The flowchart demonstrates the general overall approach to recovery of overpayments (relating to the 'rule' rather than the 'exception').
Percentages have been attached to each part of the process to show the steps in the process, from most to least common situation.
The flowchart indicates, of all overpayments:
-
approximately 80% are for employers:
-of these, 99.9% are recovered through offsetting against the next cheque remittance (the 0.1% covers marginal cases where the employer or provider issues their own cheque in payment);
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approximately 20% of debtors are direct payees:
-of these cases, there must be 100% negotiation with the debtor on an agreed recovery process;
-approximately 98% of cases opt for offsetting of the overpayment against a future, or a number of future, compensation payments (usually incapacity);
-of the remaining 2%, who clearly demonstrate that either extenuating or extreme circumstances preclude recovery of the overpayment:
>approximately 1.8% of cases meet the limited criteria for write off (or temporary delay of part or all of the overpayment); and
>approximately 0.2% of cases meet the limited criteria for waiver (or complete deletion of the debt).
The situations of write off, then waiver, are remote and are clearly a last resort measure in the recovery process.