Social Security Act 1991

Subject to subsection (1A), the Secretary must waive the right to recover the proportion of a debt that is attributable solely to an administrative error made by the Commonwealth if the debtor received in good faith the payment or payments that gave rise to that proportion of the debt.

Subsection (1) does not allow waiver of a part of a debt that was caused partly by administrative error and partly by one or more other factors (such as error by the debtor).

Subsection (1) only applies if:

the debt is not raised within a period of 6 weeks from the first payment that caused the debt; or

if the debt arose because a person has complied with a notification obligation, the debt is not raised within a period of 6 weeks from the end of the notification period;

If:

a debt arose because the debtor or the debtor’s partner underestimated the value of particular property of the debtor or partner; and

the estimate was made in good faith; and

the value of the property was not able to be easily determined when the estimate was made;

For the purposes of this section, a proportion of a debt may be 100% of the debt.