Best Practice Principles for Commonwealth agencies, such as the ATO, when engaging with people to tell them they owe the government money
Best Practice Principles for Commonwealth agencies, such as the ATO, when engaging with people to tell them they owe the government money
There are five principles, namely:
- WHY: Be transparent and accountable – build and maintain public trust and confidence in the agency and its purpose
- WHAT: Tell people what the debt is and where it comes from – think about the person you are communicating with
- HOW: Provide clear information for requesting review, debt waivers and repayment arrangements – tell people about their rights to seek review, payment arrangements and waiver and make sure they have access to sufficient information to fully participate in the process
- HELP: Provide contacts for people to find out more information – there will always be circumstances where people have additional questions, require more information or just need to speak to a person about their situation
- LEARN: Learn and improve – undertaking a process such as recovery of government debts, especially old debts is a valuable opportunity to identify lessons learnt and implement changes to improve future practices.
There are five principles, namely:
- WHY: Be transparent and accountable – build and maintain public trust and confidence in the agency and its purpose
- WHAT: Tell people what the debt is and where it comes from – think about the person you are communicating with
- HOW: Provide clear information for requesting review, debt waivers and repayment arrangements – tell people about their rights to seek review, payment arrangements and waiver and make sure they have access to sufficient information to fully participate in the process
- HELP: Provide contacts for people to find out more information – there will always be circumstances where people have additional questions, require more information or just need to speak to a person about their situation
- LEARN: Learn and improve – undertaking a process such as recovery of government debts, especially old debts is a valuable opportunity to identify lessons learnt and implement changes to improve future practices.