The Scheme for Detriment caused by Defective Administration (CDDA Scheme) provides a way for Australian Government agencies to pay compensation to people who have suffered detriment as a direct result of their defective administrative actions or inaction, where there is no legal requirement to make a payment.

The CDDA Scheme applies to the Tribunal where it has been defective in its administrative functions. It will not usually apply to the exercise of powers and functions under the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 that relate to an application for review by the Tribunal.

The CDDA Scheme is discretionary and is generally an avenue of last resort. This means it is used only when there is no other viable way to provide redress.

What is defective administration?

Defective administration includes:

• a specific and unreasonable lapse in complying with existing administrative procedures
• an unreasonable failure to institute appropriate administrative procedures
• giving advice that was, in all the circumstances, incorrect or ambiguous
• an unreasonable failure to give the proper advice that was within the power and knowledge of an agency officer to give (or reasonably capable of being obtained by the officer to give).

What is detriment?

Detriment means quantifiable financial loss that the applicant has suffered.

There are 3 types of detriment:

• detriment relating to a personal injury including mental injury (personal injury loss)
• economic detriment that is not related to a personal injury (pure economic loss)
• detriment relating to damage to property.

Generally, we can’t consider the following under the CDDA Scheme:

• claims for personal time spent resolving an issue
• claims for stress, anxiety, inconvenience
• costs of putting in a claim or conducting a claim for compensation.

Any individual, company or other organisation can apply for compensation, either for themselves or for an authorised third party. 

You can complete our application form [PDF, <1 MB].

If you are unable to complete the form, you may call the Tribunal on 1800 228 333 to discuss other arrangements.

The criteria used to decide CDDA claims is set out in the Department of Finance's Resource Management Guide 409.

We aim to acknowledge receipt of compensation claims in writing within 5 business days of receiving them.

If your claim does not include all the information we need to process it, we will contact you.

Once you provide all necessary information, we aim to advise you of the decision within 90 business days.

Some complex claims may take longer to investigate and consider. In these cases, we will contact you about an extended timeframe.

There is no automatic right of administrative review of decisions made under the CDDA Scheme.

We may reconsider a CDDA decision if you can provide new and relevant information that supports the application.

Ombudsman review

If you are dissatisfied with our decision or how we handled your CDDA claim, you can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.