Why you should not leave the Rent Deduction Scheme

This information sheet has been given to you as you have asked Centrelink to take you off the Rent Deduction Scheme (RDS). It is a condition of signing a lease that a tenant on Centrelink income signs up to the RDS, although tenants can request cancellation.

An RDS agreement is made with Centrelink to deduct some of the tenant’s income to pay rent and other charges. Other household members can also request deductions via RDS to contribute to the tenant’s rent and other charges.

The most common reason for DCJ seeking a termination of a tenancy is rent arrears. RDS can help prevent people experiencing a housing crisis by helping tenants to avoid incurring rental arrears. Cancellation of RDS is therefore strongly discouraged.

Tenants should think carefully before leaving the scheme

Many tenants leave the scheme as they want to stop paying rent for a period of time such as over Christmas. However, they don’t realise that not paying their rent even for a short amount of time has severe consequences.

Here are a few reasons to reconsider leaving the RDS:

• if you miss paying your rent, your home is immediately at risk
• we are automatically notified when tenants leave the scheme and from the next day, the local DCJ Housing office will start to check that the rent has been paid on time
• if payments are missed, we will take action quickly, including over the Christmas and New Year period to recover rent owed
• where rent accounts are not up-to-date we will issue a notice to terminate the tenancy and will also apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to end the tenancy
• losing your home is very stressful.

With RDS you will never have to worry about falling into rental arrears or risk losing your tenancy. It is the most stress free way to ensure your rent is paid on time.

We also understand that tenants leave the scheme for other reasons and so as long as you use another method to pay your rent on time then your tenancy won’t be at risk. We thank you in advance for continuing to pay your rent on time.

If you need further information or wish to discuss this with a DCJ Housing staff member please contact your client service team.