Work and Development Orders

What is a WDO?

If you can’t pay your fine,  a work and development (WDO) can support you to manage and reduce your NSW fines debt by up to $1,000 a month. A WDO involves doing an activity as a way of paying off some or all of your fines debt. It may include:

• doing unpaid work
• completing a course
• counselling
• receiving treatment.

To participate in the WDO scheme, you must be supported by a person or organisation approved to supervise WDOs (known as a WDO sponsor). A sponsor may be an organisation, social worker or health practitioner. Revenue NSW must approve your application before you can start completing activities to pay off your fines.

Who can apply

You are eligible for a WDO if you can satisfy each of the following categories:

1. You must be experiencing at least one of the grounds of eligibility:
   • mental illness
   • intellectual disability or cognitive impairment
   • a serious addiction to drugs, alcohol or volatile substances
   • homelessness
   • acute economic hardship.
2. You are experiencing hardship. You may be experiencing hardship if you:
   • have low income or limited access to income including difficulty paying bills and repayments on loans and debts when they are due and/or
   • cannot afford or must go without basic items or services and/or
   • lack capacity, opportunities or choices to improve your situation and/or
   • are experiencing difficulty in participating in economic, social or cultural activities.
3. You do not possess or have access to substantial assets. 

This includes:

• both adults and children
• people living interstate (with a NSW fine debt)
• people on a permanent or temporary Australian visa (with a NSW fine debt).

If you are on a visa, you should get legal advice before you apply for a WDO. Completing some approved activities may breach your visa conditions.

Approved activities

What activities you can do will depend on your personal circumstances. The approved activities include:

• voluntary unpaid work
• educational/vocational or life skills course
• financial or other counselling, or case management 
• medical or mental health treatment
• drug or alcohol treatment
• mentoring programs (all ages).

These activities will count towards your fine at a rate of up to $1,000 per month. You can do more than one activity at a time. However, the maximum amount of WDO credit you can earn in a month is $1,000.

Your WDO must be approved before you start the activity or it won’t count toward your fine.

Finding a sponsor

Before you apply for a WDO, you must find an approved sponsor to support your application. A WDO sponsor may be located outside of NSW.

To find a sponsor:

• see Search WDO sponsor on the NSW Government website
• contact the WDO Hotline on 1300 478 879
• ask a community organisation or h​ealth practitioner that you already know
• contact the WDO Service at Legal Aid NSW for support to find a sponsor in your area – wdo@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.

Your sponsor will need to:

• assess your eligibility to undertake a WDO
• obtain and keep the documents relating to your application
• submit your application and monthly activity reports through the WDO self-service portal
• keeps records of the activities you complete.

How to apply

Your sponsor will apply for a WDO on your behalf.

You will need to provide:

• your date of birth
• your address and contact details
• your driver licence number and the state it was issued in
• your customer reference number (CRN), if you receive a Centrelink benefit
• your support documents, such as payslips or bank statements.
• a signed privacy and consent form.

If Revenue NSW refuses your application for a WDO, you can appeal this decision to the Fines Hardship Review Board. Before you make this appeal, you should get legal advice.

Supporting documents

Mental illness

If you have a mental illness, your treating doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health nurse, or a professional from relevant government or non-government agency can provide:

• a letter
• case notes
• medical certificates
• documents evidencing financial distress explaining the length, nature, severity and effects of the mental health condition
• Mental Health Treatment Plan.

Evidence must be dated within one year of the WDO. 

Intellectual disability or cognitive impairment

If you have an intellectual disability or cognitive impairment, you can provide:

• a job capacity assessment report if you’re on the Disability Support Pension
• NDIS assessment or plan if you’re on the National Disability Insurance Scheme
• letter or other documentation clearly describing your disability or impairment from disability support services, school, Department of Education, NSW Trustee and Guardian, employment services provider or relevant government or non-government agency.

Homeless

If you are homeless, you can provide a letter, dated within three months, from a support worker, case worker, homeless service provider or lawyer, which explains:

• your current living situation
• type of homelessness and
• how long you have been homeless. 

Serious addiction (drug or alcohol)

If you have a serious addiction, you can provide a letter or other documentation (dated within six months) that explains the length, nature, severity and effects of the addiction from:

• drug and alcohol services provider
• drug and alcohol nurse
• treating doctor
• residential rehabilitation service provider
• psychiatrist
• psychologist
• social worker or case worker
• drug and alcohol counsellor.

Acute economic hardship

If you are in financial hardship, you can provide:

• a letter or document from Centrelink which confirms you are receiving Centrelink benefits (if you are a Centrelink recipient)
• a copy of your most recent bank statements and payslips
• a copy of your Medicare card if you have dependent children
• evidence of child support payments (if you are paying child support).

Exceptional circumstances

If you do not fit into any of the above categories, but you are in hardship, you can ask your WDO sponsor to consider submitting an exceptional circumstances form for you.

You will need to provide details of the exceptional circumstances and evidence.

Once a sponsor is satisfied that they have enough information, they can lodge an application with Revenue NSW on your behalf. The sponsor can apply online through the WDO portal on the NSW Government website. 

Failure to complete a WDO

If you don’t comply with your WDO, Revenue NSW can cancel it. If your WDO is cancelled, you will need to deal with your overdue fines. If you don’t, Revenue NSW will take action against you to recover the fines.

For more information, see What if I do nothing?

Changing or cancelling a WDO

If you want to change your WDO, you must speak to your sponsor first.

You can ask to change your WDO if:

• your work, treatment, or number of hours completing your activities has changed
• you want to include new fines in your WDO.

Your sponsor can ask to change or cancel a WDO through the online self-service portal.

If your circumstances have changed and you can’t complete the agreed activities, you must notify Revenue NSW as soon as possible.

Effect of a WDO

If your WDO is approved, no action will be taken against you to recover the fines that relate to the WDO.

If your licence was suspended or your vehicle registration was cancelled due to the fines included in your WDO, you will get your licence and registration back.

If your licence was suspended or disqualified for reasons other than unpaid fines, a WDO won’t allow you to get your licence back.

If you receive new fines after the WDO is made, action can be taken against you in relation to those fines, unless they are included on the active WDO.