Letter · Social Security & Veterans' Entitlements
Request for formal review of a Centrelink decision by an Authorised Review Officer (letter and submission)
Advocate's letter asking Services Australia for formal review of a Centrelink decision by an Authorised Review Officer: the decision, why it is wrong, the evidence, a request to pause debt repayments, and a note of the 13-week arrears point.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia, Commonwealth
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for Australia and Commonwealth.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client disagrees with a Centrelink decision (a debt, a rejected claim, a cancellation or a rate) and an internal formal review is the required first step before the Administrative Review Tribunal. Lodge it within 13 weeks of notice of the decision where back pay is at stake; it can go with or replace the Explanation or formal review of decision form (SS351).
Used for these tasks
- Prepare the formal review request to an Authorised Review Officer
- Build the Centrelink or DVA decision, debt and review-deadline register
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may draft the request from the decision letter, the client's records and the advocate's notes; the advocate decides the grounds, checks every fact and date, and approves the letter before it is lodged.
AI may
- Extract the decision, decision date, notice date, payment type and reasons from the Centrelink letter
- Calculate the 13-week date from the date of notice and add it to the matter register
- Organise the client's documents into a numbered evidence list keyed to each ground
AI must not
- Must not state facts about the client's income, relationship, residence or circumstances that the documents do not show
- Must not write the legal argument on how the Social Security Act applies without the advocate settling it
- Must not omit the request to pause debt repayments where the client wants it
The lawyer checks
- The decision is reviewable by an ARO and the request is lodged within 13 weeks of notice where arrears depend on it
- Each ground identifies what is wrong with the decision (facts, law or policy) and the evidence that shows it
- The client has read and agreed to the facts stated, and has signed an authority if the advocate is lodging for them
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Social Security & Veterans' Entitlements
- Application for first review of a Centrelink decision (Administrative Review Tribunal): completion guide
- Request to waive or write off a Centrelink debt (special circumstances, administrative error, write-off)
- Application for second review of a Tribunal decision (Administrative Review Tribunal, Centrelink and child support): guide
- Application for review of a veterans' entitlements or military compensation decision (Administrative Review Tribunal): guide
- Request to Services Australia for a client's records and the debt calculation
- Veterans' claim evidence checklist against the Statement of Principles
- Disability Support Pension medical evidence checklist mapped to the Impairment Tables
- Letter of advice on which veterans' Act governs a claim and what the 1 July 2026 changes mean
All precedents for Social Security & Veterans' Entitlements · Tasks and AI use in this area