The What

Centreleak is a completely free service that allows you to fill in Centrelink forms online.

The How

Find the form you need to fill out in the Centreleak form index and click on it. The form should open up as a PDF inside your browser window₁. Now you can enter all your details into the form. Once you’re done, print the form out. I strongly advise you print two, as your first one stands a good chance of being lost.

The Why

Here’s some reasons why you’d want to fill out Centrelink forms online:

• Auto-completion
  If you turn on auto-completion in Adobe Reader, commonly recurring form fields can be completed for you automatically. Say you enter your name and date of birth on one form, then a few weeks later find yourself needing to fill out another different form (if you’re new to Centrelink, you will find yourself needing to fill out more forms). With auto-completion, Adobe Reader can remember your name and date of birth from the first form and fill this information in for you automatically on the second form. Checkout how to switch auto-completion on here.
• Validation
  Centreleak forms perform validation on the data you enter. Sure, if you want to play silly bugger and enter your name as Barbara Streisand and occupation as Hand Model, then there’s nothing in the forms to stop you. The forms do perform some basic validation however, such as checking that you haven’t accidentally set your date of birth to the 32nd day of the 15th month of 3000 BC.
• Bye bye messy handwriting
  This is for those of you who could be mistaken for doctors if it weren’t for the fact that you’re filling out welfare forms. It’s hard for someone to misunderstand what you’ve written when it’s typed. Fewer misunderstandings means fewer revisits and phone calls to Centrelink; an admirable goal I’m sure we can agree.
• Print multiple copies
  Will your form be lost before it gets processed? Why not flip a coin and find out? Seriously though, having a second copy of your filled out forms is a lifesaver (sometimes your life, sometimes someone elses) when one of Centrelink’s resident Great Danes eats your homework.

Infrequently Asked Questions

It seems absurd that a brand new site could somehow have frequently asked questions, so I’ll address some infrequently asked questions that I’ve just been picking up from you telepathically instead.

Are you stealing my personal details from an untraceable location in Nigeria?
No. None of the information you enter into the forms is sent back to me, or anyone else for that matter. You fill in the forms on your own computer, which is precisely where your information stays.

Can I submit my forms to Centrelink online?
Unfortunately not. Centreleak is in no way affiliated with Centrelink and we have no control over how form processing is handled on Centrelink’s end. In a perfect world, Centreleak becomes obsolete with Centrelink providing all of its forms online and allowing people to submit them over the Internet. Perfect world and Centrelink however are two highly disparate concepts and I wouldn’t be getting your hopes up anytime soon for such a utopian welfare service to exist. In the meantime, Centreleak is an attempt to fix what can be fixed.

Can I save my filled in forms to my computer?
At this point, the answer is No. Licensing the rights to allow people to save filled in PDF forms from Adobe Reader costs megabucks. At some point in the future, I may be able to develop a workaround for this though, assuming there’s enough demand for the feature. Note that you are able to save a copy of any of the original Centreleak forms to your computer; you just won’t be able to save the data you enter into it.

_{1 – For auto-completion to work, you’ll need to first save the forms to your computer before filling them out. Check out the Centreleak page on Adobe Reader auto-completion for more details.}