4.5.3.70 Reviews

Review on Secretary initiative

The Secretary may initiate reviews on a decision made on an application for a resolution payment, including after a person has accepted an offer if:

• it appears to the Secretary that an error has been made in the decision of an entitlement or other matter under Schedule 3 of the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Act 2025 or the Determination
• it appears that the person is not entitled to receive all or part of the resolution payment for any reason
• the Secretary has received further information relevant to the decision on the application, an entitlement or other matter under Schedule 3 of the Act or the Determination, or
• the Secretary is satisfied that there is some other reasonable ground on which to initiate the review notwithstanding the acceptance of the offer.

On a review, the Secretary may affirm, vary or set aside the decision and substitute a new decision.

The Secretary must give the person to whom the decision relates written notice of the decision, the reasons for the decision and inform the person that they may, if they do not agree with the decision, apply for internal review under section 21 of the Determination within 28 days from the date of the notice.

If the decision on the review results in an entitlement to a resolution payment, the Secretary must provide a notice that includes the matters under subsection 14(2) of the Determination, except for paragraph 14(2)(l) which is not applicable because the person will have 28 days to apply for a review of the decision under subsection 20(5), rather than 56 days.

Note: The need for review may arise in cases where the Secretary becomes aware a resolution payment was made in relation to a social security or family payment for which a person was not qualified, or which was the result of fraud.

Internal review on application

For the purposes of the Resolution Scheme, internal and external review mechanisms under Parts 4 and 4A of the SS(Admin)Act are excluded in relation to a decision under the Resolution Scheme. The Resolution Scheme provides its own internal review process.

A person may apply to the Secretary for an internal review of the following decisions:

• decision of application (including an offer or refusal decision)
• extension of time decision for special circumstances
• acceptance after initial rejection
• Secretary’s initiated internal review decision.

Internal review of application decisions (that is, entitlement and non-entitlement to a resolution payment) under the Resolution Scheme is limited to the assessment of whether the relevant debt gives rise to an entitlement under the scheme and the determination of the amount of the resolution payment.

The review would not involve reviewing other contributing factors or circumstances related to the debt itself, as individuals will retain their existing rights to internal and external merits review under Parts 4 and 4A of the SS(Admin)Act in respect to decisions made under the social security law.

For debt recovery decisions and review rights for an overpayment of a resolution amount, please refer to 4.5.3.50.

External merits review at the ART is not available for internal review decisions made under the Resolution Scheme.

Where a person is applying to the Secretary for an internal review of a determination under section 12, section 13 or section 20 of the Determination:

• If the determination that was made results in an offer, the application for internal review must be made
  • before the end of the acceptance period for the offer, or, if the Secretary extends the acceptance period one or more times under section 16, before the end of the final extended acceptance period, and
  • before the offer is accepted.
• If the determination that was made is a refusal, the application for internal review must be made within the designated period for applying under section 15, or, if the Secretary extends the designated period one or more times under section 16, before the end of the final extended designation period.

Under subsection 21(6) of the Determination, if the Secretary decides special circumstances do not exist for subsection 21(3) of the Determination, the Secretary must give the person written notice of the decision and reasons for the decision. This notice must also inform the person that they have 28 days after the date of the notice to apply for review of the decision and explain how to make that application.

The application for review must be made by submitting an application to the Secretary in the approved form or making an application to the Secretary orally (whether in person, by telephone, or by other means approved by the Secretary).

If an oral application is made, the Secretary must make a written record of the details of the application and note on the record the date the application is made.

Decision on review

As outlined in the section above, reviews by the ART under the SS(Admin)Act are excluded from the Resolution Scheme. The Resolution Scheme provides its own internal review process.

Reviews of decisions under the Resolution Scheme are limited to:

• whether a debt owed to the Commonwealth gives rise to an entitlement under the scheme, or
• whether the amount of a resolution payment set out in an offer is in accordance with section 9.

Under section 23 of the Determination, the Secretary must conduct the review as soon as reasonably practicable after the application for review has been made and, depending on the grounds on which the review has been made:

• affirm, vary the decision or set aside the decision and substitute a new decision
• decide whether or not to grant an extension
• decide whether or not to accept an effective acceptance of an offer
• decide whether or not to allow an application to be made.

A written notice of the decision on the review (review decision) and the reasons for the decision must be provided to the applicant by the person who conducted the review.

If the review decision is that a person is entitled to a resolution payment, that person will be given a notice of offer in accordance with section 14 of the Determination (unless the decision is an affirmation under section 25(3)), with the exception that it will not include information outlined at paragraph 14(2)(l) because the person cannot seek any further review of the amount of the resolution payment.

Rules for extensions, accepting an offer and methods of payment will continue to apply in relation to the person and the debt. The Secretary cannot initiate a review in relation to the review decision and a person cannot seek another internal review in relation to the review decision.

A person who has applied for a review under section 21 may withdraw their application by submitting written or oral notice to the Secretary in the approved form. This can only occur before a review decision is made.

While a review is underway, a person cannot accept a previous offer, as the original decision of an offer or refusal is paused. If on review, the Secretary affirms the decision that resulted in the previous offer or previous refusal, the previous offer or previous refusal becomes current again from the date of the notice of the review decision. Additionally, for the previous offer under section 14 specifically, the number of days remaining in the acceptance period is taken to be 56 days from the date of the notice of the review decision.

If a person withdraws an application for a section 21 review, the previous offer or previous refusal becomes current again from the time of the withdrawal and, for the previous offer specifically, at the time of the withdrawal, the number of days remaining in the acceptance period is taken to be the number of days that remained immediately before the application was made.

If it is decided on a review under Part 5 that a person was not entitled for any reason to receive all or part of a resolution payment in relation to a relevant debt, any acceptance of an offer in relation to the debt, by or on behalf of the person, ceases to be in force on and from the date of the review decision. As such, any general law rights affected by the retrospective validation of income apportionment in Division 2 of Part 3.11 to the SSAct are still preserved.

The person conducting the review on behalf of the Secretary must not be the same person who made the decision to which the review relates.