If you do not want the Court to approve the settlement, you can send a completed Notice of Objection to Gordon Legal. This must be done by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026.

The Notice of Objection can be provided to Gordon Legal by:
Email:
[email protected]

Post:
Gordon Legal
Level 5, 500 Bourke Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000

In addition to the Notice of Objection you can file written submissions with the Court which further explain why you object to the approval of the proposed settlement. These submissions must be filed by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026. If you provide these submissions to Gordon Legal before this time, we will provide them to the court on your behalf.

Objecting to the Settlement Scheme does not restrict your ability to register to participate in the proposed settlement. If you plan to object to the settlement, you may wish to consider also registering to participate. That way, if the Court does not agree with your objection and continues to approve the settlement, you have protected your ability to participate in the settlement.

All Notices of Objection, and any written submissions filed by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026, will be considered by the Court when it considers whether to approve the proposed settlement at the hearing commencing on 22 June 2026.

Group Members who previously filed an opt out notice with the Court but now wish to participate in the proposed settlement can do so by lodging a Notice of Reinstatement as a Group Member (Notice of Reinstatement) and registering with Gordon Legal.

The Notice of Reinstatement must be submitted to the Gordon Legal by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026.

The Notice of Reinstatement can be provided to Gordon Legal by:
Email:
[email protected]

Post:
Gordon Legal
Level 5, 500 Bourke Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000

Any Notice of Reinstatement provided to Gordon Legal by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026, will be considered by the Court when it considers whether to approve the proposed settlement at the hearing commencing on 22 June 2026.

Group Members will have received a notice from the Commonwealth by way of the myGov portal. Where a Group Member does not have a myGov account that is in use, the Commonwealth will provide the notice by way of email, SMS or letter to the last known contact details that are in use by Services Australia.

If you did not receive a notice but believe you are a Group Member you will be able to locate and read the Notice by going to the Gordon Legal or Services Australia website.

In the appeal, the Applicants asked the Court to set aside the first class action settlement so that they could bring a further claim for misfeasance in public office relying on the fresh evidence revealed by the Royal Commission. If successful, the claim for misfeasance in public office would provide further compensation to Eligible Group Members for the harm caused by the Robodebt Scheme, which was not compensated in the first class action settlement.

The first class action settlement only provided compensation in the nature of interest on the money taken from or paid by Group Members in relation to Robodebts; it did not provide compensation for other economic loss, distress, or psychiatric injuries or conditions caused by the Robodebt Scheme.

The settlement will provide further compensation to Group Members for the harm they suffered because of the Robodebt Scheme, and will allow people in close personal relationships with a deceased Group Member to also make a claim in certain circumstances.

The Commonwealth has agreed that it will pay $548.5 million. The Commonwealth has not admitted liability for the impact of the Robodebt Scheme.

That total proposed settlement amount is made up of the following components:

• $475 million in compensation minus a 15% funding commission to the litigation funder.
• Up to $13.5 million for legal costs (including out of pocket expenses and GST). The final amount to be paid to Gordon Legal will be determined by the Court by reference to the report of an independent costs referee.
• Up to $60 million to pay the costs of administering the settlement for Group Members (including the out-of-pocket expenses to be incurred by the Scheme Administrator and GST). This money will be used to contact, verify, identify, determine the eligibility of Group Members, assess and process their claims in accordance with the settlement scheme which has been agreed provided it is approved by the Court.

The settlement sum of $548.5 million is in addition to:

• the amount of $112 million which has already been paid to Group Members as a result of the first class action; and
• the amount of approximately $1.763 billion in Robodebts which had been raised by the Commonwealth, but which were cancelled as a result of the first class action, which includes the amount of $751 million which was repaid to Group Members who had repaid some or all of their Robodebts to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth will not seek to recover the sums paid to Group Members following the original settlement of the Robodebt Class Action.

The total value of this proposed settlement, the amounts repaid, paid as restitution, or abandoned by the Commonwealth in the first class action and the appeal is more than $2.4 billion.

The proposed settlement requires Court approval. The Court will decide whether to approve the settlement at the Final Settlement Approval Hearing in the Federal Court of Australia, in Melbourne at 10.15am on 22 June 2026 or soon after.

Group Members will have received a notice from Services Australia (the government agency formerly known as Centrelink) providing them with information about their options and what they need to do to participate in the settlement. This notice will have been sent out through myGov or to the last known contact details held by Services Australia.

If you cannot locate the notice, you can find it on Gordon Legal or Servies Australia’s websites.

If you were a Group Member in the first class action you are a Group Member in the Appeal class action. To check this:

• Group Members in the first class action should have received a letter from Centrelink in May 2020, enclosing a document titled “Opt Out Notice”.
• Group Members in the first class action would also have received a letter from Centrelink in January 2021 titled “Notice of Proposed Settlement”.

If you opted out of the first class action, you will not be considered a Group Member unless you complete a Notice of Reinstatement as a Group Member in the Court-approved form available on the Gordon Legal website and take the positive step of registering to participate in the settlement by 4:00pm (AEST) on 6 March 2026.

If you recall receiving either of these letters, or if you have kept a copy of them, you are very likely to be a Group Member in the Appeal class action.

In addition, if you are a person who was in a close personal relationship with someone who died as a result of their Robodebt, and their Robodebt materially contributed to their death, you may be a Group Member in the Appeal class action, even though you were not eligible for compensation in the first class action. This is a new category of Group Member called a “Category 5 Group Member” that will only apply if the settlement is approved.

Not everybody who had a Centrelink debt was an Eligible Group Member in the first class action, and those people will also not be Eligible Group Members in the Appeal class action settlement.  If you were a category 4 Group Member in the first class action settlement, you will not be eligible in this further settlement.  Further information about the Group Member categories is provided below.

Centrelink debts arise for a variety of reasons, and not every debt is a Robodebt. For example, if you received a debt because Centrelink decided that you were not eligible for the payment you were receiving, this is not a Robodebt and you would not have been a Group Member in the first class action, and you will not be a Group Member in the appeal.

In the first class action all Group Members were assigned to the following categories: category 1, category 2, category 3(a), category 3(b) and category 4. The appeal settlement will use the same categories. Group Members in all categories except category 4 will be Eligible Group Members for the appeal settlement.

If you were a Group Member in the first class action, you should have received a letter in around 2022 which told you what category you were in.

If you can’t find that letter now, don’t worry. Whether you are an Eligible Group Member for the appeal settlement will be verified after you register and before the assessment stage begins. Until then, we encourage you register to participate and you will be informed of the next steps after the Registration Period closes at 4:00pm AEST on 6 March 2026.

The categories are as follows:

Category 1 Group Member: means a Group Member who had a Robodebt but did not pay any money back or have any money taken from them.

Category 2 Group Member: means a Group Member who had a Robodebt and paid money back or had money taken from them.

Category 3(a) Group Member: means a Group Member who had a Robodebt which was recalculated on the basis of actual fortnightly income information, and the amount paid back towards the Robodebt was greater than the recalculated debt amount (meaning that the Group Member was eligible for a refund of that amount).

Category 3(b) Group Member: means a Group Member who had a Robodebt which was recalculated on the basis of actual fortnightly income information, and the amount paid back towards the Robodebt was less than the recalculated debt amount.

Category 4 Group Member: means a Group Member who received a debt which was based on actual fortnightly income, not income averaging, and therefore never had a Robodebt.

There will be a new category if the settlement of the appeal is approved:

Category 5 Group Member: means a person who:

• was in a close personal relationship with a Category 1 Group Member, Category 2 Group Member, Category 3(a) Group Member or Category 3(b) Group Member (but not a Category 4 Group Member) who has died, where the assertion of a Robodebt-raised Debt materially contributed to the death of that Group Member; and
• has suffered a recognised psychiatric illness or condition that was materially contributed to by the death of that Group Member; and
• completes a Registration Form by 4:00pm (AEST) 6 March 2026.

For Group Members other than Category 5 Group Members, the Scheme Administrator will use information provided by the Commonwealth to confirm that each person who registers to participate in the Settlement Scheme is an Eligible Group Member.

Category 5 Group Members will be required to complete a Registration Form by 4:00pm (AEST) 6 March 2026 and to demonstrate to the Scheme Administrator that they fall within the terms of that category.

All class action settlements must be approved by the Court.

The Court will be asked to consider whether the proposed settlement is fair and reasonable and in the interests of Group Members, considering all of the costs and risks associated with the appeal and the class action continuing.

The Court will review the settlement and will decide whether it should be approved.

This settlement will only go ahead if the Court approves it. This process is designed to protect Group Members.

Yes. Our clients and Gordon Legal consider that if the settlement is approved it will represent an exceptional result.

The result will give all Eligible Group Members who register to participate in the Settlement Scheme the choice between receiving a small, fixed payment within several months of the settlement being approved, or electing to have their claim individually assessed by the Scheme Administrator by reference to the normal principles which apply to claims for compensation of this kind, taking into account the risks of litigation and the strengths and weaknesses of their individual claims.

Some people were very severely affected by being chased for debts that they did not owe. For some people, money was demanded from them at the lowest point in their lives.   Those in close personal relationships with Group Members who died as a result of their Robodebts will, for the first time, be able to make claims for compensation under the terms of the proposed settlement, if they have suffered a recognised psychiatric illness or condition as a result.

Understanding that money can never fully compensate individuals for the harm they have suffered, the proposed settlement scheme is intended to provide Eligible Group Members with redress more quickly and cost effectively than would otherwise be the case if the class actions were not resolved and went to trial.

Eligible Group Members will need to tell the Scheme Administrator whether they want to request a “Fixed Payment” or want to have their claim assessed individually by the Scheme Administrator.

A Group Member’s category will affect the type of Fixed Payment they are eligible for.

Category 5 Group Members will not be eligible for a Fixed Payment. Their claims will be individually assessed.

It is too early to say when settlement payments will be made to Eligible Group Members.

This is because Individual Assessment payments cannot be made to any Group Member until all individually assessed Group Members have had their claims assessed and reconsidered. It is not currently possible to estimate how long the process will take as this will depend on how many register to participate in the settlement scheme, if approved.

The timing of payments will also depend on whether, and how many Eligible Group Members register to participate in the settlement scheme and how many decide to take a Fixed Payment or decide to have their claims individually assessed.

It is intended that Fixed Payments will be delivered to Eligible Group Members faster than the payments received by those who elected to participate in individual assessments.

The payment amounts will be different for different people. Payment amounts will vary depending on how the Robodebt Scheme affected people. People were negatively affected in different ways – and the settlement payments will reflect this.

Eligible Group Members will be asked to choose between a Fixed Payment or an Individualised Assessment process.

Fixed Payments will be assessed according to set compensation amounts and will be paid within a shorter amount of time. The precise amount of the Fixed Payments will not be determined until the settlement is approved by the Court, at which time the number of Group Members who have registered to participate in the Settlement Scheme is known. However, at this stage, it is proposed that:

• Category 1 and 3(b) Group Members will be entitled to a Fixed Payment of between $350 – $1000
• Category 2 and 3(a) Group Members will be entitled to a Fixed Payment of between $750 – $1750.

Eligible Group Members who choose the Individualised Assessment process, will have their claims assessed by reference to the claimants’ individual circumstances and will be paid following the finalisation of all Individual Assessments from the settlement amount paid by the Commonwealth plus any interest which has accrued on that amount whilst the scheme is being administered.

Eligible Group Members who participate in the Scheme should be aware that the result of an Individual Assessment may be that they are assessed to have no entitlement to compensation.

An amount of up to $13.5 million (including GST) has been set aside to cover the legal costs incurred by the Applicants in the conduct of appeal, including seeking approval of the class action settlements. The final amount to be paid to Gordon Legal will be determined by the court by reference to a report of an independent costs referee on the question of whether the costs claimed by Gordon Legal are fair, reasonable and proportionate to the outcome.

The amount of $13.5 million represents less than 2.5% of the Settlement Sum.

No Group Member will be required to directly pay any amount towards the legal costs incurred on behalf of the Applicants and Group Members from any amount they receive as part of the settlement distribution process.

The Court will also be asked to approve an amount of up to $60 million (including out of pocket expenses incurred by the Scheme Administrator and GST) for settlement administration costs. This includes all the costs involved in administering the Settlement Scheme and distributing settlement monies to Eligible Group Members.

The legal fees incurred in the Appeal class action were partly funded by a litigation funding company called Omni Bridgeway.

Under the agreement entered into by the Applicants and Omni Bridgeway, Omni Bridgeway is entitled to be paid 20% of any settlement.

Notwithstanding this, the Court will be asked to make an order for Omni Bridgeway to recover 15% of the settlement sum. The type of order that Omni Bridgeway will seek is called a “Common Fund Order”.

The purpose of that order is to compensate Omni Bridgeway for partly funding the legal costs of the Appeal class action and the settlement approval process. The Court will decide whether it considers a Common Fund Order to be appropriate and, if so, the amount to be paid to Omni Bridgeway.

In 2019, a class action was commenced by Katherine Prygodicz and five other applicants against the Commonwealth of Australia, the legal entity responsible for Centrelink.

The six Applicants were represented by Gordon Legal.

The key claim in the first class action was that Robodebts were unlawful because Centrelink calculated them by averaging annual income amounts, rather than using the recipient’s actual fortnightly earnings.

In May 2020, after the first class action had been launched, the Commonwealth announced that it would refund all monies paid back by recipients of Robodebts. This amounted to around $751 million of refunds.

In November 2020, the parties to the first class action agreed to settle the proceeding without a trial. The Court approved the settlement of the Robodebt Class Action on 11 June 2021. The settlement provided for $112 million of compensation to be distributed to Eligible Group Members, calculated in the nature of interest payments.

Settlement payments were made to Eligible Group Members in 2022.

If you have a problem that relates to your Centrelink benefits, or a debt due to Centrelink which was not part of the Robodebt Scheme, you should contact Centrelink directly.

Gordon Legal cannot assist with Centrelink issues that are not related to the Robodebt Class Action.