✦ Plain-English Summary

Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Income Reporting and Other Measures) 2020

What it does

This law streamlines how Centrelink, family payments, student assistance and veterans' benefits calculate your income. It simplifies the language and rules around what counts as "earned income" from work, and makes it easier for government agencies to share your tax information with each other when assessing your eligibility for payments.

Why it matters

If you receive government payments, this should reduce confusion about how your income affects what you get — the rules become clearer and more straightforward. It also means less paperwork for you since agencies can now talk to each other directly about your tax details instead of asking you to provide the same information multiple times.

Key details

• The changes came into effect from 1 July 2020 (or within 2 months of the law being passed, whichever was later)
• It updates how "income from work" is defined across multiple payment systems, removing outdated language
• Tax information can now be automatically exchanged between Centrelink, family assistance, student loan and veterans' services — you won't need to report the same income details separately to each service

Official Description

Amends the Social Security Act 1991 and four other Acts to: provide that, for the purposes of determining a person's rate of payment under social security law, employment income is assessed once it is paid to a social security recipient (replacing the current requirement for recipients to estimate and report the amount of employment income they have earned in a social security instalment period); and enable Services Australia to use data collected by the Australian Taxation Office (primarily information from the Single Touch Payroll system) in connection with the new assessment model.

Committee Referrals

Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

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No votes were recorded for this bill.