Services Australia Code of Operations

Did your account become overdrawn? Rest assured, ME’s protecting your income support payments.

The Code of Operation (the Code) is an industry code published by Services Australia. It applies to the recovery of debts from eligible Services Australia income support and Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments. 

If the bank account you’ve nominated for your eligible income support payment becomes overdrawn, it can reduce the amount of your payment that you can access. The Code has been developed to make sure you can continue to access sufficient income for basic food and accommodation, if your bank account is overdrawn.

ME is a participant of the Code and recognises when recovering a debt, that you should still be able to retain at least 90% of your eligible payment in any fortnightly period. We can work with you to ensure you can access this.

To review the Code in detail you can refer to the following government website, which also lists the eligible payment types: Services Australia Code of Operation.

This Code has been developed and endorsed by the following parties:

• Services Australia
• The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)
• Australian Banking Association (ABA) for member banks
• Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA)
• Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) for member credit unions, mutual building societies and mutual banks that are signatories to the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice.

How to contact us

To get help with accessing your eligible income support payment, please contact us on 13 15 63 for assistance.

Do you have a complaint?

If you experience a problem, or are not satisfied with our products or services or a decision we have made, you can call us on 13 15 63 or complete an online complaint form.

For further information about how we handle complaints, talk to a member of the ME team for a copy of our Customer Feedback Guide or alternatively download a copy available on our website.

If you are unhappy with our response, you can contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) to review it. AFCA provides a free, independent external dispute resolution process. To contact AFCA call them on 1800 931 678 or go to www.afca.org.au.