Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2)

The purpose of the Schedule is to: remove financial hardship provisions as prerequisites to eligibility where these provisions unnecessarily constrain the ability to automate decisions about advance payments of FTB Part A, social security payments and Mobility Allowance; provide a legislative basis for an advance payment application to be made in-person, online and over the phone; allow a person who receives a social security advance payment to repay the advance sooner at their request, without the requirement for the Secretary to assess whether the person can repay a higher amount without

The amendments made by Schedule 3 are to ensure: the Secretary is authorised to use PIID supplied by the ATO to determine FTB and SIFS claims, and conduct FTB income reconciliations and pay FTB supplements as part of this process rather than having to rely on tax assessed income information; the practice of using PIID supplied by the ATO to conduct FTB reconciliations is retrospectively validated to preserve past reconciliations which may have been undertaken earlier than required; the Secretary can make non-entitlement determinations under section 28 of the FA Administration Act for both r

The purpose of the Schedule is to: allow PIID from the ATO to be used to determine a parent’s child support ATI in more circumstances when making or updating a child support assessment, including to determine provisional incomes under section 58 and to reconcile income estimates; provide clear rules for when and how a parent’s ATI is to be updated and the child support assessment made when the Commissioner notifies the Registrar of a new PIID, or makes a tax assessment in relation to that parent; prescribe a hierarchy of methods that may be used by the Registrar to determine a person’s prov

the Secretary can make non-entitlement determinations under section 28 of the FA Administration Act for both recipients who are required to lodge tax returns, as well as those who are not required to lodge tax returns, if FTB reconciliation conditions are not met within the prescribed time limits; and the Secretary can revoke FTB non-entitlement determinations under section 28 if an individual subsequently lodges their tax return or makes an income declaration. The amendments will support the long-standing practice of using income data provided immediately before a tax return is assessed in

The purpose of the Schedule is to: provide the Secretary the power to alter certain social services decisions that go to the ART for review to ensure the ART is reviewing the most up-to-date version of a decision; permit the Secretary to alter certain social services decisions only where new information, or information not previously considered amounts to a change in circumstances affecting a person’s entitlement to family assistance; permit certain social services decisions to be altered by Secretary to give effect to the family assistance law and specific statutory requirements; establis

Under section 87 of the FA Administration Act, the Commissioner is empowered to recover family assistance debts owed by a person by applying part or all of the person’s income tax refund to the debt. The Commissioner also has the power to perform the inverse – setting off a FTB entitlement against a tax liability – under section 226. On 16 September 2025, the President of the ART informed relevant Ministers, relevant Commonwealth entities and the Administrative Review Council of Notice of Systemic Issue No 1 of 2025, which relates to the recovery by the Commissioner of family assistance debts

Item 10 of Schedule 2 to the Technical Changes No. 1 Act 2026 inserted new section 43A into the Social Security Administration Act, which precludes individuals from being paid more than 10 urgent payments in a 90-day period. New subsection 43(3DB) will operate subject to section 43A. However, as currently drafted, this preclusion commences when a person requests a further urgent payment, after having been paid 10 urgent payments in 90 days. The amendments in Schedule 8 make minor changes to confirm the intended operation of the urgent payment provisions. New section 43A is amended to ensure t