General Fee

The General Fee is paid to Community Legal Centres Australia by community legal centres and other organisations that are members of their respective state or territory CLC association, and are thus eligible for services provided by CLCs Australia.

These services include:

All centres are asked to complete an assessment survey so that their General Fee can be calculated. The assessment process begins in November for the current financial year. Once the response is processed, an invoice will be issued to the centre. More information about this process is available in the documents below.

General Fee in 2022-23 and beyond

During 2022, the Community Legal Centres Australia Board initiated a review of the General Fee in response to concerns about the amount of the fees from the sector. Collection of the General Fee for 2022-23 (which would normally have started in November 2022) was delayed until this review had been completed.

As interim measures for 2022-23 financial year, the Board decided to reduce the cap (maximum fee payable) from $9600 to $8600 and to waive the Auspiced CLC Fee for all organisations that would have been liable for it under the existing General Fee Policy. These adjustments were made on a one-off basis while the review was being completed. The rate at which the General Fee is calculated remaineded unchanged at 0.5% of total income, as defined in the policy.

The review was carried out by a General Fee Review Group consisting of representatives from the sector and CLCs Australia. With that review complete, the following changes were announced for the 2023-24 financial year.

  • The rate at which the General Fee is calculated remains unchanged at 0.5% of total income.
  • There will be no Auspiced CLC Fee
  • The minimum General Fee has been increased from $50 to $500
  • The maximum fee payable has been reduced from $9600 to $6000.

The CLCs Australia Board approved a revised General Fee policy reflecting these changes in October 2023.

General Fee 2023-24

Collection of the General Fee in 2023-24 will begin in the week commencing 27 November 2023, with assessment forms (and any waiver applications) due 15 December.

The new policies and waiver policy that were approved by the Board in October and a revised FAQ document are available below.

General Fee Policy
General Fee Waiver Policy
General Fee FAQ 2023-2024

To complete the 2023-24 assessment form, you will need your centre's unique code, provided by email.