Part 9 loans for FIFO and mining workers
7 min read
FIFO throws up a contradiction that catches a lot of people out: an income well above the national average, and a lending profile that lenders still treat with caution. The reason is almost never the amount. It's the employment structure underneath it, and for anyone carrying a debt agreement, that distinction is the entire conversation.
What your stress is saying
“I'm on good money and still got knocked back. It has to be the Part 9.”
What's actually true
It's usually the employment type, not the agreement.
What your stress is saying
“I earn too much to be in this situation. It's embarrassing.”
What's actually true
High income and a debt agreement is a common pairing, not a strange one.
Permanent, contract or labour hire, the fact that decides everything
The pay can be identical across all three, and the assessment is not.
Permanent employment directly with a mining company or major contractor is the strongest position available in this sector. Ongoing employment, leave entitlements, a large and stable employer. This is where a strong income actually converts into strong borrowing capacity.
Fixed-term project contracts sit in the middle. The concern is what happens when the project ends, so the answer is history, prior contracts, a record of moving from one project to the next without gaps, or a letter indicating what follows.
Labour hire and casual FIFO is assessed as casual work, full stop. Six to twelve months of continuity, averaged income, and a lender that will discount anything variable. Plenty of workers do not realise this is their classification, because it does not feel casual when you are on a fixed roster earning six figures.
What happens to site allowances, LAFHA and bonuses
A FIFO payslip is layered, and the layers are treated very differently:
- Base salary, always counted in full.
- Site and roster allowances, usually counted, often shaded, and generally requiring six to twelve months of history to show they are ongoing rather than tied to one job.
- Living-away-from-home allowance, commonly excluded or heavily discounted, because it is treated as compensating a cost rather than as income you keep. This can strip a surprising amount off the assessed figure.
- Production and completion bonuses, the least reliably counted. Some lenders take a portion after two years of consistent history; many ignore them entirely.
- Overtime, assessed like any other overtime, with year-to-date figures doing the heavy lifting as evidence.
The income-ceiling detail specific to debt agreements
To propose a Part IX debt agreement, your estimated after-tax income for the next twelve months must sit below a threshold that AFSA indexes twice a year. A number of FIFO workers enter an agreement during a downturn or between rosters, when income is genuinely low, and then return to full roster earnings well above that figure.
That is not a breach of anything. The threshold applies at the point you propose the agreement, not for its whole life. But it does create a situation worth understanding: an agreement entered on a modest income, now sitting alongside a strong one.
The practical relevance is that your obligations under the agreement are set out in the agreement itself, and changes in your circumstances are something you are obliged to tell your administrator about. That is a conversation for them, not for a broker, but it is worth having, because it can affect the agreement and the agreement affects everything else.
Camp life, expenses and the benchmark floor
On a two-and-one roster with meals and accommodation provided, your genuine living costs are lower than almost any other worker on the same income. It is reasonable to expect that to translate into borrowing capacity.
It partly does, and partly does not. Lenders apply benchmark minimum living expenses and will generally not assess you below that floor regardless of how little you actually spend on site. What does help is that your declared expenses are honestly low and your bank statements support it, a clean statement showing steady saving is persuasive in a way a declared figure alone is not.
Where it works against you is the other direction: if you are running a household back home as well, those costs are real and will be counted, so the low camp costs are offset rather than additive.
Timing an application around your roster
Two practical points. First, lenders will want to reach you, and a week of no reception on site can stall an application that was otherwise moving. Applying at the start of a swing home is simply more efficient.
Second, if any part of your income is seasonal or project-tied, the timing of the twelve-month window used to assess you matters. Where a shutdown period has just ended, recent payslips look strong; where you have just come off a break between contracts, they do not. Neither reflects your annual income, and asking for a twelve-month assessment is the fix.
The rule most people find out too late
Above $7,457, you must tell the lender you're in a debt agreement
Under section 269 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966, while you are in a debt agreement you must disclose that fact before obtaining credit above $7,457. This is not a lender policy or a preference. Failing to do it is a criminal offence and serious penalties apply.
In practice it is paperwork rather than an obstacle. A lender who writes in this space expects it and it does not, by itself, cause a decline. The risk is not the disclosure. It is going to a lender who never asks, never records it, and leaves you exposed. We raise it as a matter of course.
Figures current at 17 August 2026. AFSA reindexes 20 March and 20 September. Source: AFSA indexed amounts.
During, just after, or well after: three different answers
Where you sit relative to your agreement changes the lender panel more than anything else about you. Whatever your occupation, this is the shape of it:
- Still in the agreementThe smallest panel. A handful of specialist lenders write here, and they want agreement payments up to date, no new defaults since it started, and stable income. The s269 disclosure applies above $7,457.
- Recently completedA noticeably wider panel, and the moment most worth checking. It is common for someone declined a year earlier to be approved shortly after completion with nothing else in their life having changed. Make sure the completion is formally recorded before applying.
- Completed more than 12 months agoWider again, with better pricing available. The agreement may still appear on your credit file. AFSA's guidance is up to five years, and longer in some cases. A year of clean conduct behind you changes how it is read.
What this site does, and what nobody here can do
This site can
- Explain how lenders read a debt agreement
- Pass your enquiry to Simple Loans, who arrange the finance
- Tell you plainly when the answer is “not yet”
Nobody here can
- Provide credit, or credit assistance, from this website
- Advise you to enter, change or end an agreement
- Negotiate with your creditors or administrator
- Remove or dispute anything on your credit file
This website provides information only. Advising on an agreement, negotiating with creditors and fixing credit files are debt management services, which require a credit licence authorisation Simple Loans does not hold. For help with the agreement itself, speak to your registered administrator, or the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 which is free, independent, and not selling anything. There is also a plain-English explainer here.
Worth thinking about before you call anyone
Are you employed directly, on a project contract, or through labour hire?
If you're not certain, the payslip header usually answers it, and it matters more than the amount on it.
How much of your pay is base, and how much is site allowance and LAFHA?
Has your income changed much since the agreement started?
If it's gone up significantly, that's worth raising with your administrator, separately from any loan.
Would the repayment still work on base salary alone, with no allowances or bonus?
In a sector this cyclical, that's the number that keeps you out of trouble.
No one is going to ask you these on a call to catch you out. They're here because the answers are yours, and they're the same ones a broker needs before they can tell you anything useful.
FIFO & mining: common questions
I'm on a strong FIFO income. Why would I be declined?
Most often because of employment type rather than income. Casual and labour-hire FIFO is assessed as casual work regardless of what it pays, which means averaged income, six to twelve months of continuity, and discounting on anything variable. Many workers do not realise that is their classification. An active debt agreement narrows the panel further, but on a strong income it is frequently not the binding constraint.
Does my site allowance count as income?
Usually yes, though often shaded and generally needing six to twelve months of history to show it is ongoing rather than tied to a single job. Living-away-from-home allowance is treated differently and is commonly excluded or heavily discounted, because lenders view it as compensating a cost rather than as income you keep. Production and completion bonuses are the least reliably counted.
My income has gone up a lot since I entered the agreement. Does that matter?
The income threshold for proposing a debt agreement applies when you propose it, not for its whole life, so an increase afterwards is not a breach. You do have an obligation to tell your administrator about changes in your circumstances, and that conversation belongs with them rather than with a broker. We are not licensed to advise on debt agreements. It is worth doing, because the agreement affects what finance is available.
Do my low living costs on site help my application?
Somewhat. Lenders apply benchmark minimum living expenses and generally will not assess you below that floor no matter how little you spend in camp. What genuinely helps is bank statements showing consistent saving, which supports your declared expenses in a way a stated figure cannot. If you are also running a household at home, those costs are counted and offset the camp saving.
Find out where you actually stand
Nine questions, about two minutes, no credit check. You'll get a straight answer, including “not yet, come back in six months” if that's the honest one.