Law Current to: September 17, 2025

Fines, Financial Hardship and Vulnerability

Infringement notices and fines are used throughout Australia as an expedient way to process and penalise minor law breaking. ¹

For many Australians, this system works well. For others, including those experiencing hardship and marginalisation, the fines system can be difficult to navigate, disproportionately penalise criminalised behaviour connected to an experience of hardship, and can further perpetuate disadvantage. It ‘can present significant access to justice issues for disadvantaged people’², having a disproportionately adverse effect on those experiencing disadvantage and may ultimately exacerbate poverty and mental illness due to the financial and psychosocial stress caused to ‘offenders’.³ 

The intersection between fines and poverty is well established.⁴ People experience hardship are more likely to be issued infringement notices, often for behaviour directly connected to their personal or financial circumstances. For example, a person experiencing hardship may:

• face difficulties when engaging with organisations and people in positions of power, including government departments or bodies, SPER, and the justice system.
• spend disproportionate amounts of time in public spaces where behaviour is more heavily criminalised.
• be more visible to, and face disproportionate scrutiny from, police, transit officers, and other authorities.
• not have a consistent, fixed address to receive communication about infringement notices.
• be unable to afford to pay fines either when they are issued or, for people in ongoing financial hardship, ever.

This is consistent with the experience of Homelessness Law’s client. Multiple reviews of our casework over the last decade indicate an average debt with SPER between $4,000 – $8,000. 

Once a fine has been referred to SPER, people experiencing hardship can face further barriers to resolving these debts, including: 

• difficulties navigating the SPER system due to capacity, language difficulties, having no fixed address, or lack of appropriate technology.
• a lack of understanding their rights and responsibilities.
• limited access to affordable and accessible legal assistance.

Due to these factors, individuals may accumulate very large SPER debts. For a person whose sole source of income is Centrelink, SPER debts may be impossible to pay without impacting their ability to afford basic living expenses. In turn, this pushes vulnerable and marginalised individuals further into the cycle of poverty.

Recognising the need to provide flexible options to resolve these debts, the State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 allows people in financial hardship to:

• pay by instalments
• defer debts for short periods
• cancel a debt under SPER’s domestic and family violence process
• complete a Work and Development Order
• apply for the debt to be withdrawn, cancelled, or written-off

These options can be suitable for people experiencing short-term and long-term hardship, including financial difficulty, homelessness, domestic and family violence, and mental health or substance use disorders.

You can read more about the options available to your client to resolve a SPER debt .