Centrelink recipients who pay their debts with foreign cheques will soon have to find a new way to make their payments. Services Australia has revealed it will be phasing out the payment method from mid-December
The government body announced the news via its Australian Pension News October newsletter. The directive has been handed down with a few weeks’ notice to allow Centrelink recipients enough time to find a new way to pay their debts.
“From 19 December 2024, Services Australia will no longer accept Centrelink debt repayments made by foreign currency cheques or money orders,” it said in the newsletter.
“If you need to repay a Centrelink debt you will now need to use a different repayment method, outlined in your debt letter. There are no changes to how your Centrelink payment is paid to you.”
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If you’re on the Age Pension, you can still get your Centrelink payments via cheque, however the money takes much longer than a direct deposit into your bank account.
The next Centrelink payment is due today (October 17) and will land in bank accounts by October 23. However, for those who receive it via cheque, they’ll have to wait as long as November 6 before it arrives in the mail.
The next round of payments will kick off on November 14 and cheque recipients will have to wait until December 4.
These pensioners have been warned that mail delivery times can vary and can even be later than the listed dates due to unforeseen circumstances.
Cheques are slowly being phased out of Australia
Centrelink’s move comes amid a growing trend of removing cheques as a form of payment altogether in Australia.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has set a hard deadline for 2030 for them to be phased out across the country, but the government will stop cheque usage by the end of 2028.
“As the use of cheques plummets and many banks and financial institutions stop issuing chequebooks to new customers, it is important to manage this transition in an orderly and planned way,” Chalmers said last year.
“The seven-year transition plan will provide time for banks and financial institutions to assist their customers with the adjustment.
“There has been an almost 90 per cent decline in the use of cheques in the last 10 years, with cheques now comprising only 0.2 per cent of non-cash retail payments in Australia.”
Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh added that this is all a part of the evolving the nature of money.
“I think we’re seeing a dramatic change in how Australians are paying for goods and services,” she told the ABC.
“It’s not that long ago when all we used was cash or cheques. If you think about it, now we might use some cash for some things, some people still use cheques for some things, but mostly, people are using electronic transfers, tap-and-go cards, using their phone, because they’ve got their card in a digital wallet – I’ve seen people actually using their smartwatches to pay for things.
“So, we’re in the middle of a very big transition from the way that we used to pay for goods and services and make transactions to a vastly different landscape.”
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