you report your income, you must also tell us about any changes in your circumstances.

If you don’t, we may not pay you the right amount. This means you may not get the full payment amount, or you may have to pay us back.

Read more about Centrelink debts and overpayments.

Changes to child support

Changes in circumstances can change how much child support you get or pay.

If your Child Support online account is linked to myGov you can sign in now to tell us about changes to your circumstances.

Sign in to myGov

You can also call our general Child support enquiry line to tell us about changes.

Find out about changes that affect your child support.

Changes to your employment

You also need to tell us if you stop working.

When you don’t have to report

You don’t need to report your or your partner’s income if both of the following apply:

• you get either Age Pension or Disability Support Pension because you’re blind
• you don’t get Rent Assistance.

If your partner is getting a payment from us, they’ll still need to report your income. They won’t need to report if they’re also blind, getting Age Pension or DSP and not getting Rent Assistance.