An individual who was criminally convicted due to a government agency’s miscalculation of debts can receive only $600 in compensation under legislation passed in February, a Senate committee was told.
Several organisations and experts raised concerns that the government’s monetary compensation for “income apportionment debts” is inadequate.
Different from Robodebt, income apportionment was used by Services Australia (and formerly by Centrelink) between September 2003 and December 2020 to calculate social security overpayments, which happen when someone receives more benefits than they should.
It was used to estimate a person’s income when their pay did not align with reporting periods by evenly spreading their earnings across fortnights.
In July, a Federal Court ruled that the practice was unlawful, saying it is “a genuine misinterpretation of the law.”
In response, parliament passed the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes) Bill 2025, which retrospectively legalised the calculations that the court ruled illegal and made income reporting easier.
The Bill also established an Income Apportionment Resolution Scheme, helping provide solutions for people who were affected by the original scheme, including the monetary compensation of up to $600.
Case of Victim Being Criminalised
Kristin O'Connell, a spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre, called for a higher limit to the available compensation.
She mentioned a case in which an individual had been criminally convicted due to the wrongly calculated debt amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.
“He is living with this uncertainty, and he’s been living with the consequences of criminalisation now since 2018, so I don’t think it is fair to say that people in this situation should receive such a minor payment,” O'Connell said at the hearing on Oct. 3.
“We’re working with people who have been criminalised through unlawfully calculated income apportionment debts, who now cannot get back into the workforce because of the effect that that criminal record is having on their ability to find employment.”
O'Connell also called to remove the time limit on the resolution scheme.
“It’s absurd that people are expected to act on this within 12 months,” she said.
