Major change coming to Centrelink payments: Heres what you need to know
A major change coming to Centrelink before Christmas is set to disproportionately affect Australians who prefer to pay with cash or cheques.
A major change coming to Centrelink before Christmas is set to disproportionately affect Australians who prefer to pay with cash or cheques.
From December 19 onwards, foreign currency cheques and money orders will no longer be accepted as payment methods for Centrelink debt recovery.
Pensioners are being informed of the move to digital payment methods in Services Australias annual Australian Pension News (APN) publication.
If you need to repay a Centrelink debt you will now need to use a different repayment method, outlined in your debt letter, the update said.
There are no changes to how your Centrelink payment is paid to you.
Centrelink still pays some recipients with cheques, but it takes longer to get to them and could cost them interest payments.
Cheque payments to pensioners arrive at least two weeks after payments delivered by direct deposit, according to APN.
However, the publication warns those deliveries could arrive even later than that due to delays in mail delivery.
A major change is coming to Centrelink before Christmas (pictured, an office in Melbourne)
Older Australians and those who prefer to pay by cash or cheques will be affected (stock)
Cheque payments in general are also going to be phased out by 2030, the government announced last year.
The staged transition plan will involve working with (government) agencies and departments with high cheque usage.
Commercial and government cheques will stop being issued from 2026, while the government will stop accepting payments by cheque in 2028.
The use of the payment method in Australia is set to end completely by the end of 2030.
In the 1980s, 85 per cent of all non-cash payments were cheques, but they have long been surpassed by credit and debit cards as well as direct deposits.
Those still using cheques are mostly older people, many of whom have not been able to come to grips with digital alternatives such as online payments.
Making things even more difficult for those who favour cash, half of the ATMs in use in Australia have been scrapped since 2019.
The 2023 Australian Digital Inclusion Index One found that one-in-four Aussies are digitally excluded due to the pace at which technology is evolving.
Making things even more difficult for those who favour cash, half of the ATMs in use in Australia have been scrapped since 2019 (pictured, an ATM in Sydney)
It found that online options are sometimes the only way to access vital services such as their finances, health and education, take part in cultural activities, catch up with the news and connect with family and friends.
As well as older people, remote Indigenous communities and people on the lowest incomes are most at risk of exclusion, the report found.
The Australian Attitudes to Getting Online 2024 report found that 20 per cent of people struggled to be safe online and almost three-quarters of those with disabilities did not feel comfortable keeping up with changes in technology.
Australia is far behind many other countries in phasing out cheque usage, with Denmark, for instance, ending their use in 2001.
