The main public service union has warned Centrelink and Medicare staff are "desperately overstretched" and struggling to cope with the public backlash over a flawed debt recovery scheme.
The warning comes after the man hand-picked by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to lead digital projects said the public services needed "radical upskilling" to deliver services.
Centrelink's controversial debt recovery system must be urgently suspended, according to the public sector union which has warned staff are already struggling to cope.
The CPSU says service standards have already dropped to “unacceptable levels” following thousands of job cuts in the Department of Human Services, and now the latest scandal is piling on more pressure.
The federal government continues to back its highly controversial automated Centrelink debt recovery system despite heavy criticism and digital transformation heavyweight Paul Shetler labelling it “appalling”.
A social media campaign #notmydebt is sharing stories of individual’s debt letters and the effect it has had on them.
Senate documents show the agency doesn't keep data on underpayments.
PAYWALL
An extortion racket is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people in Australia. But far from being a criminal enterprise run by a mafia gang, it’s the Australian government running the racket.
There is a dark irony in the fact that many of those who have been hit by Centrelink's automated debt recovery debacle are on benefits in the first place because automation is dramatically changing the face of work, making it harder for many people to find secure, paid employment.
While the still-unfolding event is a political mess for the Turnbull government, and a personal tragedy for those caught up in it, it's important that we reflect on what it means for how our politics deals with welfare and work.
What stops most middle class people from committing fraud – say, by claiming false expenses, making dodgy tax claims or exaggerating their assets to a bank – is thought to be a calculus of the risk of being caught and the extent of public disgrace if one is caught. By contrast, politicians seem to assume that underclass and working class fraud, like other crimes, including violence, being committed by them is deterred only by the severity of jail sentences.
The theory might be wrong, at least as far as welfare fraud is concerned.
If Centrelink is found to have breached its duty of care, those people wrongly issued debt notices have grounds to sue the social service, Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesperson Greg Barns told Guardian Australia.
The public sector union is calling on the federal government to suspend its controversial Centrelink debt recovery system, warning the public will suffer as staff struggle to cope.
The CPSU says service standards have already dropped to unacceptable levels following thousands of job cuts in the Department of Human Services, with the latest scandal piling on more pressure.
After an intense week of complaints from customers, politicians, Legal Aid, the social services lobby and privacy groups, the Commonwealth ombudsman will investigate Centrelink’s debt data-matching programme.
The office of ombudsman Colin Neave on Monday afternoon confirmed it is looking into the matter.
Beleaguered Centrelink staff are bracing for a "perfect storm" of customer service problems in the coming weeks, heaping more misery on the welfare agency's millions of clients, according to the main workplace union.
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The union says its members working on the controversial debt recovery scheme are reporting that nearly all the debts they are being asked to review turn out be bogus with cases, such as a demand for $9000 from a client who really owed just $90, pointing to a complete system failure.
A properly designed income-matching system can help to identify anomalies, but the information needs to be appropriate and fit for purpose. The current exercise is using information in a way that it was not designed to be applied, without properly adjusting for the technical and policy differences between the tax and social security system.
As the Centrelink debacle continues and the government resolutely refuses to pause the tide of debt notices – many of which describe debts that are not legitimate – it's understandable that people would be looking for blood. According to the Australian Lawyers Alliance, those issued with inaccurate debts may be able to sue Centrelink.
At least we know the Turnbull government's pursuit of millions of dollars in Centrelink debt from thousands of punters who don't actually owe them a brass razoo isn't just a grotesque indulgence. Turns out the government needs that money to prop up Queensland's real estate industry and apartment construction sector.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has launched an independent investigation into the Centrelink debt recovery scheme, which was been described as a "diabolical" failure by industry experts.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has launched an independent investigation into the Centrelink debt recovery scheme, which was been described as a "diabolical" failure by industry experts.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman Colin Neave will investigate the government's controversial data matching-driven welfare debt collection system aimed at recouping as much as $4 billion in false payments.
I emailed the Department of Human Services about the Centrelink #notmydebt fiasco that’s been in the news of late. The content of my emailed questions, and the DHS response are reproduced below. I’ve trimmed personal data and some header/footer guff, and played with some of the styling to make it more readable in this blog, but the content itself is verbatim.
Bathurst man Greg Simpson has joined the call for Centrelink to gets its act together after he received a debt letter for almost $8000 just before Christmas.
If my bill was only $1000 I might have just paid it and not questioned it."