More information and Contacts

• Publications

  • The Australian Government Department of Social Services publishes guides to social policy law, including the Social Security Guide and the Family Assistance Guide. Regularly updated, these guides set out the policy rules Centrelink follows in administering all income-security programs. The guides are available: www.guides.dss.gov.au.

  • Each year, Centrelink produces up-to-date pamphlets on the pensions and benefits currently available and the rates at which they are paid.

  • Economic Justice Australia (previously called the National Social Rights Network) has a range of useful information available on its website (www.ejaustralia.org.au), including fact sheets (www.ejaustralia.org.au/self-help).

• Centrelink

  For information about current payment rates, check the telephone directory or the Centrelink website (address below) and call the 13 number (for cost of a local call) relating to the payment you need information about.

  The booklet, A Guide to Australian Government Payments, and other information on social security payments, is available on the Australian Government’s Services Australia website: www.servicesaustralia.gov.au.

Contacts

Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)
www.art.gov.au

Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
www.ato.gov.au

Commonwealth Ombudsman
www.ombudsman.gov.au

Social Security Rights Victoria (SSRV)
www.ssrv.org.au
SSRV provides assistance about Centrelink matters to residents of Victoria.

Victoria Legal Aid (VLA)
Tel (legal help line): 1300 792 387
www.legalaid.vic.gov.au
VLA can give advice on social security law.

Key legislation

Chapter: 5.1: Dealing with social security

Contributors all from Victorian Legal Aid: James Hogan, Deputy Managing Lawyer; Julie Riva, Associate Public Defender (Civil Justice); Kate Brown, Lawyer; Patrick Noyelle, Senior Lawyer; and Tom Durkin, Lawyer

Current as of: 14 October 2024

Law Handbook Page: 297

Next Section: 5.2 Are you in debt