Help people in hardship resolve their SPER debt
The hardship partner program gives people in genuine hardship realistic options to resolve their debt with the State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER).
As a hardship partner, you can help your clients deal with their SPER debt by enabling them to do a work and development order.
Work and development orders
Work and development orders allow people in hardship to resolve their eligible debt with us by working with an approved community organisation or a financial or health practitioner. This might be through participation in:
- courses
- counselling
- treatment programs
- unpaid work.
These orders help people who can’t pay their debt due to:
- financial hardship
- mental illness
- domestic and family violence
- homelessness
- intellectual and cognitive disability
- substance-use disorder.
Rates start at $30 per hour, and they can reduce their debt by up to $1,000 per month.
| Activity | Rate |
|---|---|
| Educational, vocational and life-skills courses | $50 per hour |
| Financial and other counselling | $50 per hour |
| Medical, mental health and substance-use disorder treatments | Rate set by hardship partner |
| Mentoring programs (for under 25s) | Rate set by hardship partner |
| Unpaid work | $30 per hour |
| Culturally-appropriate programs in rural and remote communities | $50 per hour |
Do you have a SPER debt?
If you have a SPER debt, find out more about work and development orders or talk to us about your options.
Become a hardship partner
By partnering with SPER, you’ll offer a practical way for people in hardship to deal with their debt.
Your clients may already be doing activities with you that could contribute to resolving their SPER debt.
As a hardship partner, you will:
- assess your client’s eligibility for a work and development order
- develop an activity or treatment plan with your client
- set up a work and development order for them on the hardship portal
- provide and/or supervise activities and treatments your client undertakes
- keep records and supporting documentation of your client’s application and their participation in the program
- report on your client’s monthly progress and completed hours on the hardship portal.
Our team will support you and your staff throughout the program. We have an easy-to-use portal where you can manage your clients’ work and development order activities without submitting paperwork.
How to apply to be a hardship partner
If you meet the requirements in the hardship partner participant pack, contact our Hardship Partner team on SPERpartners@treasury.qld.gov.au. We'll discuss the requirements with you and provide an application form.
As part of the process, you will need to nominate what type of partner you are applying to be—advocate or sponsor. If you choose sponsor, you will need to select which activities you can offer.
You also need to provide:
- details of your organisation, including
- the name and type of organisation
- a brief description of the organisation and services offered
- an ABN or practitioner registration number
- contact details
- authoriser’s details, if different to the primary contact
- a certificate of currency for relevant insurances
- the local government areas where your organisation will offer these services.
What happens next
If your application is approved, we’ll provide a user guide and online learning modules to help you and your team use the hardship portal. Once enrolled, you will use the portal to report on your clients’ progress and completed hours every month.