I have no idea what you mean ladybirdflies Is this the estimate I give centerlink? When do I have to give that by?

Also, does my DH need to chase up group certificates from past bosses or can the tax accountant (eg H&R block) do this?

Sorry my reply was a bit confusing. Each year you give centrelink an estimate of what your household will make. THey pay you based on this estimate. After your tax is done each year, they check your tax against the payments they made to you to make sure they paid you the right amount. If you were underpaid or overpaid you either get a letter saying you owe us $$$ or they owe you $$$. Because I dont work I have to ring and say that I don't need to lodge a return, when you do lodge a return it automatically reconciles your account at centrelink for you. If you have lodged a tax return and you haven't rung to say you don't need to lodge the system eventually picks it up as an overpayment of FTB so you will get a letter saying you have been overpaid as we haven't received any tax advice from you. Does that make sense??

You have to chase up your own group certificates, usually it's best to contact the accountant of your old employer rather then the employer themselves. They do have to give you a copy of the group certificate so don't be put off if it's a pain in the $%#@! You can just find out about just doing this years tax returns asap so your family payments are not affected.