Centrelink has very wide powers to thoroughly investigate deposits that have been made into your account. For example, it has the power to obtain your information from other government agencies as well as accessing information from banks, building societies and credit union accounts.
For your Special Benefit claim you must provide bank statements for the last 3 months for all accounts you have. This includes any overseas accounts. If you have a partner, we'll also require bank statements for all accounts held by them.
Read more about how to add, view, update and remove overseas travel details. If you can't tell us online, you can tell us by calling us on the phone number that relates to your affected payment. Australia's immigration department will tell us when you leave Australia.
A. There are many anecdotal stories on whether Centrelink can and does check bank accounts and the upshot is that Centrelink does not have the power to spot check individual's bank accounts. However, it does utilise data-matching with other Government agencies to weed out cases of possible welfare fraud.
We check your bank account information is up to date as part of our compliance program. We do this by comparing both: the bank information you told us. how much bank interest the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) tells us you got in past financial years.
Typically, the only parties that can check your bank statements or your account information are the account owner(s), authorized account managers and bank professionals. Banks take great care to maintain the privacy and security of their customers' personal information.
To detect Centrelink clients failing to declare assets, we match all beneficiaries against trust data from the tax return database.
Centrelink False Claims
Giving false information on relationship status, disability status, or understating income with an aim of receiving benefits from the welfare or social security warrants a cause for action.
If Centrelink suspects that you have committed an offence, they will first conduct an investigation. They may invite you to attend a formal interview or may come to your house. If they still believe you committed an offence, they will then refer the matter to the CDPP.
Many people believe Centrelink has access to your bank account and will take it into consideration for your payment rate. This isn't true. Centrelink can't access your bank accounts to determine up to date figures.
You should always tell us if you're leaving Australia. If you leave Australia to live in another country, your payment will stop when you depart. If your travel is short term, your payment will stop when you depart, unless you're travelling for an approved reason.
Departure Prohibition Orders
If you're not repaying your debt at a suitable rate, we may issue a Departure Prohibition Order. It'll stop you from leaving Australia until you either: pay your debt in full. enter into an acceptable payment arrangement.
If you or your children's travel is short term, you'll normally still get your payment for up to 6 weeks. This includes if your child is studying outside Australia. After 6 weeks, your Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A and Part B will stop.
Centrelink Audit can generally go as far back as Centrelink want it to. Centrelink can commence legal proceedings against you at any time, as there is no longer a statute of limitations.
Centrelink may also access social media, eBay or any other publicly available information when they review your current or past entitlements.
You must tell us about any lump sum you get, even if you think it's exempt from the income test.
Contrary to popular belief, Centrelink does not in fact have access to your bank account and doesn't monitor it when working out your payment rate.
The maximum penalties for Centrelink Fraud is 10 years imprisonment for offences of obtaining property and obtaining a financial advantage by deception and 5 years imprisonment for an offence of general dishonesty.
If you report late, your payment could be late. If you don't report and you're meant to, we won't pay you. You can report online up to 13 days after your reporting date.
If you owe us money, we may ask the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to help us get it back. We can ask them to garnishee your tax refund. This means they will withhold or give us some or all of your tax refund or available credit. If we do, we'll send you a letter to let you know.
We aim to finish a formal review within 49 days. Some may take longer than this. It depends on the details of the case.
Examples of evidence to support your income estimate can include, but are not limited to: Your Tax Notice of Assessment. Your Payment summary/Group certificate. A letter from your employer identifying the amount of fringe benefits you are entitled to.
The ATO can, and will, check your bank accounts, cross reference payments against an ABN and confirm missing income from your tax return.
If you get a Centrelink payment from us, you may need to lodge a tax return. If you get a Centrelink payment from us, or pay or receive Child Support, you should check if you need to lodge a tax return. If you're registered to pay or receive child support, you need to lodge a tax return.
Possible Penalties
If you are found guilty of Tax Evasion, the maximum penalty is 200 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment or both. In the case of a corporation or business, the fine can be significant. However, the presiding magistrate will take a variety of circumstances into account when sentencing your case.