Infringement management plan terms and conditions

If you’ve received a parking or traffic infringement, you can request Access Canberra waive the financial part (the fine).

A waiver means you don’t need to pay the fine, but any penalties such as demerit points and suspensions still apply.

Waivers help vulnerable people deal with the financial part of an infringement notice.

You can request a waiver if:

you are financially unable to pay the fine, even in instalments. If you can pay in instalments, apply for an Infringement Management Plan.
you aren’t suitable or eligible to complete a Work or development program
there are relevant circumstances that impact your ability to pay.

Apply for a Waiver of an infringement

You are eligible to apply for a waiver if:

you currently don’t have the financial ability to pay the fine, and you’re unlikely to ever be able to
there are relevant circumstances that impact your ability to pay
any enforcement efforts by the Access Canberra Infringement Office either haven’t resulted in you paying, or are unlikely to
you’re not eligible or able to take part in a Work or development program.

Use the Traffic and Parking Infringements application form.

Select the appropriate options and upload your supporting documentation.

Access Canberra reviews applications against the:

Providing evidence of financial hardship

Evidence supporting that you are experiencing financial hardship can include:

rental slips
pay slips
bank statements
credit card statements.

Evidence of ‘relevant circumstances’ that impact your ability to pay could relate to:

a mental or intellectual disability, or mental disorder
a physical disability, disease or illness
an addiction to drugs, alcohol or another substance
domestic violence
homelessness, living in crisis or in transitional or supported accommodation.

You will need to provide appropriate documentation to support your request.

Access Canberra may need to forward your information to our Driver Licence Medical Monitoring Team.

They may ask you to provide a medical clearance report from a specialist confirming you are fit to hold a driver licence.

Read about fitness to drive.

Manage your infringement

When you apply for an infringement notice plan, you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.

On entering into an infringement notice management plan, you are:

no longer liable to be issued with a suspension notice under the Road Transport (General) Act 1999, section 44 (suspension for non-payment of infringement notice penalties). Any suspension action that may have been taken in relation to infringement notices included in this infringement notice management plan is lifted, however, any demerit points suspension may still apply
not liable to be prosecuted for the infringement notice offences included in this infringement notice management plan. Your liability to be prosecuted is replaced with a liability to pay the amount in accordance with the payment schedule agreed with the administering authority
responsible for ensuring that payments are made in accordance with the payment schedule
responsible for advising Access Canberra if your circumstances change in a way that will enable you to increase the amount payable
responsible for contacting Access Canberra to advise if your circumstances change in a way that will result in your inability to make one or more scheduled payments
aware that should a schedule payment not be made, or the payment dishonoured, Access Canberra will commence action to impose a suspension on your driving licence or right to drive
aware that payments under this infringement notice management plan are not applied against any particular penalty or in any special order, they are paid against the total outstanding amount.

Direct debit request service agreement

This is your Direct Debit Service Agreement with Road Transport Authority, ABN 16 479 763 216.

It explains what your obligations are when undertaking a Direct Debit arrangement with us. It also details what our obligations are to you as your Direct Debit provider.

General

By signing the direct debit request, you authorise us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account in accordance with the agreement.

Variation of direct debit request

We will advise you 14 days in advance of any changes to the direct debit request.

Client changes to direct debit request

For all matters relating to the direct debit request, including cancellation, alteration or suspension of drawing arrangements or to stop or defer a payment, or to investigate or dispute a previous payment, you should contact Access Canberra by:

email: ACInfringements@act.gov.au
phone: 6207 6000
mail: PO Box 582, Dickson ACT 2602
fax: 6207 0402
Allow 14 days for the amendments to take effect or to respond to a dispute.

Disputing a debit Item

If our investigations show that your account has been incorrectly debited, we will arrange for the financial institution to adjust your account accordingly. We will also notify you in writing of the amount by which your account has been adjusted.

If, following our investigations, we believe on reasonable grounds that your account has been correctly debited, we will respond to your query by providing you with reasons and copies of any evidence for this finding.

If we cannot resolve the matter, you can still refer it to your financial institution, which will obtain details from you of the disputed payment and may lodge a claim on your behalf.

Check with your financial institution

You should be aware that:

direct debiting through the bulk electronic clearing system is not available on all accounts
you should check your account details, including the Bank State Branch (BSB) number, directly against a recent statement from your financial institution.

If you are in any doubt, please check with your financial institution before completing the drawing authority.

Your responsibilities

It is your responsibility to ensure that:

sufficient cleared funds are in the account when the payments are to be drawn
the authorisation to debit the account is in the same name as the account signing instruction held by the financial institution where the account is held
suitable arrangements are made if the direct debit is cancelled:
- by yourself
- by your financial institution
- for any other reason.
If there are insufficient clear funds in your account to meet a debit payment
- you may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution
- you may also incur fees or charges imposed or incurred by us
- you must arrange for the debit payment to be made by another method or arrange for sufficient clear funds to be in your account by an agreed time so that we can process the debit payment.
you check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.

Non-working days and public holidays

If the due date for payment falls on a day other than a banking business day, the payment will be processed on the next banking business day. If you are uncertain when the payment will be debited from your account, please check with your financial institution.

Returned unpaid transactions

For returned unpaid transactions:

we treat the payment as if it was never made
services may be suspended until the outstanding charges are paid
a fee may be applied for drawings that are returned unpaid.

We reserve the right to cancel the direct debit request at any time if drawings are returned unpaid by your financial institution.

Payment frequency

The date and frequency you request amounts to be debited will be the date and frequency on which Access Canberra will submit a direct debit request to its sponsor financial institution for processing.

The date on which your account is debited will depend on the processing of the debit by your financial institution and may occur after the date on which Access Canberra send the direct debit request to its sponsor financial institution.

Confidentiality

We will keep any information (including your account details) in your Direct Debit Request confidential. We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction, or disclosure of that information.

We will only disclose information that we have about you:

to the extent specifically required by law
for the purpose of this agreement (including disclosing information in connection with any query or claim).

Privacy

All client records and account details will be kept private and confidential to be disclosed only at your request or at the request of the financial institution in connection with a claim made to correct or investigate an alleged incorrect or wrongful debit or otherwise as required by law.

Legal

If any provision of this direct debit request service agreement is found to be illegal, void or unenforceable for unfairness or any other reason, such as if a court or other tribunal or authority declares it so, the remaining provisions of this direct debit request service agreement will continue to apply to the extent possible as if the void or unenforceable provision had never existed.

Definitions

Unless otherwise defined, a term defined in the agreement has the same meaning when used in this direct debit request service agreement and:

‘Account’ means the account nominated in the direct debit request, held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited
‘Agreement’ means the terms and conditions (including BPAY), including the schedules to those terms and conditions, as amended from time to time
‘Direct debit request’ means the direct debit request completed by the client and amended from time to time
‘Financial institution’ means the financial institution where you hold the account nominated in your direct debit request as the account from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited
‘We’ or ‘Us’ means Access Canberra
‘You, your, yourself’ means the client who signed the direct debit request.

Privacy statement

The information you provide to the Infringement Plan Office when applying for an infringement notice management plan, either in writing or over the telephone is collected for infringement management purposes.

The information may be used for the administration of infringement notice management plans. The information may be disclosed to Commonwealth, Territory or State law enforcement agencies, transport authorities and government agencies authorised by law.

Access Canberra is authorised to retain this information as part of the administration of infringement notice management plans. The Information Privacy Act 2014 prevents the ACT Government from using your information for any unauthorised purpose and requires it to implement safeguards to protect the information from unauthorised access.

Phone applications: Centrepay consent transcript

By agreeing to establish, or amend a current Centrepay arrangement, you understand that you cannot use Centrepay to pay a fine on behalf of another person.

You give permission to Access Canberra (the Road Transport Authority) to advise Centrelink of your nominated, fortnightly deduction for the payment of your fines, and, to vary the total target amount from time to time to ensure that your fine payments are met.

You also consent and authorise Centrelink to pay the amounts directly to Access Canberra (the Road Transport Authority).

You understand that:

it is your choice to have the amounts deducted from your Centrelink payment, and you can amend or cancel the deduction at any time
if you change to another eligible Centrelink payment in the future your deduction may continue
if you cancel or amend your Centrepay deduction, you must also advise the Infringement Plan Office so your infringement notice management plan can be amended. If you do not advise the Infringement Plan Office, your infringement notice management plan will go into arrears and your licence, vehicle registration or right to drive in the ACT will be suspended. You will be required to pay the arrears before any suspension will be lifted
if you wish to add further infringements your target amount and remaining balance will change. If a payment is not received, it may change your target amount or balance remaining.

Upon entering into or amending an infringement notice management plan:

if you do not make regular payments, you will be sent a reminder notice
if no payments are made after that notice, you risk your ACT licence or registration being suspended, or, if you hold an interstate licence, your right to drive in the ACT will be suspended, under section 44 of the Road Transport (General) Act 1999
any demerit points that are applicable on the infringements in your plan, may apply. You will be notified if this is to occur. If you hold an interstate licence these will be transferred to your licence
you must advise the Infringement Plan Office if you change address or your financial circumstances change.

Phone applications: Direct debit agreement transcript

By agreeing to establish or amend a current direct debit arrangement, you authorise and request Access Canberra (the Road Transport Authority) to debit, through the bulk electronic clearing system, your nominated account.

You understand and agree Access Canberra (the Road Transport Authority) will debit your account in accordance with the payment arrangement between you and the Infringement Plan Office and that both parties will be bound by the terms and conditions set out in the direct debit request service agreement. This agreement will be sent to you within seven days together with confirmation of your account details.

You agree that this agreement remains in force in accordance with the terms and conditions described in the direct debit service agreement.

You also provide verbal agreement and indicate your acceptance to the terms and conditions that apply to entering into, or maintaining, an infringement notice management plan to pay your outstanding infringement(s) by instalments.

Terms and conditions

You are notified, and agree that:

if you do not make regular, required payments on your payment plan, you will be sent a reminder notice
if no payments are made after that notice, you risk your ACT licence or registration being suspended, or, if you hold an interstate licence, your right to drive in the ACT will be suspended, under section 44 of the Road Transport (General) Act 1999
any demerit points that are applicable on the infringements in your plan, may apply, and you will be notified if this is to occur. If you hold an interstate licence these will be transferred to that licence
you must advise the Infringement Plan Office if you change address or your financial circumstances change.