Changes to income

If your household changes, you need to tell your local Housing Office.  Your household could change if someone moves in or out, if a child turns 18, or a new baby is born.

You also need to tell us if your household income changes.  That could mean getting a new job, or losing a job.  Or it could mean getting more or less money from Centrelink. 

Increases in household income

During fixed rent periods, your rent won't increase.  It doesn't matter if your total household income goes up or anyone else moves into the house.

You'll still need to let us know if anyone moves into the house, and show us evidence of when they moved in. 

If you don't tell us about changes like this during the fixed rent period when they happen, we'll charge you backdated rent from the fixed rent effective date after the change.  This means you could end up with a debt to us.

To find out more about the fixed rent policy, ask your local Housing Office.

Income confirmation service

You can tell Centrelink to send your income details to us automatically whenever we need to know about your income, using the Income Confirmation Service.

The Income Confirmation Service lets Centrelink tell us what payments you get, how many children you have and how often you care for them, Centrelink deductions, your income, your assets, where you live and who you live with.

Using the income confirmation service

If you get any Centrelink payments, you can use the Income Confirmation Service. You don't have use this service - it's up to you to decide if you want to.

If everyone in your house who gets Centrelink payments uses Income Confirmation, we'll use this information to work out your rent.  That means you only need to contact us when things change, such as the birth of a child or somebody moving in or out of the house.

If some household members don't want to, or can't, use the Income Confirmation Service, we'll contact you twice a year instead.  You'll need to complete the Application for rebated rent form and give it to your Housing Services Officer, along with all the documentation needed.  (If anyone in your house does use Income Confirmation Service, they won't have to provide any documentation.)

Not using the income confirmation service

Anyone who is 18 years and over who doesn't use the Income Confirmation Service needs to provide documents.  These documents are:

• a Centrelink Income statement
• 13 week gross wage statements from your employer (if you have one)
• A statements of assets, including your most recent bank statement/s covering an 8 week period; and
• details of any other assets or investments you have.

You also need to fill in an Application for rebated rent form.

Registering for the Income Confirmation Service

You may already have been registered for Income Confirmation Service. Your Housing Services Officer can find out for you.

If you want to register complete the Authority for Centrelink to Release Customer Information to the Director of Housing (Word Size: 49kb, Pages 1)

If you want to stop using the Income Confirmation Service, just fill out a Income Confirmation Service Withdrawal of Consent Form (Word Size: 194kb, Pages 1).