Guide to offender debt recovery notices

Part of the Fines topic

Understand what to do if you have been convicted of a violent crime and you receive an offender debt recovery notice.

In short

An offender debt recovery notice is issued to offenders to recover money owed to victims.

If you have been given a notice and fail to respond by the due date, you risk consequences such as a State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER) enforcement order.

What you should know

The Queensland Government sends out debt recovery notices to offenders through the offender debt recovery program.

Notices are issued under the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 2009.

Money is recovered for either:

a criminal injury compensation order
financial assistance paid to the victim of the offence.

Where there are multiple offenders, they amount, a judge decides how much compensation each offender will pay, depending on the role in the act of violence.

We can only recover the money if you’re convicted in a Queensland court. This doesn’t include the Mental Health Court.

The decision to recover the money is made separately from the sentence you received. We may recover the money from you regardless of the age you were when convicted.

The victim of the offence can still seek financial help later, even if you didn’t pay compensation when sentenced. This is allowed under the Act.

Getting a debt recovery notice

After you are convicted you may receive a recovery notice from the offender debt recovery program.

It must be issued within 6 years of the date of either the:

conviction
victim’s application for financial assistance.

The date used is the latter of these 2 dates.

The recovery notice will tell you the:

date of the conviction the debt relates to
court you were convicted in
crime you were convicted of
amount of money owed
process to follow if you want to dispute the debt.

You have 14 days to consider the notice and decide if you want to dispute the debt or not.

Getting a liability notice

If you do not dispute the debt, you will get a liability notice 28 days after you receive a debt recovery notice.

The liability notice tells you the:

amount you must pay
date it is due (usually 28 days from the notice date)
payment process.

Getting a SPER enforcement order

If you miss the due date for the liability notice, your unpaid amount will go to SPER.

You will be issued an enforcement order, and you must do one of the following:

pay the debt in full
apply to pay the debt in instalments
complete a work and development order (if eligible).

If you don't pay the debt, we may take enforcement action against you.

Questions offenders may have

The court or my solicitor said the government would pay the debt. Why do I have to pay now?
How do you work out how much I pay and how much my co-offender pays?
Should I have been made aware of the court-ordered amount?
If the victim had an injury before the offence, am I still responsible for the debt?
Why didn't anyone tell me the victim applied for financial assistance?

The court or my solicitor said the government would pay the debt. Why do I have to pay now?

Even though you didn't have to pay compensation at the time, the victim has the right to apply for financial assistance under the Victims of Crime Assistance Act. This process happens separately from the court process. If assistance is granted to the victim, we can recover a portion of that assistance from you.

How do you work out how much I pay and how much my co-offender pays?

For criminal injury compensation, the judge divides the amount of compensation by each person's role in the act of violence.

For financial assistance payments, each convicted offender has to pay an equal share of the debt.

Should I have been made aware of the court-ordered amount?

If the court decides to grant criminal injury compensation to the victim, the victim must give you documentation that demands payment. This is often handled by their lawyer.

Sometimes they can't contact you. This means you may not be aware of the debt until you receive the recovery notice.

If the victim had an injury before the offence, am I still responsible for the debt?

For criminal injury compensation, the judge decides the amount based on facts presented in the case. This decision can't be overruled, and the amount can't be reduced or waived.

For financial assistance payments, assistance is only granted if the victim was directly injured by the act of violence you committed. The injuries that can be considered are outlined in the Victims of Crime Assistance Act. Under the Act, an injury may include the exacerbation (worsening) of a pre-existing injury, illness or medical condition.

Why didn't anyone tell me the victim applied for financial assistance?

We have strict obligations about who we can disclose personal information to. The law does not allow us to disclose the victim’s personal information to you.

We can only disclose to you that an amount has been paid to a victim of an offence you were convicted of and the details of the conviction. The first time we disclose this information to you is when a recovery notice is issued. In some cases, this may be years after the act of violence was committed.