Centrelink can investigate your relationship status by conducting interviews or contacting various institutions. Centrelink may ask you or your partner to attend an interview to investigate your relationship status.
You need to tell us when you become a member of a couple or end a relationship. This is to ensure you get paid correctly. We may need to ask a third party, a person we call a referee, to verify your relationship status. We'll tell you when we need referee details.
One common type of fraud is providing false information, such as a fake name or address, to obtain Centrelink payments. Another type is undeclared income, where individuals fail to declare all of their income to Centrelink to receive additional benefits.
It's until when they decide to interview that you get to know you're being investigated. This interview is documented and used against you in Court. If not invited for an interview, you get to know you've been investigated when the CDPP issues a charge of Obtaining a Financial Advantage for you.
Evidence of living together such as joint leases, mail to the same address, joint utilities or bills etc. Statements about how you share housework and your living arrangements. mail or emails addressed to you both. documents that show joint responsibility for children.
Proof of relationship is required, such as a birth certificate or marriage certificate.
Centrelink will investigate if they suspect you have received unentitled payments. Once Centrelink decide to investigate, Centrelink can require your bank or employer to disclose your financial details relevant to Centrelink purposes. This process can take week to months.
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.
Combined partner claims
If they can, you'll need to confirm your relationship status with us. We'll tell you when your partner has made a claim for you. If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov you can review the details they've given us and confirm your relationship status online.
Bank interest reviews. We check your bank account information is up to date. We do this to check we paid you the right payment and amount in the past.
This online service allows you to provide information to Centrelink about an individual, business or organisation you think is getting a payment or service from Centrelink they should not be getting. You can find out more about fraud and how it is detected and reported by visiting the Fraud section of our website.
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.
Benefits and having someone stay over. Having someone stay over at your house should not affect your benefits. There are no set rules about how often or how long someone can stay.
There is no set number of nights which mean that the DWP will see you as living together. So, if your partner stays over a few nights a week, that doesn't mean you should be counted as a couple when it comes to benefits – it depends on lots of other factors.
You can update your relationship status by calling the families line. You also need to let us know if there's a change to your family income estimate or activity details. You can update these details at any time. It only takes a few minutes to do and you can do it yourself online.
You can request a Statement of Debt for any 5 year period going back to 1998. You can make more than one request.
Most importantly, if not declared, hiding money is fraudulent and can result in having to repay money received and criminal charges. We've seen it many times before. The strategies and advice mentioned above is of general nature only.
What about Centrelink? Corrective Services will notify Centrelink within a couple days that you have entered custody. If you are receiving Centrelink payments you will be paid up until the time you entered custody.
If you have defrauded Centrelink, you may be charged under section 134.2 – obtaining a financial advantage by deception. If you are found guilty, the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment. You may instead, or also, receive a fine between $10,000 and $100,000 and be made to repay the benefit to Centrelink.
Home visits
Centrelink may also visit your home unexpectedly, but this is not common. They may do this if they are already investigating and believe that you are being dishonest. If a Centrelink officer comes to your home, you: do not have to let them in (unless they are with a police officer who has a warrant)
Documents of travel together (such as plane tickets showing you were on the same flight or hotel reservations showing both of your names) Photos of the couple together. Personal affidavits (written statements) — plus copies of their valid photo IDs — from friends and family attesting to their knowledge of your marriage.
You should note that there is something called an over-submission and an under-submission of relationship evidence. A lot of couples will have 100 photos they want to submit and a hundred photos is probably more than enough. We usually recommend about 20 to 30 photos.
Living apart together (LAT) refers to couples who are in an intimate relationship, but choose to live separately for various reasons. Those reasons can be financial, personal, or both.